VideCorMeum

I was curious about this brand for a long, long time. I kept it on my radar for quite a while. As soon as African Rooibos was launched in 2021 by Chris Collins I had to mark the brand down as a definite try! I was incredibly flushed with emotion upon the unveiling of African Rooibos. Has Chris done the material, the tea, justice? I have Bvlgari Au Thé Rouge. I acquired that one because I absolutely love tea notes in perfumery and Rooibos tea is one of my favorite teas to drink and I was curious to find out how it was registered in perfume form. I digress. So here I am trying Vide Cor Meum on my skin not knowing what to expect and possibly a little concerned by the "amberwood" note in the notes list. Talk about one of the best roses you've smelled... Vide Cor Meum is an absolute dream of a rose composition. I am a lover of rose in fragrance, a very gorgeous material, and hope to purchase my list of rose fragrances soon. So lush, so rich, so real, so ultra 3 dimensional I am almost overwhelmed by its massive presence. Opulence in scent. It opens very pungent and tangy and burgundy possessing those beautifully thick and dewy citric nuances that rose can typically have. Then Vide Cor Meum begins to settle and richen into a slow, molasses-y stream of thick rich Turkish rose essences atop high-quality resins. It is warm and BIG in its profile and smartly composed. This is a fragrance strictly for those life-changing events. You wear something like this for dates, weddings, ballroom events, speeches, award seminars etc. You cannot wear this casually. Just don't even try... A composition like this will always make you feel improperly dressed. Vide Cor Meum goes through another change but rose always seems to be the foundation of its profile. Now in this stage the rose's presence has been elongated by a heavy, warm, burning incense that has a slight humidity. This warmth is combined by a deeply honeyed and boozy Siamese benzoin and vanilla. A thyme note accompanies the dry-down with the resins adding a multidimensional herbaceous quality that gives this boozy, jammy, seductive potion some more warmth and dimension. The thyme adds its own profile of green, spicy, herbal and citric nuances providing a zesty lift. The thyme, incense, vanilla and amberwood, gives Vide Cor Meum incredible density and balance. The perfume comes across as a thick, smokey, rose that is extremely diffusive. There is never too much of the amberwood in the composition and it never throws off the composition or makes it a predictable spectacle. It is mainly rose and incense. This fragrance is effortlessly magnificent. By coincidence this smells like a smarter and better composed Roja Dove's Engima. But there's barely any resemblance other than the rose and amberwood. Overall it's quite unique. The blend is done so much better here where the realness and breathability of the materials has been focused upon and it is not screechy, flat, peppery or metallic in anyway. It is smooth, warm and smokey. I can smell the rose, I can smell the beautiful herbs and I get a full and warm incense. The amberwood is stated in the notes but never scratchy or apparent to my nostrils on my wearings. There is a clear thing that Vide Cor Meum seeks to smell like, and the perfume accomplishes this. It is blended masterfully. Who the hell made this!!! Vide Cor Meum is "Look into my Heart" in Latin and is an aria or a, "self-contained piece for one voice" - an acapella of sorts, produced by Patrick Cassidy an Irish orchestral composer and Hans Zimmer the German film score producer for the movie Hannibal made in 2001. The aria was based on the poem written in 1283, La Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri the writer of Dante's Inferno. It follows the first sonnet of La Vita Nuova one that discusses Dante's intense chivalric love and inability to be with the one who he loved since she married to another and died 4 years before La Vita Nuova was released - leading him to deduce it was an omen that they were meant to be together. In the poem when Dante falls into a deep sleep, in his dream a physical embodiment of Love feeds his lover his heart and she dies and both her and Love ascend to heaven. The connection to Hannibal being that he imprints on the imagery of this poem in a more literal sense, justifying his extreme passions, his love and his affinity for cannibalism offering his own heart figuratively to his flame Clarice Starling. Unisex, slightly masculine, hefty sillage, lingering lazily and politely with hours upon hours of wear time on me. A riveting hommage to the cult classic aria but even without the backstory Vide Cor Meum already smells like intense and overwhelming passion. Another thick ambery rose I love is Eau de Mystique. That is a fresher, honeyed amber rose in this same family you can try but no less massive in its wear. This fragrance can compete with some of the most expensive rose attars. Vide Cor Meum gives me goosebumps. I must have this unendingly beautiful fragrance. 🌹🩸🎭 10/10

To call this fragrance anything other than a masterpiece would be a gross understatement. This fragrance truly evokes powerful imagery and takes you on a journey. I'll start by saying that the composition of this fragrance isn't anything groundbreaking; you've definitely smelled this profile before (think Vanille Havane). However, the way the fragrance is crafted is artfully exquisite. It opens with an herbal, almost medicinal smell that slowly melts away to reveal a warm, smoky incense. The incense intertwined with a subtle rose; it isn't at all loud or overly "rosy" smelling. It's a soft, sweet, almost candied-rose smell (think Atomic Rose, but nowhere near as jam-like). The woody notes provide a nice, grounding base for the potency of the other notes. However, the star player of VideCorMeum comes from the vanilla, in my opinion. It emerges at the very end of the dry-down, and it adds this delicate sweetness to the scent that I haven't quite smelled in this way, before. It isn't too "in your face," either. Its presence is felt, but it's fine with lingering in the background to hold everything together. I'm not exaggerating when I say it makes this fragrance incredibly addictive. The imagery that this fragrance evoked in me was quite cinematic. Picture your friend coming up to you and saying, "a really good friend of mine's, friend's brother, has asked if I knew anyone who would be willing to take his friend from overseas out to show him around town? He's just in town for one night, and wanted to experience the city with someone single." It's an odd request I know, but you're intrigued. The person is from some remotely obscure, small town somewhere in eastern-Europe. You curiously agree to this "date." The night of the date is a dark, somewhat gloomy fall/winter night, with an eerily-enchanting mist that cloaks the city. You've agreed to meet your date at a small, quaint restaurant, that while it may not look like much, has a rustic charm to it. Your date pulls up in a taxi, he gets out, handsomely-dark European features, and a long black pea-coat to match. He warmly greets you with a handshake and two kisses on your cheeks (remember, European). As he does this, your nose catches his scent. You smell the familiarity of the scent profile, but in a mysteriously intriguing way you never have before. It's equal parts masculine and feminine; not too spicy, and not too sweet, just perfect. You enjoy your meal with your date in the romantically-lit restaurant, enveloped by his mysterious fragrance with every gesture he makes. Much like his accent, the scent is familiar, but curiously you're not sure from where? The time gets away from you and you don't want this date with this mysterious stranger to end, but alas... You exit the restaurant, and he thanks you for spending the evening with him. He waves a taxi down for you and opens the door. This time he pulls you in closely for an embrace, and one kiss on your cheek. He bids you farewell, and you watch him walk away, disappearing into the night mist. You never see him again, but you will never forget his scent. All this to say, this scent is absolutely ethereal. The longevity, sillage, projection, and most importantly, the scent, are all worth the price-point. You won't regret this purchase; trust me.

Powder, Done Right Vide Cor Meum by Chris Collins leans into elegance from the very first spray. This is an incensy and somewhat powdery rose done with intention. Clean, smooth, and composed without feeling overly delicate or overly dressed up. The opening comes in strong. The rose is immediate, supported by a soft powdery texture and a subtle incense-like quality that gives it a refined presence. It’s noticeable right away, but not overwhelming. There’s a balance here that keeps it wearable. As it settles, the fragrance softens slightly. Not in a way that loses character, but in a way that feels more controlled. The powder becomes smoother, the rose feels more integrated, and the overall composition starts to sit closer to the skin. The dry down reveals a beautiful, slightly darker side. A soft vanilla comes through, adding warmth and depth. There’s even a faint cocoa-like nuance, not listed, but perceptible, that gives the base a subtle richness without turning it gourmand. What stands out is how unisex this feels. Powdery florals can sometimes lean in one direction, but this stays right in the middle. It wears just as well in casual settings as it does in more refined or formal environments. Performance is solid. It holds its presence for hours and leaves a clean, noticeable trail without pushing too far. This is the kind of scent people notice when they’re close, not from across the room. This is sophistication in a very wearable form. Easy to reach for, easy to appreciate, and easy to come back to. Notes That Work Well with Vide Cor Meum With its incensy, powdery rose and soft musky structure, it pairs well with: • Clean musks • Soft amber • Light vanilla or tonka • Creamy sandalwood • Subtle citrus for lift Layering Recommendations 1. Airy Projection Fragrance: Molecule 01 by Escentric Molecules Leaning: Unisex Why it works Enhances the airy woody structure and boosts projection without changing the DNA. How to layer • 1 spray Molecule 01 to chest • 2 sprays Vide Cor Meum to neck and wrists 2. Creamy Depth Fragrance: Le Labo Santal 33 Leaning: Unisex Why it works Adds creamy sandalwood that grounds the incense and powder, giving more texture and depth. How to layer • 1 spray Santal 33 to chest • 2 sprays Vide Cor Meum to neck 3. Dark Sweet Accent Fragrance: Initio Side Effect Leaning: Masculine Why it works Introduces a darker vanilla and slight boozy warmth that enhances the cocoa-like nuance in the dry down. How to layer • 1 spray Side Effect to chest • 2 sprays Vide Cor Meum to neck and Office-friendly: Yes Blind buy: Yes for lovers of powdery rose Recommended age: 25–50+ Occasion: Casual, elegant, and formal settings Season: All year Prescription filled. Enjoy responsibly.

Chris Collins’ Vide Cor Meum is a sweet and spicy 2021 release that I was instantly drawn to during my last visit at Perfumology. The listed notes are bergamot, thyme, rose absolute, incense, cedar, benzoin siam, vanilla, and woody amber, and that generally feels right, as there are spicy and resinous qualities to it, with a slight but apparent sweetness, along with some woody and fresh tones. The rose is limited but helps explain why this does not drift into gourmand territory, as, along with the thyme, there is a green outdoorsy-ness to the blend. VDC does not call to mind any immediate comparisons as far as other perfumes, but has a slight familiarity to it while nonetheless being intriguing and making me want to smell it over and over again, which is a peculiar juxtaposition but sort of makes sense. Altogether, it leans ever so slightly more toward being a dark / nighttime fragrance that a fresh / daytime fragrance but it’s very well balanced between both ideas, more or less in that category of fragrance that can be comfortably worn every day through most climates while nonetheless feeling more special and perhaps more contemporary than most signature scents. I’m not sure it takes the top spot from Danse Sauvage but it’s in a similar category, replacing DS’ more committed booziness with a little bit of floral and resinous touches, but both fragrances are excellently put together and wearable, while straddling the lines of fun vs. serious and comfortable and relaxed vs. formal very well. Overall, VDC is great, and along with DS, is one of the two fragrances I find most wearable and enjoyable (and therefore would most recommend that everyone try) from the brand. Vide Cor Meum is available in EDP concentration at a price of $175 for 50ml, the most common pricing for the brand, and is sold at great boutiques like Perfumology, where I’ve done all of my sampling of the line, and they sell spray samples of this and other fragrances that they offer. 8 out of 10

Vide Cor Meum is a magnificent beast! Spectacular performance (Yes, it does go 8 hours strong) and so sophisticated and serious and beautiful. Something to wear for formal, or any time you want to exude quiet power—picture a CEO who is always in charge, but never through cruelty or manipulation. This is for a confident leader who also wants powerful people around him or her. I am afraid I may have to have a bottle of this. I have found other scents by Chris Collins to be nice but something I could turn down. I'll keep testing--I'll see if I escape or if I have to keep coming back to this once my sample is gone. Indigo is a nice place to get this sample btw--spray samples where the atomizer is high quality...