I love Lorenzo Villoresi Piper Nigrum

Oh god, Neal, why'd you have to bring this one up? This smell is my bete noire--everytime I've smelled it it's given me a beat down. For me it's the devil's voice screaming at me constantly from just the other side of the horizon.

For me it smells like a stagnant puddle in the gutter on a steamy hot miserable day. The whole idea of this smell gives me the willies. I'll go take a shower now just because of the thought of it.

Thankfully it gets a lot of love here and it was easy and pleasurable to trade it away to someone who I guess loves the sound of the devil screaming.

It's has compelling accords but always feels a little flat and cheap. It definitely doesn't lack for benzoin, and it smells like it contains enough coumarin for five fragrances. It's the kind of stuff I want to move away from if it's close by.

I enjoyed it a few times in cool weather but lost interest soon enough. I put it on my girlfriend a two or three times and always wanted her to take a shower.

Italian fragrances usually don't work, although there have been a few, and Etro makes some extremely good ones.

How is the wood and amber in the base of this one? Some woody amber bases can be horrifically strong and migraine-inducing.

Bigsly, you and I are on the same page. It makes me hear the devil!

(If Dimitri were here he'd remind me to take the little pills so that the scents won't talk to me anymore.)

Where's Paul G. when you need him? (I hope he's not dressed up as a girl for his pupils, lol). I think we both hyped this one up back in 2003. I still love the stuff and would put it in my top five, if I could ever get around to making up my mind for the other four. I gave a sample to a friend (who's last name is... Sample), and his wife thought it horrid at first. Within a few minutes, she changed her mind and he proceeded to buy a bottle.

It's one of the few fragrances I've owned that has elicited this response: I'm walking in Nordstrom and pass by this lady who catches the sillage about 10 feet after I pass her, turns and says out loud "mmmmmmmmmmmm". I'm pretty sure she wasn't responding to how my butt looked in chinos.

Where indeed? Before I scared away poor Neal with my devil talk and personal ranting I was getting ready to say he has to take the Paul G. challenge since he's innocently outed himself as a PN fan. Paul G. sprayed PN on the soles of his feet before putting on socks and shoes on the night he went to dance at the disco. He reported wonderful sillage that never ended and won him friends with all the disco ladies.

So, Neal, it's like sailors crossing the equator for the first time. You've got to follow in Paul G's Piper Nigrum shoe steps.

I don't think that was PN - I think that was a Creed. I remember his Imperial story, but I want to say the one where he sprayed his feet was SMW. It may have been a L'Artisan fragrance, but I'm thinking SMW.

Ooooo, perhaps I do recall incorrectly of course, but I think it was PN. Maybe Nsamadi was even around then and can remember like he remembered something Indie_Guy had worn after I asked. I remember the Imperial story too, but he and I were trading disgust at our favorites (he hates Guerlain Vetiver which I love, and I, well, Piper Nigrum and all back at him) and I really thought the soles of the feet experiment was with the one I couldn't stand.

Could be wrong though.

No matter for Neal. PN to the soles and off to the disco, Neal. Chop chop.

An Italian nobleman amongst the many faceless, and a worthy contribution to the idea of masculinity in the world of fragrances!

...with some illicit Saracene blood (via Sicily) to spice up the gene pool .
I kneel at the altar of Piper Nigrum and still believe it has one of the most ingenious evolutions through the day of any perfume I've ever smelled (see my review for details)

I'm with you on this one Neal. Nothing beats Piper Nigrum on a crisp Autumn Day over here!

You guys are cracking me up with all of your hatin' on Piper Nigrum.

I have smelled it a handful of times from a sample. Let me preface by saying that I usually adore Villoresi fragrances, since they feature that grabs-you-by-the-throat aromatic aura to them, that DustB describes above. Yeah, it's a love-hate thing and I happen (if it's the right time, on the right day) to love it. But ever so often it can grate on my nerves.

This is one pepper fragrance that seems to ramp up higher and higher, the longer that it stays on skin. The Villoresi Effect, lets call it. In some other accords (vetiver in Vetiver; cinnamon in Spezie; sandalwood in Sandalo) it works. However in Piper Nigrum the pepper is needle sharp and a bit relentless. I was all ready to give it a Thumbs Down, when about a couple months ago I smelled it on my husband one morning (he ever so often, will pillage through my sample vials and grab whatever his fingers get first, regardless of what it is, if he knows what it is, etc.) and it smelled SO DARN GOOD ON HIM. I mean really good. Tenacious, woody, elegant. After that, I changed my opinion about it immediately and decided to give it another chance to work for me. In fact, there is a 1/2 used sample lying around my wardrobe somewhere, waiting for me to use it again. Lightly applied, this time.

As I posted on another thread, I am a big fan of pepper scents. Not sure how that happened but all of a sudden I found myself drawn to them inextricably. My current one-two-three punch are Poivre 23 by Le Labo, Scent Two: Laurel by Monocle x CdG and Hermessence Poivre Samarcande by Hermes. All three are outrageously overpriced. So, of course, the Villoresi is not just tempting my nose but it's also a more affordable option - if I can wear it comfortably.

Hopefully Kevin Guyer will see this thread and give us his current comments on it. He used to wear the hell out of this stuff years ago, if I recall correctly.

I love Piper Nigrum. I've written many times about what a big fan of Lorenzo Villoresi I am and PN is one of my favorites of his creations. As I've also mentioned before, my partner hates it and thinks it "smells like burning corpses" which I've always thought was a bizarre perception. A few weeks ago, I think we finally figured out what triggered this perception. Many years ago, he worked for a summer in a hospital and something went wrong with the air conditioning and the smell of the bodies in the morgue began to waft through the ventilation system. The hospital tried pumping all sorts of things through the vents in order to mask the smell and apparently it created a smell that was in some way similar to Piper Nigrum. How's that for a bizarre story?

TonyPrince, ain't your partner a guy who knows the truth! Tell him he's my new best friend and I say amen, partner, to his judgment.

He appreciates your support. Grrrrrrrr.

I tried this scent not too long ago and was really surprised to see that it smelled like liquefied black pepper. And that's not a good thing in my book.
I have to give this one more try!

I love PN!
I have to be careful with black pepper scents. This one works if I'm careful with the application because of all the other wonerful notes it contains.
Surprisingly, it works great on summer nights for me. I love the fennel and the myrrh in it too. It's one of the most original fragrances in my opinion and the progression is very interesting throughout the day.

I love Piper Nigrum,. too. I have a soft spot for scents with an interesting inbuilt hot-cold contradiction, and PN is one of the very best of this genre (A*Men is another good example). I love how it goes from cool herbal minty fresh to burning black pepper, YUMSTERS!

LOL! Fortunately, Saracenes didn't mean bloodshed only.
If I remember it well, LV traveled the spice route before he even thought about making perfumes.