Essenza di Roma Uomo

I received my Essenza di Roma flask more than three months ago. I blind bought it due to its notes and the magnificent bottle shape. I was aiming at a comparison between the two Roma fragrances, so I just stored it in my closet next to "Roma Uomo" but it has remained untouched till today. I used Roma Uomo extensively in my early twenties. This fragrance is a true landmark. It was launched in 1994 and to my knowledge it's one of the first designer gourmand fragrances. 1 Million appeared only in 2008. Roma Uomo missed its opportunity to be a gourmand perfume trend setter, and many of its sales were due to the very original and beautiful bottle shape. Roma Uomo fresh, creamy, smooth and sweet scent approach must have been just to innovative when Kouros, Opium, Boss no1 and Givenchy Gentleman were rocking the men fragrances sales. Nevertheless the sales volume was enough to keep the production going till the present day, and I am glad for it. Roma Uomo is a VERY GOOD sweet oriental fragrance. It's the first mass appealing fragrance cooked by Annick Ménardo. It's following works include Givenchy Xeryus Rouge (1995), Armani Acqua di Giò (1996), Eau d'Eden by Cacharel (1996), Lolita Lempicka by Lolita Lempicka (1997), Bvlgari Black (1998), Jaïpur Homme by Boucheron (1998) and Hypnotic Poison by Dior (1998). It's quite an impressive sweet fragrances portofoglio that opened the way for the sweet perfumes trend that dominated the market in the early 21st century. Essenza di Roma is sweeter than Roma Uomo and with a twist to spicy notes as it was mandatory for a fragrance edited in 2013. Mandarin assisted by bergamot provides a strong citrus opening. The heart develops with a geranium and white flowers salad spiced with a touch of herbal juniper. An heavy dosis of coumarin and vanilla provide the base sweet accord served on a almost shy cedar and sandal woody backgroung. If Roma Uomo suffered from anticipation, Essenza di Roma arrived to late to earn the appreciation it deserves. However, as our comunity favours quality over hype, I do strongly recomend both Roma fragrances if you are into sweet scents and seek a different approach from the more common and more expensive designer sweet offers. Essenza di Roma is manlier, bolder, spicier, spunkier and sweeter than Roma Uomo. It's only average in what concerns performance, but it's also quite unique. As far as I am concerned, I don't know any fragrance similar to Essenza besides (the not so close) Roma Uomo and Givenchy Pi Extreme even in a lesser extent. "Essenza di Roma" in numbers: - Scent opening............8.5 (Citrus "trunfale"!) - Scent Dry Down.........9.5 (near perfect gourmand drydown) - Longevity....................7.0 (up to 6 hours on my skin, with 2 sprays) - Sillage..........................7.0 (sillage up to 4 feet; it projects for less than 2 hours with 2 sprays) - Versatility....................8.5 (quite versatile, although not a solution for summer hot days or any type of hot environment) - Usability......................8.0 (avoid the beach, the gym or any activities where you may sweat; very good for informal events, leisure, a night out, clubbing and intimacy) - Compliments..............9.0 (people will notice you as sexy and cute, but will wonder "what's that scent?"; above average compliments by the ladies) - Uniqueness.................9.0 (reasonably unique; to my knowledge Roma Uomo and Pi Extreme are the only related fragrances) - Quality.........................8.0 (above average quality ingredients; well mastered smooth blending) - Presentation ..............10.0 (one of the best I have ever seen) - Price..............................8.5 (125 ml Tester for 26,59 €) - Average:......................8.45/10.00 between 7 and 8 => above average; between 8 and 9 => recommended; equal or bigger than 9 => don't miss it; My conclusion: A great gourmand perfume in an awesome flask. My advice? Just buy it if you like sweet fragrances and are seeking something different. Music: Lucio Dalla - "Caruso"

Just bought it for the second time, first time it was ages ago, shortly after it was launched. I remembered it smelling very masculine and elegant. I wasn't into fragrances back then. I always had few bottles but I was not a fraghead per sei This time around I ordered 125ml bottle on ebay for £32 when I've checked batchcode it showed me January 2024, not sure if it isn't January 2014 as the batchcode repeats every 10 years. I actually thought it's been discontinued. Smell wise Obviously it will macerate and that's when you can properly appreciate the scent but right from the bat it's just pure masculine elegance. Italian style. No sweet accords like in current Rabanne or JPG releases (not that I don't like them I love them actually) But this one is on another level. Beautiful scent with so far very decent projection. I need to give it few more wears to say about longevity, but boy does this smells lovely. I am soooo glad I added it to my collection. It's a second Laura Biagiotti in my collection first being Blu di Roma uomo. For me Laura Biagiotti was always a wonderful classy house 9/10 Banger Territory 🔥 👌

I just do not trust the notes listed in Fragrantica for "Essenza di Roma". The woody base notes are missing. The heart white flowers notes are absent as well. It's shocking not to see the mandarin note listed in the opening stage. Mandarin is the flagship opening note for both Roma Uomo and Essenza di Roma. A perfume composed with the notes listed by fragrantica must be way diferent from Essenza di Roma. I love Essenza di Roma and Fragrantica is making its readers reaching wrong assumptions for this perfume. "...nuff said !" (before my review)

I blind bought a 125 ml / 4.2oz bottle of EDT on eBay for £18.99. I think the seller has a few more if you're interested. Official top note is bay. Personally, I could get very little smell of anything at first. Then something developed which strongly reminded me of Fentiman's Rose Lemonade (a soft drink made in the UK using "botanicals" rather than synthetic flavourings). Fentiman's has a pear and ginger juice base with rose and lemon on top - a sweet, aromatic, not very acid nor very lemony, lemonade. It is also very pink. Essenza di Roma Uomo started out smelling like Fentiman's mixed with something dusty or musty, maybe cardboard? I like cardboard. This opening is very pink and girly but a dusty pink and girly so maybe we are in the realms of Miss Faversham. Will this appeal to my niece the Goth? Maybe. Official middle note is geranium. I did not get anything flowery after the first faint opening. I went straight into the base notes. About fifteen minutes after spraying a sweeter aroma developed. It reminded me of English milk chocolate. It too was mixed with something dusty or musty or a bit like dried sage (could this be bay?) I do not like chocolate - correction I like the hard black chocolate that has to be broken off the bar with pliers and is too hard to chew so you have to let it dissolve slowly in the mouth like a liquorice tic-tac but I really dislike English chocolate which is milky, sickly sweet, cloying, ugh. I did not like being reminded of chocolate and I was worried. However, the chocolate melted away (hur-hur-hur) and the dusty, musty, herby, sage, could-this-be-bay? smell developed into something strongly reminiscent of old fashioned ironing board. The ironing board I have in mind is made of soft wood (could it be cedar?), the wooden board used as the ironing surface is covered with felted wool, topped with strong Egyptian cotton. This is then heated by an old fashioned non-steam iron. The smell of hot iron, hot cotton, baking wool, and warm wood is as delightful, in my opinion, as the smell of home-baked bread. The associations are all pleasant for me because I was not the one doing any ironing, I was the one destined to put on the freshly ironed school shirt. Smelling of fresh ironing was the joy we all knew before someone invented fabric conditioners. Would this fragrance appeal to those who like to be subliminally reminded of the good old days when men wore the pants and women ironed them? Or, indeed, anyone of any gender who just wants to feel mothered? The essence of ironing board gradually gives way to a woody vanilla with a hint of flat cola - flat coke smells like cough mixture, medicinal, herby so this is perhaps the opening herby sage/bay note coming back in yet another variety of itself? This attractive, woody, not-sweet vanilla lingers for a few hours. To smell anything of this, apply in bucketfuls and keep your nose resting on your skin. Can you have minus numbers for sillage? Longevity is poor to moderate. But I was testing this on a cold day in England. On a hot day in Rome, the effect is likely to be very different. I want to try this again in different weather. Verdict: an unobjectionable fragrance, if you can smell it. Some unexpected twists in a longish journey from slightly girlie rosy opening down to a slightly masculine vanilla. The best bits for me were the most elusive notes which were charming when they arrived but left the party too early to make a big impression or steal my heart. If this had been Essence of Ironing Board I would have loved it.

My main problem with this is not the scent but with the spritzer which drips all over the bottle once you start spraying. Apart from that I have no issues with sillage,projection and lasting ability.This lasts all day on me.I am not sure how much different this is from the original Roma but my thinking is it wont be much.I therefore cant say whether it's worth having both bottles.I can only guess this is a more intense version... I will recommend this to anyone interested in sweet woody scents to give this a try.you might like/love it