Senso (1987)
by Ungaro

A lovely, albeit somewhat old-fashioned fragrance, that on me smells warm and spicy, with overtones of "floralcy." (thanks PP for that awesome term!). I have an older bottle and as it's aged I'm now getting mostly base notes (pun intended). These are lovely and rounded and smooth as silk. No hard edges here. The only really obvious development I get is the emergence of wood notes in the dry down, which, along with the patchouli, benzoin and hints of floral, make for a compelling, if rather simple, fragrance. I love this, and, because it's been discontinued, when I wear it I certainly don't smell like everyone else!

Lively opening but the fruity / citrus involved in it are already being pushed around by the cinnamon and patchouli from the base and the jasmine from the middle. To my nose, the citrus didn’t stand a chance and they succumbed to the darker elements quite gracefully. The top notes morph quite quickly into the middle’s rather vibrant floral accord, which is led by the rose and the tuberose. I still haven’t lost contact with the cinnamon and the jasmine, and by now the base’s vanilla is showing itself. The base is quite uninspired. It supposedly has all these notes — amber, musk, opoponax, patchouli, sandalwood, tonka, benzoin, and vanilla — but it comes to me as a solid block of undifferentiated mediocrity.

Senso by Ungaro moves much too fast. The opening citrus is gone in a few seconds, and the floral middle is gone after several minutes. The base, too, is rather ephemeral. I’m afraid Jacques Polges’ magic didn’t work on this one.