Bulgari pour Femme
Bulgari (1994)

Tangerine, tarragon and heliotrope, trying to dominate a rose-violet powderpuff.
I find it confusing, like hearing two languages spoken at once.

A classic - one of my favorite florals, and one of my favorite perfumes generally. There are definitely more than the three notes listed on Basenotes - I get mostly a violet-mimosa scent, with a good deal of powder. It's a very grown-up perfume, without at all being mature or dated. In fact, it's hard to believe this was released 27 years ago. Bulgari Pour Femme could easily be repackaged and sold today as a new scent and no one would be the wiser, though it’s miles better than the majority of florals currently sold at brick and mortar stores like Sephora. As the saying goes, they don't make them like they used to.

My favorite time to wear Bulgari Pour Femme is during that transitional stage between summer and fall - the powder accompanying the florals makes it perfect for those late summer days when temperatures are just starting to taper off.

Great lasting power too, and perfect sillage.

This review is for the now discontinued EDP.

Light rose floral mixed with violet and jasmine.

Oddly, I get no mimosa at all, just a very light rose and jasmine mix with a woody violet leaf giving it weight and balance.

This is not gorgeous, only very nice. It's actually more of a base idea for a scent than a finished product. Increase the density of the floral oils and add some interesting resin or animalic notes and it would be a stunner indeed.

As is, it is no more than pleasant. Not a stinker, but not a winner either.

Flirting with both J'Adore Voile de Parfum and No. 5 Eau Premiere recently, I thought to myself, "I wish one of these wore as well on me as Bulgari used to, as it was always so versatile and pretty in the same kind of well-bred way these are."

So I just sought out a replenishment bottle of Bulgari instead. Not having smelled it in a very long time, I was floored at how much raspberry is in the opening! And also by how much the opening gave me a little snapshot of pre-reformulation YSL Paris, also by Grojsman. Paris was a favorite of mine when it launched; I hadn't realized that on some level I was pre-disposed to like Bulgari the first time around because I had only pleasing associations with Paris.

Bulgari really is an interesting one. It's a tasteful feminine with conventional, demure floral notes, yet the musk...on skin, it gives the fragrance so much radiant warmth. While I'd never call it rude, if this musk likes you, it interacts with your chemistry in such a way that it goes really intimate. You can wear Bulgari in a polite setting and no one will accuse you of impropriety, yet the effect CAN be alluring, because the musk creates the sense that you're smelling the skin of the woman who's wearing the perfume, not simply smelling the perfume.

Overspray and it won't be good! It's sweet and has the potential to go cloying. While I've read reviews that say it has no lasting power, I find it to be very tenacious, just one modest spray and it's quietly there 10 hours later. In that way it really does seem powerful like a Grojsman! For reasons similar to what Way Off Scenter has said, I find that most of her work isn't my thing, though Bulgari really is. Again.

Bvlgari Femme is a (classically appointed) quite moody and assertive greenish/aldehydic floral composition with a bitter/lymphatic structure and a mossy powdery foundation. In the first stage jasmine and rose are heady (vaguely soapy and aldehydic) as surrounded by a more realistic and sparkling herbal-hesperidic atmosphere. I see the reference to Chanel N. 19 (sharing with Femme a bitter/green dump first floral stage), anyway while N. 19 preserves till the end an articulated humid sharp plain earthiness (more properly realistic and botanic) Bvlgari Femme finally slides towards a warmer (more soapy-synthetic) eliotropic ambery muskiness (with a bitter/floral counteracting undertone mostly provided by orange, lemon, orris root, herbs and violet). Violets are a central element which determines a green and finally talky aura as flanked by amber, musk and powdery iris. The green/floral/lemony bitterness smells finally (as encompassed by talky warmth) really sensual, "sweated-like" and "intimate" (but finally textured and elegant, with a touch of vintage).

Genre: Floral

What's this? A Sophia Grojsman scent that I can live with – finally! Perhaps taking her cue from the previous year's Eau Parfumée au Thé Verte, in composing Bulgari pour Femme she detours from the flamboyantly fruity, powdery, sweet rose chypre path of Calyx, Trésor, Kashâya, 100% Love, and Yvresse . While hardly innovative in style, Bulgari pour Femme exhibits a delightful sense of understated poise and refinement I find lacking in some of this perfumer's other popular work. Compared to something like Trésor or 100% Love, Bulgari pour Femme is quietly elegant, refined, and exquisitely balanced between green jasmine, crisp violet leaf, powdery heliotrope, and soapy aldehydes. In contrast with her earlier essay on aldehydes, White Linen, Bulgari pour Femme smells clean, but not sterile, bright, but not glaring.

The more I smell Bulgari pour Femme, the more it reminds me of an earlier generation of aldehydic green floral fragrances, including Chanel No. 19, Silences, Y, and Yendi. Like these predecessors, Bulgari pour Femme softens its bitter green accord with iris. Unlike them, it opts for clean musk foundation in lieu of a mossy green chypre accord. The hard surfaces are also more exposed in the Bulgari, so that the overall impression is more chiseled, transparent, and “modern.” The result is a thoroughly contemporary take on an established theme, and a versatile, attractive scent for everyday wear.