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Victoria_fromAF – :
Garofano is my Valentines Day date fragrance for today.
The weather in California agrees with me. This is a sunny warm and bright fruited floral unisex scent. For me this is not too flowery and it’s mainly a citrus based cologne. The top notes and the first spritz is heavy on orange citrus smells. You get all of them at once in a fresh and powerful projection: mandarin orange peels, lemons, bergamot, and neroli. The neroli is divine. I have never smelled a more brilliant neroli in my short life. A citrusy petit grain is discernable. Just a lot of lovely citruses. This is also coming off as day wear so I will indeed wear this for my lunch date at noon. The cool breezes will catch whiffs of this cologne and it’s so refreshing and delicious, like heady orange blossoms and orangeries. There’s something very Tuscan about this scent and it reminds me of Italy in the summer time.
The scent is linear and doesn’t follow the standard formula of top middle and base notes but it’s fabulously composed from start to finish. After the citrus notes fade away, I’m getting a scent of spices, cloves and carnations. The carnation is red, quite reddish and similar to a red carnation corsage. The flowerets and petals are almost like rose petals but not as fragrant. There’s possibly other floral notes going on here that seem to push up as strongly as the carnation: lavender and rosemary. For me these two notes could not be better paired. I find that lavender is similar to rosemary. Both florals are pastoral, outdoorsy, spicy and even masculine. They are floral notes found in a lot of men’s colognes. So ultimately this is an excellent floral fragrance FOR MEN! It has a beautiful balance of carnation and lavender which I was looking for.
The florals give way to cloves and something a tad green and earthy but never bordering on a chypre. This is far too fruity-floral with the citruses and the lavender to keep it from being too much of a chypre. Plus it’s missing woodsy notes. This is linear and simple, perhaps over far too soon to be complex and or to make a statement, but it’s very charming and attractive. Guys can wear this and get the girls. Girls can wear this and get the guys. It’s a very elegant unisex day wear cologne of citrus florals and spices, cloves and a smoky benzoin. This final note is similar to incense. Nonetheless it’s a weak note and the cloves are the strongest dry down note. This is also a pretty old historic fragrance from the 19th century (1828? wow). I feel very honored to wear this and will look into other fragrances from this Renaissance era Italian house the Santa Maria Novella. Thank you Fragrantica for giving me the joy of fragrance in my life.
chebotegor – :
This one was pure nostalgia for me. I discovered it when I lived close to the SMN store in NY. The moment I smelled it, it reminded me of the scent of the little floral kiosks that used to line the streets of San Francisco. When I was a little girl and would visit San Francisco on special occasions, my parents would buy me a little carnation corsage to wear around town. The instant I smelled this scent, I was taken back to those days and fell in love. It’s spicier than it might seem like it would be but it’s so unique and beautiful that it could easily become a signature.
pasha250387 – :
Whoa. I love the way this smells but cannot figure out when to or where to wear it. It is just in-your-face beautiful spices and dewy, red flowers. Not complicated or intellectual – it is raining little carnations and laughing…
kolnikpet – :
Despite of sharp, almost antiseptic smell of clove top note – which is pleasantly invigorating at the beginning of this classical composition – Santa Maria Novella Garofano is actually very approachable and unpretentious carnation (unlike Villoresi Garofano or Lutens Vitriol d’oeillet), moderately sweet, unobtrusive in sillage and lasting power.
By the end of top notes the clove withdraws into the background in favor of charming spicy carnation supported by soft sweetish herbal melange of rosemary and lavender that remains very vivid and deliciously red throughout the perfume heart, making this composition linear until the drydown.
Memorable and gallant autumn/winter time floral.
dentqzin – :
Plants that are quite acerbic sprout and grow in the forest, trying to reach for the sun through the shadows. Then they bloom, then there is a gentle scent left, with a drop of citrusness and a pinch of cloves.
scorps2008 – :
I only wear this in the winter months. You have to love the smell of cloves to wear this. It reminds me of Christmas!
Maximys86 – :
This is a full-on floral. I don’t wear floral perfume, and I’m still a little shocked that I bought it. I think the spicy note of the carnation flower seduced me (I like elements of wood, spice, leather), and it was just so unique. I get many comments when I wear it. Ultimately, it’s just too radiant for work (this is a fragrance that perfumes an entire room), and not quite sexy enough to wear out in the evening, so I enjoy it, but don’t wear it very often. Perhaps the ideal scent to wear outdoors in the cold winter air, where it will bring memories of spring without knocking anyone out. Good or bad, SMN scents last forever (both on skin and in the bottle), and don’t come in small sizes, so I have had this one so many years I am a little tired of it.