Varanasi

Meo Fusciuni's daring, evocative creation is a visceral journey into the inner sanctum of the soul. Inspired by his journey to India in 2017, this perfume reflects the artist's meditations on life, death and the divine aspects of human nature. The simplistic, yet elegant flacon lets the scent itself tell the story. And what a story it is... Opulent incense smoke blended with enveloping cardamom, ethereal saffron and pungent nutmeg transport the soul into an arcane, sacred place. The wearer is led into a temple of purification permeated with mystical mantras murmoured in shadowy alcoves. There is, indeed, something primordial in this fragrance, the dark, animallic aspects of Hindi oud and complex and aquatic ambergris embrace and intertwine on the skin like the soft waves of the Ganges in its perennial ebb and flow. Nagarmotha and ambrette build the steady rhythm, while the entranced florals and oud spin to the beat of their drum. The ambery undercurrent tells of secret yearnings and memories buried deeply, waiting to surface. Carnal rose and ephemeral jasmine become one with the animalic notes in this fragrant mandala – the eternal circle of love and death told through sacred waters and lambent flames. Varanasi is the highest form of mystery – that which is revealed to those willing to die and be reborn. It is the unravelling, the laying bare of the heart and soul in a ritualistic sacrifice to the higher self. In its truest nature, Varanasi is a story of contrasts: sacred and sensual, fire and water, life and death, ancient and new, visceral and spiritual. As the perfume dries down, the warm Shamama-like amber accord blended with rose tells of rebirth and a new spiritual journey ahead. Yet the animalic notes never fade away entirely, but remain as reminders that we are all in equal parts fire and water, spirit and animal, transcendent and mortal. What sets this unique masterpiece apart from similar fragrances is the perfect equilibrium between those stark contrasts. The ghost of Varanasi remains on clothes for days, stalking the wearer with soft, sultry echoes that command attention and demand re-application. All in all, one of my favourite perfumes of all time and a true masterpiece.

This was love at first sniff. Not to worry, I was only joking. The opening is if you put your nose straight into it quite challenging and in "your face". The fecal observations stand true. But wait what happened? The fragrance died down after ten minutes. Is that even possible? Yes, very much so, only to come back swinging with all its might. From that moment on (the dry down phase included), I found myself in a scent bubble, that kept consistently pushing for roughly ten plus hours, albeit in a very non offensive way, much to my amazement! What I got from Varanasi was loads of incense, ambergris, thick somewhat oily musk with hints of saffron and nutmeg. And yes, there's also this animalic note in the background throughout it's whole lifespan. All these notes work surprisingly well together, which I first found hard to believe, having heard all sorts of horror stories/comments. This perfume is perfectly blended. Projection and sillage is also very good, but not in a "knocking down doors" kind of a way. It has got some "real" presence and you will get noticed and much surprisingly in a good way. Who'd thought! And yes, I purchased a "full bottle" today, having tried it some days before that. This is not something that you should blind buy, let me make that clear. But I would ask you to meet Varanasi with an open mind and who knows? It might just be the fragrance that you've been looking for. That's exactly what happened to me.

Having tried a handful of Meo Fusciuni's creations (and be thoroughly unimpressed by it), I came to Varanasi expected nothing. Short version: Incredibly similar to Leather Oud from Dior. Big bold florals, fecal musk, crazy incense. Don't come here expecting flower rings and soft Buddist incense sticks. Long version: The amount of story telling they can fit in this fragrance is insane. Varanasi hides its true self after a veil of floral chypre, at least, that is what she feels like on me. I get roses, jasmines, big and bold, front and centre, just like their undeniable importance in Hinduism. After a while, those big floral fades, and at the same time, a huge rush of smoke and a fatty, slimy musk starts appearing. Varanasi now feels like a constantly burning fire, burning through the sacrificial florals right into where the body lays, in the most straightforward way these amount of ingredients can do. As it develops, the smoke starts fading and what you are left with is a tar-like, dry and fecal-ish musk. It feels like the cycle of life wrapped up in this little bottle of liquid. So fascinating, but complete unwearable. But I can't say I don't love it! Not for the faint hearted. 9/10.

This is why you should always sample yourself. Reviews are great. But if I would have gone on the reviews for this perfume I would have never have tried it. For me, this is not that dirty disgusting scent others have felt it is. It’s so incredibly rich and addictive. No scary poo smell I do not get that at all, it’s dark - of course it is as it Meo Fusciuni!! The drydown is just so warm, and whenever I am picking up the scent as I move around - I just have to smell my arm again to remind myself that yes that is me that smells that good. This was an instant love, top five of my favourite Meo Fusciuni scents. Totally full bottle worthy. Edit: after showering the animal notes come through for me, but it’s not the fecal note I was expecting from the reviews, It’s a warm animal notes the kind that is a delight to keep sniffing. The perfume could still be picked up on my skin the next day even though I showered. This is clearly the strongest of the Meo scents.

I've been enchanted with the description of this fragrance and a basenotes user was kind enough to send me a sprayed strip of it, so I "blindbought" it. Varanasi is quite hard to pin down because how much it changes on my skin and with the weather. It starts with a blast of Oud and very animalic leather and then the very grey ambergris shows up. Some days I get a lot of the animalic/woody, others it's almost like a garden of lovely florals and the green side with a very tame animalic side and others I get almost a bazaar of spices with the ever present oud backbone. It's almost as if the fragrance is the city itself and you discover new areas of it with every wear. Performance is unreal, I clocked over 15 hours on a warm weather (~25 C) with very good projection/sillage! An absolute joy in my collection and I can't recommend this enough for those who love bold scents and want to be mesmerized with each wear!

Step into the witch’s hovel- a crumbling shack built into the very base of the oldest tree in the woods (by the sight of the witch, you think she must be just as old herself). The place is lit by a hundred candles, wax pooling on top of centuries old wax. The shelves are lined with dusty old books and jars full of spices, herbs and offal. Skulls and bones you pray belonged to animals. You catch a slightly sweet, almost putrid whiff of something coming from the fire burning in the corner - a potion bubbling in the cauldron. It’s foul yet intoxicating. She tells you it’s a potion of death, a potion of life. A potion of love and of loathing, of fervor and decrepitness. Of everything that’s been and everything yet to be. It is something primordial she’s been brewing since the Beginning, and it is up to those who dare stomach it to determine its true purpose. She beckons you closer, enticing you to take a sip...

Smoke - feet - ass - smoke - ass - feet + Gold bond foot powder - shalini jardin nocturne - incense - incredibly pleasant blend. Things start to get interesting and intriguing around the Goldbond foot powder stage and is a delight from there on out ( I would say about 35-40 minutes in). This is a long-lasting fragrance and continues to develop for a good long time. It truly is like a journey and I totally get the inspiration for this fragrance. I bought the fragrance after sampling it in the sample set. I have blind bought almost my entire fragrance collection---at least 95% and I'm happy to have this. I would only wear this outside of the home if it's a 2-3 hours old minimum.

Incredible sensory olfactory experience. An astonishing, imaginary journey to India, on the banks of the Ganges: at dawn the lifeless bodies of the Hindu faithful, wrapped in colorful silk saris covered with flowers and perfumed spices, are burnt in huge burning pyres until they are totally absorbed by the murky sacred waters of the mystical river. The air is acrid, animalic, with ferocious, disturbing, almost faecal peaks, one remains dumbfounded, but irreparably attracted by this fragrance which has an amazing temporal evolution towards amber, leathery, warm spicy. Surprisingly reassured and subdued over time. I consider it a masterpiece for very demanding noses.

Perfect. 10/10. UPDATE: I can’t believe that this fragrance exists. It’s so beautiful and dirty. I always think I like very animalic perfumes because I love this so much. But it really is unlike any other animalic perfume. It’s not skanky like most barnyard ouds, instead it’s like a literal barnyard. Like horse manure. But gentle. And while the manure note is present throughout the entire life of the fragrance, it’s beautifully blended with incense, spices and balsams delivering one of the most unique, warm, comforting and truly remarkable perfumes I’ve ever worn. Meo Fusciuni is an absolute beast. Nothing holds a candle to this. It’s absolutely perfect.

Varanasi: The Italian class in creating their own things and things of others is represented here by the formulation of this perfume which is an explicit journey to the East, without the noise of brands that make everything sold out. Varanasi is a beautiful balance of essences that makes those who love animalic, floral, spicy and balsamic scents happy. A juice that will make your day better but also that of those who meet you by chance. The star is strong and animalic but does not last long, and here begins a melody of all the notes declared and the trip to India. absolutely unisex. Great! 10/10

Not surprised this would be a challenging fragrance to a lot of Westerners, but as a fan of incense of the Far East and SE, this is an expertly crafted creation. Spice, incense, ambrette and a deep, pungent and animalic aloeswood are presented as they are commonly found in India and I love how the perfumer let them stand as they are instead of toning them down for more mass market acceptance. Recommended, but train your nose first or be warned. Even better, explore India! Then come back and revisit Varanasi. There is an olfactory sincerity to this fragrance that is endearing.

Varinasi reminds me of another scent. A more animalic version of Ermenegildo Zegna Golden Myrrh. I think it is the incense that is present here that does this. Myrrh would have been a good note to add.to Varinasi. On my skin the incense just pops right out. Definitely unique and more challenging than Black Afgano, Golden Myrrh, Matiere Premiere Encense Suave etc. Addendum: I received a compliment from a man and a woman. They both loved the scent. This was about 20m after I sprayed it. I do not pick up any fecal notes at all. Nor do other people

This perfume truly got a kick out of me, smells just what it wants to portray and it's genuinely done masterfully. It's supposed to smell like Varanasi, India and It truly feels that way. Reminds me of dirty floral water from the Ganges, smoky incense mixed in with spice and tons of animalic oud reminiscent of manure. Smells warm, dirty, and challenging. However, you can tell this was made with quality.

I can’t get enough of Varanasi. It is evocative, engulfing, enigmatic. Just extraordinary. Long lasting on the skin, and is a rare scent that even as it dries down remains complex and captivating. I have many scents that I love and enjoy, but Varanasi is more than this, it envelops me and holds my attention the entire time it is on my skin (almost 24 hours sometimes).

This is really quite nice. If it first it strikes you as another saffron leather Oud, give it some time and the pop of spices up top and ambergris and Ambrette in the heart will lend the whole thing an air of something you might find at an apothecary in a hidden alley. This feels like a very personal and private win. Hard to say exactly why but this just works.

Wow just wow, what an amazing scent it really gives you this warm feeling but also fills you up with a little bit of dread. It smells exactly like it describes in the name. Every time you smell it you will be transported to another place, the spices and leathery accords mixed with the more flowery smells are just heaven together.

Medieval - passing through the gates of a castle on horseback, heavy shadows and tarnished armor. Opens thick, animalic, brash and almost violent; transforms into a warm embrace, radiant amber and wood, a vision of comfort.

Lovely cheesey, aldehydic oud, like Oud Khol but with more authentic oud smell and more complexity.

The way Giuseppe conveys personal experiences from his travels, and emotions likewise, through his works, is quite admirable. With Varanasi, he not only communicates his memories of the Spiritual Capital of India, but does it justice to such an extent that one can feel the energy of the city by experiencing the fragrance. He also portrays a lesser “advertised” face of India. It is not as pretty and colorful as you might encounter with most olfactory compositions or see in postcards and travel magazines. He shows the wild parts, the unfiltered bits that are purposefully omitted. By now, you can contour an idea of what this fragrance smells like. Spiritual, spicy, dirty in a visceral and natural way (that developed countries forgot about). He offers glimpses of the agreeable: a shy jasmine and rose duet, some warm, sweet cardamom, enough to remind you of the beautiful parts. But make no mistake, this perfume is ultimately dark, sober, and quite dirty. Another fascinating thing is how the incense accord feels. It’s a “wet incense.” I can’t shake that damp quality off. Imagine Varanasi at night during the religious ritual of Asthi Visarjan. This is when people come to immerse the ashes of their deceased into the Ganges. How would that smell? He conveys that imagery through this scent. Indeed, the perfume is very earthy. Damp earth. I get plenty of the spikenard, but also the cypriol and the oakmoss. There is a slight minerality from the ambergris. The saffron and the musks help create a leather-like accord. It is both smooth and subhuman. The spices hit hard in the opening, mostly nutmeg and cardamom, and stick throughout. Above everything, the incense reigns supreme. It feels more like wood being burnt for incense rather than resins. The effect is quite dry and devoid of sweetness, slightly ashy. The damp quality sticks all along, making it stand out among other incense-themed perfumes. Truthfully, I find Varanasi rather unique. If I were to draw a parallel, I could name Tom Ford’s London. However, while London is bone dry and akin to the capital at night during Victorian England, Meo’s creation travels many miles to the East to tackle a more profound and religious approach to that same spicy-dirty-incense theme. IG:@memory.of.scents

This is not a fragrance. It's art for the sake of art and a teleportation device. Now, I have never been to Varanasi but as it's a famous place of India , I have read and watched documentaries about it. I have some idea of what it would smell like. The fragrance starts of smelling like ashy dirty water accompanied by incense in the air. If I wouldn't know that the fragrance is about Varanasi I would say it smells like an antiseptic bandaid but I get what Imprezzabile wanted to achieve here. The incense is not the sweet kind like in CdG Avignon or the aromatic kind like most of the Amouages have. It's dry but no devoid of soul. After 1-2h it's starts getting some sweetness but it's not distinct to anything from the note breakdown. That dirtiness and incense still linger. The dry-down is the most beautiful part of the fragrance. It's clearly some oudh as it's getting skankier and skankier along with some saltiness from the ambergris most likely. This is my #1 "don't buy for compliments or to impress" fragrance. It's just a picture of Varanasi that Imprezzabile pained with his nose not with his hands. Performance is massive, I still get the ambergris and oudh blend after 12-14h easy. In fact, I showered after this period and the heat made it come alive again. 100% try before buying, multiple times and if you like it ...get a teleportation device to Varanasi for around $200.