Dame de L'Île

This has an addicting & sexy musky quality to it. It’s that type of comforting and familiar “you but better” musk, but with a twist. You definitely get the lime & some vanilla with a slightly animalic musky base. It’s really nice, I was not expecting to like this as much as I do. Edit: I’ve only worn a couple times and received multiple compliments. It’s seriously good and unique. I bought a bottle!

This is such an intriguing scent! Every single note listed is very apparent and easy to pick out in the bottle as well as on cotton and if it kept that balance on my skin, I would buy a full sized bottle instantly. Unfortunately, it becomes very lime-forward on my skin and distracts from the other notes for a good 20 minutes. After that, though, it's as if someone blended the best parts of Clinique Happy and Aquolina Pink Sugar and added just enough other notes to feel like a completely unique creation. Despite cotton candy being one of the notes, it is leashed by the lime and bergamot so instead of being an overly young & sweet fragrance, it merely hints at candy and is perfect for someone in their late 20s to early 40s as a daytime fragrance. I also think it would be absolutely divine in the summertime.

Dame de L’île really intrigues me, like I’ve almost smelled it before but haven’t at the same time. The contrast of musk and citrus is both captivating and strange, but I sort of enjoy it. Bright, zesty notes of bergamot and lime combine with floral nuances of jasmine and rose which provides a refreshing backbone to the scent. A touch of salty ambergris gives way to a thick, dry and fluffy synthetic musk which is significantly sweetened up by vanilla. To me, this sort of achieves what Erba Pura set out to do. They don’t really smell similar, but you can see the same intention is present. This is refreshingly pleasant yet unique enough to stand out from the crowd.

The opening is intensely sweet, not so much lime as over-sugared limeade. It's not a bad smell, just very sweet. The immediate projection is also reasonably large. As it develops, it turns into a vanilla-musk concoction; after 30 minutes I don't get citrus at all. Amber and animalic notes combine to make it smell like vanilla saltwater taffy rather than pure vanilla. After an hour or so, it's a skin scent and all I smell is baby powder, which lasts at least 12 hours.

I was only very superficially familiar with the brand Gritti - so superficially that I remembered nothing at all. I tested the fragrances literally on the go, in passing, and no real impressions stuck. When I saw an original sample of Dame de L’Île by Gritti for sale, I decided to order it. The first spray - and I was already ready to run out and buy a full bottle. It was a soft, creamy, enveloping, slightly animalic, sweet and sensual musky scent, with a light citrus-lime juiciness and tartness. An unusual combination - attractive and alluring. I would love to smell like this. But after about five minutes, all of that disappeared, and amber and vanilla took over. It became much less interesting and even a bit rough. Compared to the opening, it wasn’t very pleasant, though still tolerable. Another five minutes later, ambrocenide appeared... and stayed. It doesn’t burn my receptors and brain as aggressively as it does, for example, in Kirke, but personally I find it unpleasant and I don’t like it. I want that creamy, enveloping, limey “animalic” cloud from the opening - not ambrocenide (which some reviews refer to as “Tiziana’s musk”). P.S.I’m one of those people who are sensitive to ambrocenide, and it irritates my trigeminal nerve. If ambrocenide is not listed in the marketing pyramid, it doesn’t mean it isn’t part of the perfume composition.