Visa 2007

Visa is AMAZING. When I tried it for the first time, it opened citrusy and green. I was testing many perfumes then and found it obvious that this one with it's quite cold opening would go along the chypre path. I was so wrong. Visa is a woody-floral-fruity. What moved me from the very first moment was its resemblance to ... no, not Angel. Prada by Prada. I really wonder why no one noticed... I admire Prada, but its firm patchouli is just too much for me. Visa has everything just so perfectly balanced. They share many things: the top of bergamot, other fruits, green feeling when touching your skin; the heart of ylang & rose and the drydown: sandalwood, patchouli, benzoin, oakmoss, vanilla... What you can't deny Prada is its beautiful carnation and powerful patchouli. What you can't deny Visa is its fantastic equilibrium in all stages. I choose Visa! I really don't have words to describe it! It's structure is so stable in every single second, yet smells so tremendously natural, unaffected ... in one word: ELEGANT in its all meanings. Because elegance is quality, simplicity, perfect balance. Warm, powerful, beaming ... Staying close to the skin and radiating at moments you don't expect it, always ready to surprise you. The beginning and heart can make your head spin, the drydown makes you feel so comfortable, sensual, so very yourself. In this feature it resembles Bvlgari Black, 1826 by Histoires de Parfums, J'ose by Eisenberg. Delicious fruits, mind-blowing powdery rose, warm woody base. On my skin it goes quickly, in about 2 hours, right to its drydown, which lasts and lasts for hours. Visa is just a bit vinatge. For a mature woman, who knows what she's worth and what she wants from life. For a woman who LOVES LIFE.

I really, truly, don't understand people saying this does not smell like Angel. But there's a couple caveats: 1. I think Angel smells fantastic and so does Visa, in a more subdued and sophisticated way. 2. My last memory of Angel was when I was wearing it almost every day from late 2013 to 2015, and it's probably been re-re-reformulated since. It might also be that my nose isn't that well trained to pick up on the subtle nuances of the florals, but on opening Visa and Angel are remarkably similar to me. I find it really curious how Visa opens with an overpowering blast of patchouli/vanilla accord, punctuated by the sweetness of the peach, and only as it goes on it starts revealing its greener notes. For all that Angel was to me in my adolescence, Visa is the mature and elegant version. It lacks the artificiality of Angel, and its elements seem a lot more in balance with each other. The flip side of this is that I find myself wanting the perfume to project a lot more than it does, and simultaneously appreciating the more leathery and warmer aspects of it as it sits close to the skin around the 2h mark. I deeply love this perfume, wearing it makes me feel like I hold a secret social power. Perhaps that's what makes me wish for a longer performance than its ~4h, but I must say: there is a second life to this perfume if you apply it early in the morning and go to the gym in the evening. Whiffs of patchouli/vanilla/sandalwood come back with the body heat and it's just heavenly.

This has a wonderful fruity opening - not as sweet as I had feared as it is fresh, ripe fruit rather than stewed, dried or in syrup. It then has a wonderful expansion phase with a blend of abstract floral notes lifted gently with aldehydes (not that these would put you off if you are afraid of the note) and darkened with patchouli. It all combines to give a warm and back-lit impression - delicious and beautiful. It does remind me of Angel but, as another reviewer said, has a different personality altogether. It is mysterious rather than in your face. The quality is excellent and it smells great on clothes as well as skin. It is not a powerhouse but it leaves a nice sillage and the longevity is very, very good. I got this as a blind buy but I am putting it up for swap after a few wears. The fruit is combined with a chewy kind of patchouli, like the one in Angel and Coromandel, whereas I prefer mine cool and dusty. EDIT: 1 week after the review above, I noticed the scent on a scarf and went back to re-open the box. 3 months later and I have worn this often. The more I wear it, the more unlike Angel it feels. Here, the fruit, florals and suede make the patchouli seem softer and I maintain that this has a half-lit or candle-lit feel as opposed to the bright lights of Angel. I have also been wearing this with reformulated Feminité du Bois to lift the fruit and florals.

I wanted to smell like a glamorous star of the cinema screen so I tried Fracas which Marilyn Monroe among others wore and which everyone said was so amazing, so intoxicating, so long-lasting blah blah but I tried it and I can't believe anyone so glamorous can wear something so stinky!! Same goes for Floris Rose Gardenia that Marilyn wore, God bless her, which smelt like washing up liquid for washing dishes. Refusing to give up, I tried Visa - figuring that having been made in 1945, it would still make me smell like a glamorous 40s, 50's movie star. It's lovely, like someone else here said, it's boozy, alcoholic smelling like a nice peach wine which I love. It dries down, nice and powdery and smells like it could be someone's sexy natural smell. I sat there during my day thinking, 'Wow, someone smells lovely!!' then realised it was me :) The only disappointment was that the base notes can be achieved with a cheaper perfume by Avon called Timeless. However, you don't get the same expensive, boozy smell with Timeless or the explosion of glamour, fizz, and sparkles that Visa gives. I don't know if I felt like a glamorous movie star with this but it took me a bit closer. The biggest problem is that I don't know what a glamorous movie star smells like.

Very peachy indeed! Not exactly gourmand as we know the genre to be these days (I don't smell any noticeable caramel, vanilla or candy notes), this is more of an elegant floral-fruity sweetness. It feels very pretty and fun. I find no relation to Angel and very little even to Chinatown, both of which I find richer and more opulent; this is instead very similar to Nina Ricci's Deci-Dela, though perhaps with a bit more leather. It gets a lot more interesting in the drydown, as the earthy elements begin to gain prominence, but the fruitiness persists even then. Very much more serious and less pretty in the base, this is the part I love. I really wish there was more of the earthy aspect throughout. Update Sep 2015: I ended up buying the pure parfum, and I am so happy I did! The deeper, earthier aspects are more noticeable here than in the EDP, and I can finally smell a little of the vanilla and patchouli that made others draw a parallel with Angel. It is still *not* Angel, however. It is still very much a peach scent, even if the earthy aspects are augmented in the parfum. While the EDP is an elegantly pretty peach scent, I would say the parfum is an elegantly sophisticated peach scent. Both are lovely.