Bottega Veneta L'Absolu

Jasmine Leather Finally there is truth in advertising: BV L'Absolu actually is stronger and more intense than the original. Full disclosure, I adore BV, the Eau de Velours is one of my favorite perfumes. When I saw that they came out with this I was falling over myself to get it. So while L'Absolu is stronger, they achieved this effect by stripping it down and making it a bit linear. I find it to be less complicated than the original, and there are less changes during the wear. There's very little fruit, bergamot, and peppercorn here. Rather the florals are boosted, and instead of a cool suede there's actual LEATHER. Strong, aggressive leather. Basically this is a strong almost oily jasmine over leather, with tender green patchouli to soften things just a tad. But imagine that though: Jasmine, leather and patchouli are really strong notes. This perfume is less understated, and all confident. This isn't catching a whiff of the leather of a soft luxury bag, but being encompassed in a new leather jacket. L'Absolu wears like this for many hours, but far into the drydown, it does become smoother, and almost turns into a different perfume: the base is a pleasant vanilla woods (the ambroxan?) I was surprised that it dried down this way--then again historically a jasmine leather would have a satisfying chypre drydown, and you can't use oakmoss anymore. So I guess they had to do something, and it does work. True to advertising too you only need a few sprays of this to last all day, with good silage. So it's pricy, but lasts a long time, which is one of my personal yardsticks when judging a perfume. That and wearing more than 2 sprays would actually make me feel a little sick. Now, this is still clearly related to the original, and this perfume has BV's "signature" all over it. It smells like a perfume from this house. Do you need both? I don't find L'Absolu to be redundant, it's stripped down and simpler, but that's not to say that it doesn't work, and has a nice substantial weight and personality of its own. I'm glad I have my bottle that's for sure.

The initial spray is a bit strong and masculine. But give it a couple of minutes then you can truly enjoy the heavy leathery, opulent unisex scent. It feels like youre wearing a luxurious leather jacket. It is inoffensive fragrance, a bit fresh and citrusy scent. You barely can smell vanilla in here, so if you don't like vanilla smell in leathery based fragrances then go ahead and give it a try.

I completely agree with Vegas Pauli’s review below. We seemed to have shared the same experience comparing the original Bottega Veneta and BV L’Absolu side by side. I too prefer the original. L’Absolu is not simply an amplified formulation. Although I did find it stronger in silage, it seems less complex now. I am obviously hard to please. I didn’t buy the original when it came out because I felt it needed more leather, but now that they appear to have done so in L’Absolu, I prefer BV. L’Absolu just seems a little too dense, missing the previous lightness. I don’t know, I like this very much, but the balance still doesn’t seem quite right. On a positive note, silage is more than arms length using only two sprays on clothing and skin. As for longevity, it lasted about three to four hours on my inner elbows, yet oddly, the paper strip I sprayed on the same day two weeks ago and my scarf still smell strongly of leather and Ambroxan. The smell is warm and pleasant. This might just be a fragrance which performs best on clothing. The bottle is utterly beautiful and BV L’Absolu is an intoxicating fragrance, but I’ll see if a future formulation or flanker has the right balance of rosey pink pepper sweetness and leather and amber warmth.

I blind bought it for my wife and since she doesn't like strong and oriental leaning perfumes, I was hoping that she would say something like: "It is too strong and dark for me! You can use it." Unfortunatelly :) she fell in love with it. In fact she said to me: "Alex, show them perfume where you get your money and how to use the online-banking and you can go." It broke my heart! Mature leaning and classy, strictly for cold weather and definitely for nights out. Don't you worry about the performance. It's more than good. I could imagine the same perfume made 20 years ago. It would have been a masterpiece because of the patchouli note, which is a little bit on the fizzy side - a stubborn tendency for the last decade[nce] thanks to the widespreading emasculated aroma chemicals. But on a cold weather this innocent flaw is barely perceptible.

I have almost all versions of BV. This version is the driest of all and drier than original BV. The BV Eau Legere is the lighter than original BV and seems a bit more suede, than leather. If you are looking for BV Eau Legere, then buy Eau Legere :-(