Venetian Belladonna

The opening is very fruity (plum) with a soft boozy quality (cognac). It's not girly fruity, the boozyness and also something darker lurking underneath makes it feel slightly mature, not necessarily age wise, but in an experienced kind of way. This is a scent with a lot of tricks up its sleeve. And it feels like it has an agenda. It knows what it's doing. The scent slowly becomes more floral. It's a deep, sensual, intoxicating floral smell. It lures you in and makes you a bit dizzy. This is an intensely overpowering scent. It might seem sweet and almost innocent in the beginning, but that's just an act. From the heart and all the way down to the base the darkness that has been lurking underneath for so long slowly appears and grows stronger. It is a honeyed ambery darkness softened by hints of exotic slightly toxic flowers. A beeswax note becomes more prominent in the base too. It doesn't smell waxy, but more sligthly sweet and fatty, and together with the suede note in this fragrance it's giving the amber a creamy, intimate skin like feeling. Very sensual and alluring. When the honeyed amber takes over this fragrance reminds me a lot of Olympic Orchids Golden Cattleya. I could easily imagine a woman like Milady de Winter from The Three Musketeers wearing this scent. Apparently pure and innocent in a sensual and elegant way, but actually very tactical and deadly. I love it! An absolute stunning creation! Longevity is great, on my skin it lasts about 8-10 hours. Sillage is pretty huge right away, then it calms down to medium strength before it settles into a skin scent after about 5-6 hours.

This is a very quick observation, as I only received my bottle yesterday (the presentation is stunning, by the way - a work of art), which is yet another blind buy, based on the excellent reviews below. I also love champaca; I own TF Champaca Absolute and there are - very superficial - similarities to VB. Venetian Belladonna is incredibly complex. It draws you in and almost repels you at the same time. DO NOT OVERSPRAY - sillage is initially huge; one small spritz on the back of my hand yesterday afternoon filled my bathroom. Longevity is similarly impressive. I've washed my hands repeatedly since then and there is still a slight trace discernible over 18 hours later. I added another spritz to my chest before bed last night and it's pulsing away - and it does change, as ami.alger so accurately described (second review on this page). Tiwalii (below) writes: "I could easily imagine a woman like Milady de Winter from The Three Musketeers wearing this scent. Apparently pure and innocent in a sensual and elegant way, but actually very tactical and deadly." I'd add a similar reference: This is the scent of the Marquise de Merteuil (played by Glenn Close in "Dangerous Liaisons") as she plots and schemes; Venetian Belladonna smells deliciously poisonous and narcotic. It's addictive. ETA: wearing again on a slightly muggy night in May - this is NOT a floral fruity perfume, as suggested by Fragrantica. It's cold, metallic and floral - and very VERY weird. I love it.

I honestly have to say that I’m completely blown away. I got three discovery scents from this brand and had to write about this one first. It’s like a fresh, powdery and seductive blend of danger. It’s literally bright and pretty yet so daring and confusing at the same time, and I love it. I mainly get a lot of the florals like the labdanum, and the powder is powerful. But then those dark notes just sit watching from the background laughing at its beauty. I’ve never smelled anything.. quite like this. Bravo.

Green violet and mossy florals. This is a very pretty scent that reads feminine on me but I suspect that it would be great on a man. There is something grassy, meadow-and-forest, creatures darting in between flowers and ferns about this, an early morning mist, yet despite its green-iris, it's a little sexy in a sweet and sophisticated way. A beautiful spring fragrance.

I'm delighted by this as someone who doesn't gravitate to florals. This is floral, but so deep, rich, and smoldering. Florals run the danger of reading as girlish or grandmotherly, and this is neither. There is nothing twee, naive, OR nurturing here. This is full femme fatale, with just a whiff of something masculine that develops over the hours. DELICIOUS.

Spectacular tuberose and floral perfume. Tuberose never gets boring or old, just phenomenal. I was looking forward to this and it was everything I expected. The fruity sweetness of this is uplifting. I love uplifting scents that elevate and amaze.

An ultraviolet witches elixir, VERY violet, sweet and musky patchouli and violet are most prominent with the boozey cognac melting through the brew. Divinely dark and feminine, gothic and sultry. Love this!

Oh my god. I almost have no words. This smells EXPENSIVE like elite luxury. I need a whole bottle STAT.

Something about this is very 'royal'. Super decadent and sweet without being sickly. Lovely stuff.

The opening of Venetian Belladonna features the strongest violet note I have ever experienced from a bottle. Just one short spray and this is a violet bomb— and that is a major coup as typically violet is a faint note in perfumery. I struggled to pick up any other notes for the first 90 minutes, as this is a strong scent. Initially VB reminded me of a powerful Insolence. The heart of the fragrance is a boozy floral, narcotic in nature. It’s a heady mix of Champaca, Tuberose and cocktails, that shifts around quite a bit. I still pick up a sweet tart vibe from the violet note but others are dancing around. It’s intriguing and confusing but not difficult to wear. I imagine I would be singing a different story had I over sprayed, so you’ve been warned. I’d never heard of this brand—Parfums Quartana—until this week, as it was included in a traveling sample box. Venetian Belladonna is not for the faint of heart, or for anyone who likes a more personal scent. This is my first impression but I think I can’t pull the trigger until I’ve worn it at least one more time, which I hope to do.

Another nice floral offering from Parfums Quartana, Venetian Belladonna is among the more traditionally floral-intensive entries in the line, but nonetheless involves interesting nuances. It opens a bit powdery (iris, violet) and boozy (plum, cognac) but dries down a little more mellow, with balance coming from the sandalwood, vetiver, suede, patchouli, and labdanum. Overall, it's a reasonably smooth production, never screeching too loudly. A bit on the feminine side, surely, but yet another provocative somewhat floral entry from the line, a great year-round option, in my estimation, as it’s neither too heavy nor too fleeting to be off-putting in the summer or winter, respectively, though people can do as they please. Much like Poppy Soma, I’d much rather enjoy smelling this on a woman than on myself but that’s not because I don’t think a man can wear it. Pricing is $165 for 50ml, in the middle of the price range of the line, and it can be found at Perfumology, among other shops. Another very interesting entry from this line 7 out of 10

The violet that opens Venetian Belladonna, so rich in alpha ionone and beta ionone, is enough for me to go anosmic! But I kinda love that its balls to the wall. Moving closer in, a pungent cassis leaf and prune compote seeps through. The champaca accord then materializes, unctuous and sultry, like apricot steeped in a potion of tea and medicinal herbs, bitter and tart. Over time, a gentler, honeyed plushness absorbs what precedes it, feeling somewhat like incense, still throwing traces of violet, while shades of orris root are revealed. Overall, the feel is dark and almost brooding, almost cabalistic, certainly one that would elude the "normie" set as there are some oblique angles to this perfume. I for one find it quite intriguing, if not overly gratifying. Interesting stuff!

Venetian Belladonna is a Memento Mori. This perfume is what I imagine the scent of a Victorian funeral home would be. The flowers that mask the scent of decaying flesh. Fresh cookies and small cakes with creamy frosting for mourners to occupy theirs mouths with. A whiff of incense. Beeswax candles warmed in shafts of sunlight filtered through tinted glass. The cold steel table waiting for its next occupant. A decanter of cognac. Scrolled woodwork. Crumbs of wet earth tracked in from the garden. A breeze through an open window that carries the laughter of the mortician's children as they help their mother cut flowers. This perfume smells of the ineveanalibity of death. Of love and loves lost. Of the beauty that fades and the beauty of the memory that remains.

This one to me smells almost identical to the C. Howard's Violet candies that come wrapped in purple foil. It is very violet forward to my nose, then has a sugary and powdery aspect to it. I happen to love those candies, so I really enjoy this fragrance. I have noticed a lot of reviewers describe this as more mature, which led me to believe this might be more vintage inspired, but I actually find the combination of florals, booziness, and sweetness in this to feel youthful and modern. This feels sexy to me in a sophisticated and polished way, as opposed to Poppy Soma which feels more obviously provocative or Midnight Datura which feels hyper-feminine. Overall a really delicious and addicting fragrance!

I have come across Quartana 6 months ago & have had the chance to test the whole collection several times. Venetian Belladona was one of those I wanted to love, but somehow I still can not decide what I actually think about it. The opening has a quality that I dislike, it's something too green. Mossy & damp. Green scents are not down my alley. Having said that the drydown it beautiful and very feminine, seductive and wearable. Yes, plum is prominent in the drydown. It evolves in a floral oriental supported by the plum. Overall a floral oriental with a greenish earthy opening. I guess if you want all in one this is an interesting choice.

Le potions fatales sono delle ricostruzioni di profumi gia famosi "commerciali" (definiti così dagli amanti della nicchia per svalutare la vera profumieria). Venetian belladonna è Paris di yves saint laurent, con note più cremose e sintetiche chiaramente ma in fondo è quello. Così come lilly of the valley è Pure poison, midnight datura è hypnotic poison, un altro che adesso non ricordo,forse cicuta è opium pour homme etc etc. Inzialmente ero entusiasta di questi profumi, poi ho sentito tutte le somiglianze e mi è passata la voglia. Ciò nonostante non sono odori cattivi.

The drydown is similar to Zoologist Nightingale with the plum and florals, but fuller and richer with the cognac, suede, and honey-beeswax. This is a lovely take on heady, voluptuous florals often used in vintage perfumes such as Poison, but updated and smelling less mainstream and polarized. The concept of belladonna does remind me of how it was used to dilate women's pupils to deleterious effect to their health; this smells so innocent yet also has dark undertones. A fatal beauty.

This is a tricky one... Just when you think you've figured that note out, it switches gears & loses you in the dust of another note... A lot going on here but definitely leans feminine... No doubt I'd rock this in a new York minute!! Boozy green notes at first but then it fades into the tuberose, suede, violet, iris, patchouli plum!! Definitely worth a try... Longevity and projection is through the roof!! The name is so fitting!!

powdery but herbal and a bit bitter in the top with short-lived vetiver and patchouli then a champaca incense vibe with powdery violet then some beeswax, suede, sandalwood; edgy in the top then smoothes out. The drydown is just to die for lovely but very much a skin scent that you keep wanting to run your nose along. Powder but with that champaca edge.

I’ve had this sample for a few months and finally have some solid input. I actually really like this fragrance. I could definitely see myself wearing this in the colder months, especially on a date night. I’m not usually one for the more powdery, plum fragrances but the woody undertone and incense aspect really appeals to me.