Fendi

There is nothing like Fendi. Everything I am about to say is about the original. Steer clear of the current formulation: it is terrible. It is insipid. It is absolute dreck. It is a pidgeon who should have been born a peacock. It is a drag queen in a conservative skirt suit who dreams of sequin-studded gowns and mink stoles. This was my mother’s signature scent throughout my childhood, though I hated it as a child. She had a bit of a heavy hand, and I remember crying and refusing to hug and kiss her when she wore it lest some of the stink rubbed off onto me. My sister felt much the same way, so over the years, she began wearing the lighter, more generic 90’s scents like Clinique Happy on the day-to-day. For special occasions, however, she remained loyal to Fendi until it was discontinued in the early 2000s. Strangely enough, I did not appreciate this until I was in my 30s, almost two decades after it was discontinued. I’d started becoming very seriously interested in perfume in my late 20s, but even then, I considered this scent to be TOO BIG and TOO MUCH, very old-fashioned, although it did not repel me as it did in my childhood. However, once I started getting into niche perfumes and stalking fragrance forums, I heard fragrance nerd after fragrance nerd reminisce about vintage Fendi, and I found myself growing curious. I wondered if Fendi would smell different now that I had a more refined “palate”, so-to-speak. For Christmas 2013, I bought my mother a vintage dabber bottle from the 80s. She dabbed a bit on her wrists, inhaled, and cried. She insists that the fragrance has changed with age though she cannot quite articulate how, though it is similar enough to trigger “scent memories” of that era. For her, it is tied to an era where she felt lots of unconditional love: from her two young daughters and her husband. She and my father struggled financially until I was a teenager, but she would put on Fendi and feel glamorous even in our shabby home. Her nose has changed a lot over the years to prefer lighter, more herbal scents, so she does not wear this frequently despite the good memories. While I cannot speak to the way this juice smelled when it was fresh, my impression of Fendi has changed A LOT since I was a kid. Man, I LOVE this. Every time I visit home, I deliberately don’t wear perfume (which for me is like leaving the house naked!) so I can splash this on and without anything to dilute the experience. It is way more floral than my usual taste, but it does not cause dysphoria. It’s the rare floral I can wear on both boy days and girl days. Even though the florals are BIG on my skin (my chemistry exaggerates florals), the warm animalic base is the star, and it is perfectly unisex. On my girl days, Fendi is a socialite who stops by her lover’s house on her way to meet her husband at a charity dinner and doesn’t bother to shower in between. She tries to cover up the scent of passion with a spritz of floral perfume before she slips back into her conservative cocktail dress, but underneath the proper exterior is something animal, something femme fatale. On boy days, Fendi is the socialite’s young, virile lover, sneaking away from another illicit encounter. He smells like leather and sweat and her classic perfume, which has rubbed off onto his skin during their tryst. From the start, this is a blast of amber and spice. I do not detect any citrus, save for something that could be orange blossom. I suspect this is what my mother is referring to when she says that age has changed the fragrance (I have heard citrus notes are usually the first to go in vintages). The florals are big and white, hovering on the edge of powderiness, but never quite going into “old-lady” territory. I think the iris/carnation/rose mix is what made this smell like “granny” perfume to me as a child, though to my more experienced nose there is enough jasmine skank to make the floral component a little more risque. Oh, but the basenotes are what makes Fendi for me. There is so much nuance at the base! Amber always shines on my chemistry, but THIS amber is exquisite, somehow so much deeper and more ancient than modern amber--I swear I can literally see a chunk of amber when I sniff this. The patchouli so much skankier and smokier. The vetiver dirtier, balancing the resins without ever turning Fendi green. The basenotes are what make this a unisex fragrance to my nose. They are strong enough to balance the florals so the perfume smells less like a specific gender and more like forbidden sex in a secret garden. Fendi has excellent performance. The sillage is incredible: apply lightly to your pulse points, this wafts. It easily lingers for an entire day on my skin, longer in my hair. I actually prefer to dab this in my armpits (I wear a natural salt deodorant that is unscented, so it doesn’t affect the smell of my perfumes), then use the almost-dry dabber on my wrists, which I then press to my neck. This makes a big scent like Fendi a lot more discreet and modern-day wearable--and I actually find it wears better in my pits than on my wrists. It mixes with my own scent in a way that emphasizes the animalic nature of this perfume. A masterpiece. One day I will own a bottle of my own. Until then, I’ll keep sneaking dabs of my mother’s bottle and smelling my own armpits with a look of bliss on my face and waxing poetic on the Internet, I guess....

I managed to get this in EDP but have not tried edt so can't compare. on first aapplication it's clear u don't need much this is powerful perfume. It's nothing like today's fragrances that don't project or last offen ! Fendi fendi /donna is a Beast mode fragrance lol , from the 80,s an era when perfume got you noticed for good ir for bad :) I bought this blind based on reviews ,Isn't it crazy how we wait baited breath for it to arrive , like a kid at Christmas pulling it out the bubble wrap! Spritz a little ....first thoughts : oh no it's well old and heavy , very very spicy and soapy, oh dear I'm going to have to find this one a new home :( however good perfume takes time to get the the heart , it needs to mesh with your skin and so i held on as the reviews on Fragrantica are mostly very good so I wanted to give this a chance , I'm glad I did as after 20 mins the magic begins ...,, ....And this deeply buxom Italian beauty starts to shine. The soapy beginning fades out a little ( but not much ) and a woody resinous quality becomes more apparent, mixed with a small amount of florals and big hits of spice and maybe amber ? There is a little bit of sweetness and a lot of LEATHER ! She's very warm and resinous and balmy . This is a vixen , so much is going on , fendi is rich and opulent. expensive , so much spice so much depth , almost dare i say it .... masculine ! yes this is so spiced strong it could almost be a mens fragrance but she just softens in time to stay feminine. You have to be confident to pull this one off . do not wear this to church lol :) unless your having a steamy affair with the vicar ! If you like vintage spellbound or vintage Coco or samsara , maybe opium then you may like this too, if your more a skincent lover of white florrals look away ! You have to be ever so careful how much u apply , less is most definitely more , a classy but big sillage heavy hitter ! FENDI edp is the longest lasting,strongest fragrance I own ! Nuclear power! It's best suited to a cold day or wintery months. Do I like it ??? Yes I do very much but I'm a fiesty quarter italian, English woman of 40 so I'm crazy enough to pull it off ;))) my friend gave me a hug and said ooohh that's nice perfume so i got a compliment the same day :) my hubby said it reminded him of Turkish delight sweets, I think I sort of understand where he's coming from. This is very statement 80,s so be prepared for a slightly vintage retro feel. i I can picture Alexis Carrington ( Joan Collins) from dynasty wearing this dabbed on her pulse points of course she would be about to seduce a toy boy who thinks all his birthdays have come at once , wearing nothing except a fur coat and fendi fendi ! Overall my favourite Fendi is of course Theorema ,but this one , though very different gets top marks from me, Now I think I'll wear a drop or two and go crimp up my hair and play some 80,s cult classics !! I pity my long suffering hubby he's into snoop dog :) Info: Bethco fragrances is listed on my bottle on base sticker so I'm assuming I have a proper edp of intended fragrance pre reform. I understand Bethco New York was up to 2003 but I cannot read the batch number so hard to tell. Lvmh will be the last company to make this so avoid later bottles saying lvmh ,look instead for bethco , is anyone able to say more ?.? I'm loving this its truly fab ! :) 8/10

About 10 years ago I was wandering around the drugstore, looking at the clearance rack of perfumes. I spotted the bright gold box; to me it looked sort of garish, but it said Fendi, so I figured I would give it a try. It was on clearance, so it was somewhere around the 10-15 dollar mark. I came home with my perfume, so proud because of the great deal I had gotten. I sprayed it, and then I gagged. It was terrible! How could anyone wear this stuff? Well, it wasn't for me, but since it hadn't cost that much, I wasn't terribly upset. I don't like throwing things out though, so I left it in it's box and put it on the very back of my dresser..., where it stayed until one day, I decided to google it, and found out that people out there loved it! I figured I would give it another try, and here I am, just over a year later, and I love this perfume! Suffice it to say, I am glad that I never threw this out. I think I just wasn't ready for such a loud perfume back when I first tried it, because this is a powerhouse perfume! When you wear this, you will not be able to apologetically tell people it's your shampoo or hand lotion, if they start glaring at you in public. There will be no denying that you are wearing perfume. It has incredible sillage! When you walk outside, your neighbours will smell it! When you walk through a store, people will smell it in the air 10 minutes after you've walked by! They will smell it on their clothes just from walking through the very air that you just walked through! And it lasts, and lasts, and lasts... But the drydown is so incredible, you will be happy that it's still in your hair and on your jacket days after you last sprayed it! For me, the initial notes are aldehydes, and more aldehydes, with some wood and carnation as well. As the aldehydes start disappearing, you get a warm spiciness mixed with rose and carnations. In it's final stage, there is a subtle sweetness that underlies the spicy, woody, smell. When I wear this, I envision the ladies of Dynasty. This is very much a strong, powerful, take charge, perfume.

I barely skimmed the 80's, I was born in 1989. But in my childhood, I caught whiffs of Fendi on my mother and grandmother. It's so exuberantly Italian! I grew up a short while in Italy and this scent, along with the later 90's D&G Red Cap, are the stuff of my nostalgia. AND YES, you can bet I have my own bottles and wear them today, because I love them. Dated? Of course. Scents like these are a remnant of their time, and whether we like the term "dated" or not, let's be honest: the glory days of gems like these are over, but they don't go unappreciated by people like me... even if I get the "old lady" comments, haha. Anyway, back to Fendi. She's a take-charge woman in an all-black designer skirt-suit, fitted with gold buttons and shoulder pads that could cut through a doorframe. The initial blast of Fendi is like a shattered vase of lush roses strewn about a marble floor, which this stern-faced, model-esque woman is now trampling through with her sleek black pumps. She has no time to waste; be damned the chaos around her. She will trample you, too, if you get in her way. But when she is done carrying out her plans and going about her business, she retreats home to get comfortable, where she relaxes in a bath and carries out her nightly routine. So, yes... Fendi is an aldehydic dark rose boss queen, overpowering at first. The magic is about 30 minutes in, where you get these spicy rich, honeyed florals that loom warmly on your skin. Fendi then becomes rather sensual and reveals its core to you, going from a black panther on the prowl to a black kitten purring in your ear. A work of art. I'm really happy that my skin brings out the rose so strongly, because it ends up smelling a bit on the gothic side. Definitely something I gravitate towards on a cold day when I'm wearing black and feeling rather commanding.

As with many of its kind, Fendi is a chypre that is opaque and not easily deconstructed into smaller assemblages of notes. This is why I deem it a futile task to express how it smells based on my perception of notes alone. It is everything and the kitchen sink under low light—yet it isn't merely a brassy number, its complicated, even messy, like some of the most fascinating personalities in existence. I'd argue it takes someone with a certain constitution to be able to luxuriate in it; otherwise it may feel febrile and oppressive. Fully loaded with any facet one can imagine appearing in any chypre since time immemorial, vignettes of the greats take shape throughout its development—some Coriandre here, then some Aromatics Elixir there, then a flashback of Zibeline, even a silhouette of Youth Dew. But Fendi roars with a timbre like anything else. Imagine a room filled with leather and furs, hot apple brown betties, lit cigarettes in bakelite ashtrays and roses in all states—just budding, in full bloom, dried and faded. I have made a concerted effort to avoid referencing "old money" because of its grim connotations, but there is this undeniable diamond-studded opulence to Fendi, very Vanderbilt before the impetuous fall. For all of its grandeur and decadence, the true thrill is just how seamy it becomes as time passes; an animalic amber paws around at underthings, lurking in the shadows. It's a rascal in a sable, blood red lipstick on a starched collar, beads counted at the break of dawn, and a trail left behind all the way to confession. Fendi goes from lux to lust, and what I ride it is.