La Vaniglia

Incredibly beautiful, the most original vanilla I've ever tried. Addictive and bizarre, it starts with a boozy alcoholic minty opening, strong and very unusual; ( mint and vanilla? sounds like Listerine, but it has that old rum Cuban flavor, haa - El Ron del Cuba- if you can believe it plus a milky undertone!). This phase doens't last longer than a few minutes. Soon after vanilla comes mixed with a nice dose of patchouli and incense. Ahh, that divine incense seems to come straight from my Orthodox church. Literarily speaking. It's heavenly and it almost appears profane to be put in the composition of a perfume intended, most likely, to seduce and give pleasure... The drydown is pure soft smokey incense and dry vanilla. The citrus never shows up on my skin. As complex as the opening , the base is simple but inchanting. I don't think I could love it more than I do! Lasting power of this olphactory wonder is not as good should it, neither is the projection. A true delight to my nose, I cannot stop smelling myself!!!By the way, I had samples from Tobacco Vanille and La Vaniglia, as I was looking for a dark vanilla. While I loved both equally, this one won my heart in the end, because of those stunning opening notes...Divine and sexy!

If you're looking for a masculine vanilla scent - this is one of the better ones I've tried. I love my vanilla gourmands dark and moody, gritty and a little bit dirty. Nothing overly pretty. The vanilla screams feminine, and is pretty enough. It needs balance, and this scent has a superior blend of notes to make it oh so different from what's available. Don't let the screaming pink bottle throw you off - there's enough smoke and fire in this bottle to make you feel like a man - or a woman who likes to smell like a man (just a little). This is not a cosy I'm so yummy girly bedtime scent. This is a "here I am don't I smell delicious" scent. It's sexy in a "I'm not sure if I've gone too far" kind of way. Slip on a tiny black dress, your best black heels and go for it. Whatever makes you happy. A well cut suit and a great tie will work too.

Oh, naughty, naughty vanilla. She likes to pretend she's so innocent, smiling that sweet smile of hers, pleasing everybody, drinking Earl Grey tea with a squeeze of tangerine. But when no one is looking, she sneaks off with the likes of patchouli, pepper and incense to give her a little grit and life experience. Throw ginger into the mix for some sparkle and heat, and what you have is something to talk about at dinner under your breath. La Vaniglia is very intoxicating with all its hidden smoky darkness. You will fall hard for this one. And love it.

I would call it an ancient vanilla. It smells like vanilla ice cream at an exposition of mediaeval history artifacts. It opens with a blast of pepper and a minty accord, gradually morphs into smoky vanilla and gets softer and sweeter with time (not overly sweet though). I would say it's easily unisex due to the serious smokiness. I would personally love it on a man, but on a woman also, it's warm and attractive with a twist. It's strong and enveloping. Great sillage and longevity. Not a typical vanilla at all. Very unusual stuff.

Love the opening! Spicy vanilla. Too bad it doesn't last that long. In the end you only smell some vanilla

I'm writing a new review because it has been a few years since I sampled, and now I have a full bottle. While I don't find it repulsive like I used to, I still feel that it's quite...ummm...artistic. Certainly not your run-of-the mill vanilla. My perception of it hasn't really changed as far as what I actually smell. I still pretty much get the same sweet, soft and powdery top notes with some sort of plasticky strawberry (which I like). I love berry-fruitchoulis because they tend to create a plastic smell on me, so I think this is where I noticed patchouly, just in the top notes. I still don't detect mint, anything herbal, no pepper, no ginger, and no incense. I also still get the rank animalic note, like an ass's ass, frankly, but I have grown to really like animalics from ambergris to sweaty crotch, so rather than being perturbed by it, I think it adds an intriguing idiosyncrasy to an otherwise fluffy marshmallow vanilla gourmand. If the scent of this could be translated into a visual piece of art, it is the kind of thing I could imagine hanging on a wall at an art gallery with super artsy, cultured folks standing in front of it while swirling their glasses of wine and discussing its artistic merits as well as the subjective feelings it evokes in each person. It reminds me of Musc Ravageur's concept of vanilla and intense animalic notes. While MR is Oriental and darker, La Vaniglia is its sweet, gourmand little cousin. Personally I think MR is the more successful fragrance at blending these two seemingly polarizing accords (vanilla +animalics), as La Vaniglia always just seems a little odd. It's a keeper for it's fascinating uniqueness, in any case. Someone complimented me on it when they smelled it, and they just smelled sweet vanilla, not a donkey's derrière. So that's good!

Yuck--this is not any kind of vanilla I would want to wear. I expected incense, smoky, sultry, spicy, with a touch of mint. I got a fluffy marshmallow vanilla upon opening (yes--the sweet kind that you would expect from the girly pink bottle), which was quickly overtaken by the plastic note mentioned by another reviewer. This plastic note only gets worse as it smells more and more animalic (read: poop) as time goes on. I'm being reminded of Tom Ford Urban Musk--it's the same manure scent that turns so many people off and probably the reason it was discontinued. Big surprise--nobody wants to smell like donkey manure. I'm shocked that hardly anyone has mentioned how truly dirty this smells. On other review sites, people talk about this fecal scent, but for some reason nobody seems to talk about it here. I got no trace of mint either. I sampled twice and endured it's sillage all day long before coming to the conclusion that it just stinks and is no vanilla I'd recommend unless a member here is looking for this sort of thing. I know some people are into fecal scents, but not me. Different strokes for different folks....

I have tried many vanilla-based perfumes, so I thought nothing can ever surprise me now. Especially, when I approached this Barbie-pink coloured bottle with "La Vaniglia" written on it. Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong about that. This is definitely a vanilla perfume, but it's nothing like I have imagined. La Vaniglia opens with strong patchouli and smokey incense; very woody and almost dirty (yes, patchouli, it's all your fault!). The fruits here are not very noticeable, but without them, the fragrance would have been completely dirty and pungent, so they added some balance, I guess. I was already prepared to dislike it, until it strikes me that I am actually enjoying it. Incense and patchouli did not go away, but became slightly more well-behaved. Finally, I expected this to turn into plain sweet confectionery, but La Vaniglia kept reminding me that it's got "dirty mind". I honestly have no idea, on what kind of occasion you could wear this, but I am sure I will find excuses to put this on, as I can't stop sniffing my wrist - it's both very delightful and weird.

Where Dolcelisir is laden with cinnamon, La Vaniglia is liberally peppered especially in the opening where the smell of freshly grated ginger and pepper is almost overwhelming and there's no sign of vanilla at this time. The initial spiciness dissipates over time but spice remains a prominent note even to the drydown and this dry spiciness gives a feeling of antiquity to La Vaniglia. Under the spice, living beneath a thick fog of darkest patchouli and smoky incense that is so intense it is as if someone sucked up the incense of several cathedrals and stuck it in this creation, there is a creamy vanilla but La Vaniglia is not just vanilla as she claims to be nor is she the innocent cotton candy pink of the bottle. She is very much a sophisticated, audacious take on vanilla that is both wildly weird and wonderful. Potent and promiscuous this is definitely not for little girls. Amazing longevity and good projection.

A subjective opinion: A very multi-faceted and beautiful unisex amber vanilla perfume. Starts off like a mix of Musc Ravageur and Ambre Muscadin with the mandarin and pepper lending something unusual, then borrowing very resinous and buttery facets of O Hira and even Amber Absolute, before landing on an incense-patchouli vanilla bed. Personally I think the conflict in expectations caused by the very vanilla (pun intended) name and bottle, in contrast to what’s inside, has caused a snowball effect in the comments describing this undeservingly as ‘skanky’, ‘horrible’ and ‘disgusting’. For anyone with experience in perfumes and desire to be surprised, this might be a winner. And to end, if this was a French hype-niche release, it would most likely be ‘redefining the boring vanilla trend in a mature way’.

Vanilla is one of my favorite notes, so of course I had to try this. At first spray...I hated it. It was like artificial vanilla and butter, and really strong. It was cloying and in your face...but my guts said not to scrub it off. Just wait... As that awful - almost acrid- smell faded, it morphed in to something gorgeous and long-lasting. I can smell the other notes now, with a lovely vanilla resting on the very top. This one I will wear...just have to ignore the first 2 min. I asked my bf to check this out, now he won't speak to me, and won't smell again to experience the dry down. Whoops! 😬 He may break up with me. Definitely a perfume to be sprayed in private.

Talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing!!! The bubble gum pink bottle could not be further from the truth. This is a blast of citrus and a hint of mint for about 30 seconds before the shy girl begins to fade and her dark mysterious side decides to show her face. This is incense and spice with just a dash of patch and bone dry vanilla. If you want cream and sugar you'd best look someplace else. If you are interested in a vanilla that misbehaves, well then this may be your bottle!!!

To me, this is a very leathery, dirty vanilla. The "fresh and sparkling" top notes are there for only a split second before the scent descends into a strong, non-churchy incense and vanilla. It reminds me of a vanilla-flavoured cigar, smoked in a room with leather armchairs. Very pungent and deep. Probably reserved for wearing in the cleavage of a low black velvet dress on a promiscuous hot summer night.

To me the drydown smelled very similar to Shalimar vanilla hyped up flankers (Ode vanille & Vanille Madagascar, probably the edp too). I have to highlight this similarity isn't in the opening phase when one can smell the distinct leathery Shalimarness. Only a bit later.

All smoke, barely sweet. This is spicy smoke with a whisper of vanilla. Seems linear. Smoke smoke pepper smoke smoke pepper sweet.

I received La Vaniglia in a blind swap, and am so happy I took a big risk on this polarizing number! I totally understand why it has haters! People expect a pink vanilla, and instead get Musc Ravageur’s sweaty armpits laced with cigarette smoke. I love how subversive it is. What I’m smelling isn’t fully described by the notes. The topnote is a peppery-sour burned latex musk. The central accord is a dense sweet musky labdanum, very much on the animalic side. It still has a smoked facet, but also a creamy marshmallow-vanilla sweetness. The drydown smells like skanky vanilla. The whole combination is like as if Musc Ravageur, L’Air de Rien, Le Lion, and Spiritueuse Double Vanille took a sweaty romp on a plastic water bed together.

The top notes with pepper made my nose tingle and sneeze. Plenty of patchoulli too, if that's your thing. Just really all too much challenge from start to finish for something called vaniglia.

I bought this perfume blind on sale. I have enjoyed Bois perfumes before, particularly Sushi and Oro, and so had high hopes. What I got was a mess: Vanilla and sweetness so absurdly strong that it made most of my friends recoil in disgust. The consensus among them was that it smells like a popular orthodox church, frequented by older women with older tastes and an affection for overly-sweet vanilla scents. I'm tempted to say that I have no clue what Bois was thinking, producing this, but I think I do: the current Bois operation is a newer Italian perfumery with excellent masculine and unisex perfumes. The odds ones out, from my experience, are their scents for women: they're far too strong, girly in a puerile way, and not what most adult North American women would want to smell like. I suspect that La Vaniglia is the product of an Italian man's imagination -- what he thinks women ought to want, without ever asking them. Stay away from this one unless you're planning on touring Russian cathedrals in summertime.

I also smelled the "poop" moment described by reviewers NoelleLovesScents and "fecal vanilla" by DR521 below. Started nice and inoffensive - warm sweet vanilla. Then 5-10 minutes in, it started to smell like amber-labdanum type DNA (like FM Musc Ravageur) suffocating under animal heinie. I was thinking: is this a Civet Vanilla perfume? I resisted the urge to scrub and persevered. Luckily it got better! Unpleasantry endured for about 30 minutes, then dried down to a beautiful, tame and luminous amber vanilla, similar to the dry down of Bvlgari Black or Shalimar. Well, let's just say this lovely dry down may not justify the nose assault in the middle - for me personally.

Decided that I needed some olfactory fortification on this Monday and in a use it or lose it frame of mind, I doused myself with the remaining 1mL in a sample vial. The initial rubber blast only lasts about 5 minutes. After that I get the incense and vanilla that reminds me of the “heaviness” of Must de Cartier – but only on my bare wrists – which lasted for about 1 hour before becoming a skin scent. For applications in covered areas or folds such as elbow, the rubber did not fade and actually became quite nauseating, almost like bleach blocks in public urinals, while luckily not projecting. Hard pass from me.