Donna

This is soft and beautiful and not well publicized. I suggest you try it. At times it reminds me of Tresor, but it is cleaner.

This fragrance is smooth and delicious.....give it a try!

It seems as if not many people are familiar with this scent. Which is too bad, as Kiton Donna was such an incredible fragrance. I loved it so much. Over the past few years, I've purchased a few small bottles of it off of eBay, but sadly they have all been very expired and too foul to wear. Kiton, as far as I can tell, still has two fragrances in production: Kiton Black, and Kiton Napoli. Both fragrances are positioned as being for men. As with Boucheron, my beloved long-gone Jaipur for women is no longer being manufactured- but Jaipur for men is still readily available. I've loved many fragrances that have been discontinued. You just take it in stride. But for some reason, when I could no longer find Donna, it hit extra hard. My failed attempts to get ahold of a still sweet-smelling vintage bottle just added to the discontinuation misery. As with many fragrances from the past, the eBay (or Mercari's, etc.) bottle's initial whiff- and I mean the very first second of smelling the scent- can evoke the old favorite. But after this fleeting moment, the rancid nature of the turned fragrance slams into your nose, and that momentary glimpsed happiness vanishes. I know-- it’s only a perfume. But I really loved Kiton Donna. When I wore it in the 90s and early 2000s, it was easy to find, and not expensive as I can recall. I loved its simple, streamlined, vaguely Art Deco bottle. I also loved it because not a lot of people seemed to wear it. It was glamorous and sophisticated and playful all at the same time. What did it smell like... I remember its initial manifestation was sweet, but a bright citrus refreshing sweet, like a big bowl of chilled fruit punch on a hot day. The punch was made of freshly squeezed tangerine and grapefruit and lime juices. You could smell the oil from the grated peel of the citrus fruits as well. The punch was sweetened with syrup made from red berries, and a vanilla bean garnished the mixture. But although Donna was initially pretty sweet, and maintained a sweetness throughout, it never became an overwhelming sticky sugar bomb. I surprised me when I saw that citrus notes were not listed, but to my nose, their sharp, pleasant freshness made up the opening of the fragrance. A lush rose note then appeared- not a sweet rose, but a newly-opened rose. Arriving after about a half hour was the woody note listed in the description, which grounded the scent, preventing it from becoming over-sweet. Kiton Donna suited every occasion. In Spring and Summer, it refreshed; in Fall and Winter, it brightened with its essences of longer days and blue skies, of blossoms and juicy fruits. It was also one of those fragrances that smelled better as you boosted it with refresher spritzes throughout the day. The 90s (though I really miss them) were a mixed time for me. I was the primary caretaker for an ailing parent. Caring for a parent at the end of their life is a challenge, but is very spiritually fulfilling. I was happy to do it. (Well- not happy they were ailing, of course- I was just glad to be there for them.). Watching someone fade slowly, despite you and the doctors doing all that could be done, could be difficult. At the same time, I had also just started my sophomore year of art college. I was starting to settle in there, and really feel at home. Art school was the happiest time in my life, as I finally felt like I belonged somewhere. I had never had friends like the ones I made there; I had never been surrounded by people, amazing, creative people, who understood me. What a privilege those years were. I remember opening my eyes in the morning and experiencing alternating feelings of both joy and dread. Several fragrances evoke that era- Tribu is one- but Kiton Donna was the essence of that time. You know the feeling when you spontaneously weep, because some awful thing you thought was unavoidable isn't coming after all, and the relief is somehow comical as your released clenched-up stresses are washed away? Though tears are streaming down your face, you are laughing from a very deep place? It's an upside-down, Joy Division kind of happiness/sadness. And this is the gift fragrance gives to us: it's a time machine that transports us to these important places in our past. To times that, while we are going through them, were almost too overfull with complex emotions for our memories to contain. I do wish I could find a wearable bottle of Donna, so I could, in a small way, re-experience those times- both the sweet and the sour. Maybe one day, the perfume gods will take pity on me, and I will finally get ahold of a bottle of wearable Donna.