La Vita Nuova

[steelxrose]

Apple blossom, white rose, lemon balm, and champagne grape.

La Vita Nuova...begins as a sharp, tangy scent. I trust this is all lemon's doing. Thankfully, after a while, it fades to a juicy floral which could use some throw. My skin sucks this one dry.

[Little Bird]

La Vita Nuova is soapy in the bottle and it just becomes unbearably soapy on my skin. It really makes me think of shampoo, very clean, slightly sweet, fruity, and overall very much a soap scent. The lemon comes out more in the drydown, making it more of a lemony fresh shampoo fragrance.

 

This is definitely going to swaps for me.

[PurringPulsar]

La Vita Nuova

 

In the imp: a crisp apple scent. Just a hint of bubbly and a hint of floral.

Wet on skin: now it’s turning to soapy apple. This doesn’t bode well…

Dry on skin: apple soap! Dammit! Why must most apple or apple blossom scents turn so bad on my skin? I don’t smell the rose, I smell very little lemon balm here and the champagne note, which I usually like, smells too sharp and sour in here. The apple blossom smells too much like a floral-apple washing up liquid or soap scent. It’s almost reminiscent of Delirium, but much soapier.

After a while: ok, the soap’s got worse. Now it’s gone bitter as well. A bitter apple blossom scent that smells slightly wilted. I think I only like apple blossom when it’s weighed down with heavier or sweeter notes, like the amber in Brisingamen. But otherwise, it just goes nasty and sharp on my skin, like many apple notes do.

This just turns into a sort of soapy champagne scent over time. I hoped this would be lovely and sparkly and bright, but it was not to be.

Verdict: why oh why must my skin hate the apple notes? Or at least, most of them, especially where apple is the main player in the scent. And apple blossom seems to be worse on me than apple fruit-because it smells like apple-scented washing up liquid and floral air freshener. I get none of the other notes…maybe a bit of champagne and lemon, but no rose. Apple blossom takes over this scent and turns so bad on my skin in here, just soap, soap, soap…not my thing at all.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? No.

If you like this, try: Delirium, Hesperides, Bon Vivant, Shattered, Ladon, Eve

[Limelight]

Nobody likes this but me, ahahaahahhahahaaa!!! Well, not really, but I'm definitely in the minority, and happy to be so. This is beautiful on me. No overbearing lemon, just a fresh, shimmery, fruity sweetness with a light musk undertone that lasts for hours. This has earned a place in my collection for sure.

[savage_rose]

This scent is intoxicating...the sweetness of apple blossom is buoyed by the sparkling champagne grape...this scent is crystalline, sexy, and sweet. A winning combination.

[Czarina]

In the bottle: apple.

Wet: apple with a faint hint of lemon.

Drydown: crisp apples with citrus and just a tiny, tiny rose note.

 

This is a spectacularly fresh spring scent, low throw and wearlength on me however.

[enderfem]

Imp: crisp clean notes. I can pick out everything but the rose. I hope it stays that way. I like the grape note so far.

 

Wet: Still crisp and clean but leaning dangerously towards laundry detergent. Really nice laundry detergent!

 

Drydown: Yes. Really nice laundry detergent. Clean and soapy.

[DarkClarissa]

In Imp: Apples, oooh I love apple blossom.

 

Wet: Slightly tart, very refreshing smell without being too sharp.

 

Dry: Still apple blossom and a hint of citrus. I can't smell the white rose or champagne at all, but I suspect that they are rounding this fragrance out and that without them the scent would be too harsh.

 

Verdict: I absolutely adore this, it a definite BUY A BOTTLE scent – perfect for a sunny day! It makes me feel happy!

 

Marks out of 10: 10

[wyndham]

I was surprised by how floral this one ended up being on me. In the vial, I got a nice hit of that champagne grape, but on, I mostly got rose with a little apple blossom. If I had to give this one a color, I'd say pale green.

[zankoku_zen]

This one surprised me. It was light and refreshing, a fruity kinda of floral. Cheery.

 

I really liked it, however, the big drawback was that it had almost no throw and no wear length. After an hour, it was gone.

[LadyLuckDoubt]

In the Bottle

Fresh, tangy green apples with a loud sweet note.

 

On Me

Pretty much the same. This scent is goofy and fun, cute and quirky: it smells like apple shampoo or airfreshener, which isn't at all unpleasant, but it's a lot louder and sweeter than I expected.

 

I'm not getting ANY rose, which is weird: my skin tends to bring out rose something chronic.

 

I suspect the "tanginess" I noticed first off was the champagne note... and I'll admit, that had me worried. I think it's my chemistry, but white-wine smells make me nervous (Bon Vivant and I don't get along...) -- unless it's an incredibly crisp, dry white, I tend to get a rank, dull sort of sour smell (which reminds me of cheap and nasty white wine-- but then again, I'm a red wine person anyway, so maybe I'm unfairly biased). There's an echo of that popping through, and I'm thinking bad thoughts. I don't want this cute cheery happy!apple to go nasty on me!

 

It doesn't, instead, the champagne grape lingers in the background, and the apple still dominates. It lasts awhile, too. My six-year-old son thinks it's "yummy."

 

 

Overall? This is such a fun scent. Not at all what I expected, but I'm hanging onto it and glad I snagged some. I don't think it's an every-dayer for me, but if I was working in the kind of environment where I'd want to be perky a lot and wouldn't be afraid of being a bit eccentric, it probably would be. (I'm NOT a fruity-scent person, usually, and I do tend towards darker and more intense fragrances, but I did enjoy this... and plan to in future!)

[voodoocatwoman]

In the imp: Sour apple

 

Wet: The sourness is toned down a little and I think I am picking up the grape now (not really sure)

 

Dry: Subtle and clean, not very strong- I like it

[etienne]

This is my new summer-time favourite!

Beautifully sweet and bright - I get a lot of apple but it's neither a sour crisp apple nor a foody apple, it's wonderfully soft. I had a bubble bath as a child from Yves Rocher called Pomme D'Api and this reminds me a lot of that!

 

I don't get much rose out of this but I think it's a case of all the notes blending together so well that I can't tell the individual notes apart.

 

I'm glad I have a bottle for the coming summer!

[gchris]

In Vial: Wonderful fresh fruit

Wet: This is soo juicy

Drydown: Rose with a hint of fresh fruit

[Indigo78]

In the bottle this is sweet, subtle, and perfectly floral. Sadly, this is one the few cases where the in-bottle scent bears no similarity to the on-skin scent. I know that the apple and grape are supposed to be in here, but on my skin this blasts soggy laundry before you put in in the dryer or hang it out to dry. The comparisons with Delerium make sense, because that one behaved the same way on me. Swaps.

[mgrazulis]

In the imp: apple blossoms with a hint of citrus.

 

Wet: apple blossom and lemon balm, bright and refreshing.

 

Dry: White rose appears, delicately balanced with the grape, giving a crystalline backdrop to the apple blossom and lemon balm. The aroma is sweeter. After a while, the grape emerges a bit more.

 

Verdict: Fresh floral blend. The lemon balm is very pale and gentle. We have lemon balm in our wild garden. The crushed leaves of this mint give off a soft lemony aroma, its flowers succulent with nectar in summer attract small species of bees. I'm not sure that I can do justice to this scent...it just blooms on the skin. Heavenly for warm weather!

 

[n1k1ta]

La Vita Nuova is heady apple blossom with a zing of bubbly grape in the beginning. The rose is shyly romantic in the background.

 

At two hours, I have a fresh, girly soap scent. It's not soapy in a bad way, it's fresh and clean.

 

By four hours, La Vita Nuova is light, musky roses. It's beautiful, but I'm not crazy about it. Maybe I need to let my imp age...

Edited July 29, 2008 by n1k1ta

[forspecial_plate]

Looking at the notes, I couldn't remember why I wanted a decant of this, but now that I think about it, I was going through a sort of floral phase at the time. Anywho, on to the review....

 

This is indeed fresh and slightly fruity, but no single fruit note stands out. It's more of a roundness that comes from the different fruit notes. I hate to say it but when I wore this, I was reminded strongly of shower gel. It is nearly aquatic. It's not a bad smell at all, and I do like some light/pretty floral scents every now and then. I also really like aquatics, in general (well, a lot of them). This one just goes slightly over the line into a soapy territory that I don't find exciting. Ah well, you win some, you lose some, right?

[anomie]

Bottle: I can smell the grape, mostly, which I didn't expect. And the apple blossom. It smells awfully generic.

 

Wet: Yeah, just sort of a bleh floral. I don't so much smell the rose or lemon, unfortunately.

 

Dry: The apple and the lemon have come out to play, but I'm not sure that this is really a keeper.

[asciident]

Wet: Fresh and clean.

 

First on: Soapy and lemony - but good soap.

 

Dry: This smells like a great body wash, but not something I want to wear as perfume.

[milo]

Very clean and green smelling. My son told me I smelled like Pert Plus. Man, he is so right! This smells exactly like Pert Plus! Great if you like this shampoo, I unfortuneately do not. Swap pile.

[Gin]

I'm starting to wonder if I just don't get along with the Lab's apple blossom. I want to love it, but it always seems so sharp! This is no exception. The apple blossom is sharp and green. The grapes lend a grapey effervescence. The lemon balm and rose are soft in the background. This is a clean, shampoo scent... nice, but not me.

[angelicruin]

Inside the bottle, apple blossom and rose.

 

Wet on the skin, initially just the apple blossom. Shortly thereafter I am picking up the rose and a bit of citrus.

 

As it dries more, I do pick up some of the grape as well, but it's wrapped around a floral note.

 

Fully dry, it's a blending of apple, lemon, and grape mixed within a floral base.

[arlith]

I'm one of the unfortunate rose ampers. This one sounded so lovely though, that I wanted to try anyway.

 

I was given a tester of it, and I rather liked it. I got almost all rose out of it, but it was a nice light rose, with a touch of grapey sweetness. It feels like a spring scent to me, or a full-on summery one.

 

I won't go searching for more of it, since I probably wouldn't grab it often, but it was very nice. Just not a love.

[countessmouse]

What a lovely, sparkly, delicate scent! Lots of appleblossom that isn't overpowered by the rose and nicely accented by the champagne grape. Not getting much of the lemon balm, but who cares? It is unfortunate, however, that the scent is just so light that I'm pretty certain it will be gone in a few hours.