Petra Lavica

Perfect summer/hot spring fragrance. 70% similarity with Creed's Aventus but in a good way, which gives it enough room to be it's own thing. Also glad they offer worldwide shipping so that I don't have to go to Sicily to get one, which is where i got it from. Blind buy safe. Longevity, although not like club de Nuit or other clones,is there, 6-7h. Overall a great cost efficient cologne. Lovely. 9/10

Petra Lavica is the third offering I've tried from the House of Acqua di Taormina. I find the sillage is intimate and that it lasts for about six hours on me. I would say this is very much a daytime perfume and one for warm weather. I like it but not enough to buy it again. I'd happily recommend you try it though. It feels very unisex to me in that it wouldn't seem out of place or jarring on either sex. It's fairly linear so you'll know pretty quickly whether or not it's for you. You get a nice mix of the apple, bergamot and blackcurrant, with the apple being the strongest and longest lasting of the trio, combined with some musk and wood. I don't really get any lily-of-the-valley and I can't say I honestly detect any patchouli either. There is something clever going on in that the combination of the base notes with the fruitier ones did put me in mind of being in Italy and having the smell of volcanic ash and that smell of areas near an active volcano combined with the fruits of the soil nearby. Is this the power of suggestion at work? Possibly. But either way, it's nice.

So I found this new in a charity shop for €10 and after not being able to quickly find a lot online about the fragrance, decided to get it for a laugh. New it's like €70 for 100ml so seemed like an okay gamble. Straight-out-the-box review from a noob so beware. Acqua di Taormina Petra Lavica, which translates to lava rock. EDT. Upon first spray it smells like spicy fruit, but the fruit quickly fades to leave a more oriental spicy and woody smell on the drydown, which somehow indeed reminds me of rocky herbal mountains. It's not my usual style of sweet and fruity for summer and sweet/vanilla/cinnamon for fall/winter, but I kind of dig this one for summer nights outside. Longevity seems low however, as does projection. Talking like 1h of smell before skin scent, without being strong. Overall, right now I'd say 6.5/10, mainly hoping performance will improve a bit with time, and would love for the fruit to come out a bit more. Definitely an interesting pickup!