Caffe Delle Vergini

This perfume has only three notes—ink, coffee, and vetiver—and it’s supposed to evoke the smell of a man reading a newspaper in a café. I’m always hunting for an ink note and this one is among my favourite that I’ve smelled: it really does smell just like a newspaper. I can almost feel the newsprint on my fingers, inky letters rubbing off on my hands as my head fills with serif letters like a Cubist collage. Like many ink notes (Encre Noir or Fzotic’s Lampblack, say), this one is isolated from vetiver and it’s amazing how you get the distinct print-shop blackness along with the gentlemanly woodiness of the vetiver as separate smells, bound together by the caramelized aroma of roasting coffee beans, sweet and bitter at the same time. I will say the coffee note is fairly faint and the brulée sweetness is almost as much vanilla as coffee bean—if you're somebody who ever wished that Diptyque's Eau Duelle was woodier and more masculine, this is the perfume for you. The whole impression is airy and transparent, as if it were being conveyed to your nostrils by the steam of an espresso machine, and it conjures a very specific atmosphere. I picture a coffee bar in a black-and-white Italian neorealist movie (or the train-station scene in Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler), with rain outside, windows and glasses fogging up, everyone looking distinguished in grey suits and hats, raincoats and umbrellas. The vibe is mysterious and slightly melancholy, serious and bookish. I absolutely adore the fragrance, but the projection is very subtle. It’s not a longevity issue, though: I can apply it in the morning and still smell it eight hours later, but it never projects more than a breath away from the skin. It’s also very linear and smells exactly the same through its whole duration. Thankfully, I am really enamoured with its specific flavour, so I don't mind too much that it's so understated.

smells exactly as described, coffee and newspaper. each individual note is distinct and very well done, they just don’t all work together in combination—they’re all too screaming loud. (that said, will be on the lookout for more earthy, vetiver-esque from hilde soliani!! added tutti matti per colorno to my sample wishlist based on what i smelt here.)

oh my god. my sincerest apologies to miss hilde soliani, but this is the worst fragrance i have ever smelled. i am typically the biggest soliani fan, but this was not for me. i knew what i was getting in to with this one, but wow. this is straight up putting a fresh 8x12 bleached white paper up to your nose. such an incredibly polarizing scent. i only had a moment of a smell and it is stuck in my nose 13 hours later as i write this. just thinking about it i smell it and feel slightly sick. very sick when i first sprayed the sample. i catch 0 vetiver or coffee with this. i am obsessed with everything soliani so this was bought with the intention of staying in my collection, but i can’t even wear this to the most niche and avant garde event you can think of. i appreciate smelling inside of her mind, but jesus.