Eau de Hongrie

When I first sampled Eau de Hongrie, I was watching "Renegade Nell", which is lightly fantastical, taking place in eighteenth century England. The scent fit the show perfectly, causing me to fall in love. It just feels golden, soft and pretty. While I am not personally familiar with Tokaji wine, I can detect a similarity to a chilled American mead, with its gentle honeyed sweetness. This lacks the heaviness or the animalic quality of some other honey fragrances. Instead, it feels quite clean, with a vintage bar soap essence. The immortelle and jasmine notes together create a wildflower quality that feels feminine, but not in a stuffy way. Everything blends nicely; nothing awkwardly stands out. My mom described it as "old world," which I think is quite fitting. It is not what I would consider to be mature or dated from the current perspective, but rather from a hazy time in the past. It somehow also reminds me of Epcot. While I can't say it smells like Laila (or any of the various scents I have sampled there), it still reminds me of it and would fit in well with their roster if they were to ever showcase products representing Hungary. Longevity is moderate without leaving too much of a trail, but this is the type of fragrance you want to remain intimate. Headache-free, so far. I purchased a full bottle and it is the only 100ml in my collection. Most of the actual scents I enjoy do not come in the most fun bottles, so I could not resist getting Eau de Hongrie in the little wine bottle. It came in a satin padded box and felt so luxurious to open. Price per ml is fair for the quality.

Oh my goodness, I love this. This is grown-up, boozy honey that is ever so slightly spicy, entirely sophistcated and, as another reviewer below put it, almost royal. This is sweet, but not sweet as you know it. It is feminine, refined and sexy. This says "don't mess with me". It says "I am quietly important". It is full bodied with plenty of depth - much like Tokaji wine which I am a HUGE fan of. It does indeed remind me of Tokaji - its bottle suits the fragrance perfectly - but thankfully without smelling as though you have spent all day at a boozy lunch. Sillage is pretty good and it lasts about four hours on me. This is certainly an evening scent, and perhaps one for the winter months. As a final note, if you hate cloves, please don't let this put you off of this fragrance. I tend to find cloves make everything smell ugly and medicinal on me (Mugler's Angel is my worst nightmare) but in this case it is so beautifully blended, its presence is enough to add warmth, but not enough that you will detect what it is. This is going on my wish list!

Beautiful, smooth, somehow heavenly, royal scent. Very nice. Sweet, warm, not too spicey, not too sugary. I am hungarian, and also a wine lover. Tokaji Aszú is different, than vines generally: it is sweet, balmy, mature. Definitely the main note in this creation is this: honey and raisin. Actually I dont like honey scents, but this one is so wonderfully balanced, that once you smell it, you just cant forget it. Linear on me, so no surprises. Well, maybe it has a bit different dry down, it reminds me a scented eraser gum, which we used to have at my childhood 40 years ago :-). Not bothering me at all, indeed! I am in love with this perfume, and so proud of you Viktoria! Normally I like perfumes with one hell of a sillage and lasting power, but this definitely is not the one. No problem though, when I wear this (and ultimately I wear this a lot), I put the bottle in my handbag, and reapply it every 3-4 hours. Also spray it on my wrist, as I really enjoy smell it every now and then.

I am not as wowed by this perfume as I had hoped. Like the original Hedonist, which I owned and sold, it starts out really beautiful and so promising but fades into a scent that is very flat, with low sillage. Hongrie smells like honey-wine, maybe a tad herbal, with some grapefruit in the top notes. It reminded me at first very much of Escada Collection and Botrytis too--but I like those two better and think they are far better perfumes. This dried down into a flat/dull honey-scent whereas Hedonist dries down into a flat/dull peach. I would possibly pay half-price for Eau de Hongrie, it smells nice enough, but $165 is asking too much. Edit: I chose 3-6 hours for longevity, and it still says zero. Is this rigged?!

This is lovely, with a similar boozy, spiced vibe to the original Hedonist. Where that one goes in a more peach and rum direction, however, this one emphasizes the honey and immortelle. I also find it very similar to Manos Gerakinis' Immortelle, which I recently sampled. Eau de Hongrie is a little lighter and more sheer, however, and the jasmine and honey work to soften the maple vibe, which I find a little overwhelming in Immortelle. Like all of Viktoria Minya's fragrances, this is a beautiful composition made of high-quality materials. Also in line with her other offerings, it's an intimate scent, but therefore the longevity is very good.