Discovery Kit by Roberto Dario

Roberto Dario is an Italian all natural perfumer who switched his career in chemistry for his passion in perfumery.  So far he has seven scents in his collection. His line is not a marketing based concept where each perfume represents a certain fragrance family to fit the widest possible customer’s preferences. Like for example four of his seven scents are featuring lavender in their name. Who would do something like this nowadays? I guess only a passion driven  perfumer with love for the beauty of the ingredients.

Recently he offered a Discovery Kit, a sample set containing 2 ml of each of his seven perfume in dab vials. A perfect  opportunity to try them all, listen to their stories and see how far they can seduce you. More about Roberto and his scents is on his website: http://esperienzeolfattive.blogspot.nl/

My absolute favorite from his collection is DolceDesiderio. Inspired by a story of seduction from the 17th century where a French Madame “enjoys” her younger lover. The tale is interpreted with the notes of rosewood, Bulgarian rose, Turkish rose, geranium, labdanum, patchouli, benzoin and vanilla.
Dolcedesiderio doesn’t pretend to be a very complex scent, but it has a very surprising classical, almost vintage feeling reminding me of Jicky and some aspects of Shalimar, Bal à Versaille and Habanita from the past.  It rises an illusion of something I smelled before – somewhere in my childhood, but can’t remember anymore.  It smells familiar, but doesn’t let me to remember the name… The simple beauty of natural raw materials suggests indeed that it could be a perfume from the 17th century. And I don’t have any doubts that it could be used by Madame to seduce her lovers.

The start of Dolcedesiderio is a bit too loud as if the components are arguing with each other for the right to lead. The winner is red rose with sharp geranium based thorns reminding me of Madam’s bright red lipstick she uses for seduction. But once the perfume settles on my skin, it becomes very pleasing. In fact it blends very well with my skin turning into a warm fragrance of a sensual, slightly powdery rose sweetened by vanilla and balsams inside a classic warm amber accord. It becomes a very warm, soft and romantic scent. Very attractive and seductive in that sweet old-fashioned way. I really love how it opens on my skin as well as my skin loves vanilla and balsams in perfumes.