Salvatore Ferragamo's new Emozione is geared towards older women — older, of course, in the relative sense, since fragrances geared towards really older women are as rare as unicorns. Anyway, it's geared towards older women, and you'd know this even if Women's Wear Daily hadn't said so.1 Exhibit A is the model, Malgosia Bela, who at the ripe old age of 37 is a good 10 years older than Bianca Balti was when she introduced the brand's 2012 pillar, Signorina. Balti turned on her pink radio, danced around on the bed in a pink dress and talked on her pink telephone before sitting demurely in a chair to wait for her man to arrive; Bela's ad is slower and calmer, and according to the model is "about laughter and tears and everything that is important in life" — "I can be seen in reflections of cities", she says to the camera. There's no pink (it's shot in black and white) and no man, or at least no man we can see.
Exhibit B, the juice. Signorina smelled about right for its target market, 18 to 25.
....Signorina is a cheerful and undemanding fruity thing with a slightly gourmand base. It isn't as candied as [Vera Wang] Princess Night, and it's almost certainly geared a wee bit older than that; it isn't as abstract or loud as the [Swarovski] Aura, and it's almost certainly geared a wee bit younger than that.
Emozione, on the other hand, reminded me right away of two other recent "mature" fragrances: Lancôme La Vie Est Belle (fronted by Julia Roberts, who I believe was 45 or so when it launched) and Giorgio Armani Sì (Cate Blanchett; maybe 43). Emozione starts quieter than either of those, and indeed might be the next generation of the style. The soft, just-slightly peachy opening is a good fit with the feel of the advertising, and within minutes it takes on a pale, creamy-gauzy veil of cosmetic powder. The powder smooths over the likewise quiet florals, so that nothing really stands out although you might catch a brief whiff of rose (the notes for the floral woody chypre: bergamot, iris, peach, peony, rose, heliotrope, patchouli, suede and white musk). I don't really make out heliotrope, but it does get creamier and more vanillic on the dry down. It gets darker, too, but not by much — the patchouli and suede are kept on a tight leash, as is the sugar, but a cleanish woody musk lingers for hours.
Verdict: Quite nicely done by perfumer Alberto Morillas. It's the first Ferragamo fragrance I have smelled that I would wear,2 and while I don't particularly want any, I'm impressed: it's as undemanding as Signorina, but manages to live up to the 'modern, sophisticated and elegant' billing. I doubt it will be a perfumista darling, but it's worth a try if you need a pretty but discreet no-brainer powder scent in your collection.3 There's no reason it shouldn't sell but who knows if it will, and clearly Ferragamo did not pull out all the stops on the star power, as did Lancôme and Armani.
Salvatore Ferragamo Emozione is available in 30 (€58), 50 ($95) and 90 ($120) ml Eau de Parfum.
1. But they did say so, and they also said they did not anticipate any overlap between the customers for Emozione and the customers for Signorina. Women's Wear Daily, 9/20/2014.
2. Although there are many I have not smelled, including all of the Tuscan Soul / Tuscan Scent flankers.
3. If you don't need something quite so up to date, there are of course many (slightly) older variations on the 'discreet no-brainer powder scent' theme, like Love, Chloé or Balenciaga Paris or Lolita Lempicka L'Eau en Blanc, etc and etc.
If the model is younger than me, then isn’t it still a frag to make me feel like a younger woman? LOL! It sounds very nice and I am generally happy that “mature” women are making it into the marketing. I like this powdery style so I’ll probably check it out. I’m still waiting to test Love, Chloe though, which I hope won’t end up being more interesting than Chanel’s Misia….. Thanks for the review!
Ha…yes, you could look at it that way!
The makeup side is doing better w/ “mature” marketing, though. I am waiting for the fragrance fronted by Helen Mirren.
I like Love, Chloe better than this one, and even Love Chloe I didn’t particularly feel the need to own. I like the style too though.
Misia is supposed to be more of a lipstick rose thing, isn’t it? Have already forgotten.
FRONTED BY HELEN MIRREN. I might buy that, assuming that it was halfway good, just to reward the advertising.
Would be interesting to know what Mirren does wear! I think Infusion D’Iris would suit her 🙂
I’m sorry,but Caligula ruined Helen Mirren for me forEVER….lol.
Ha ha! I’ll be sure not to watch Caligula then…
I love Helen Mirren, anyone who can play both Morgana (Excalibur) and Georgina (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover) is pretty fabulous in my book. Loved Caligula, but it’s not for everyone !
She’s fronting something for L’Oreal, but I don’t know exactly what.
Oh, fantastic ad, and they even left in her wrinkles. Go, Mirren!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZPIqfpM3-s
I love Helen Mirren too! I want to be her when I grow up!!
a cable channel is running Hitchcock, in which Mirren plays his wife. She’s great, and Danny Huston’s in it too!
Me, three! And after watching that L’Oreal ad, I really want a studded leather jacket.
Yes, although I’d be happy with that cream/camel coloured coat she wears in the beginning of the advert too. Really, she just looks fantastic in everything – even wrinkles 😀
I tried Misia and liked it a lot. It’s a nice addition to the Exclusive line.
Is it a makeup style thing?
Thanks!
I really can’t wait to try this, but I’m afraid I’ll be disappointed. I was kind of let down with 1932. It wasn’t bad, but I just expect more from Chanel.
Calvin Klein’s Beauty was another of this genre I thought? And although Bottega Veneta’s marketing did not seem to pitch it at this market, it would work. Very young women don’t seem interested in leather.
Anyway, thanks for the fun review! I’ll give Emozione a sniff, even if it’s just so I know what marketers THINK I should like.
Right, I keep forgetting about Beauty! Not a huge success, I don’t think.
Agree about BV.
A soft peachy suedey powdery peony sounds pretty good to this ol’ hag right about now, but I am terrified to try any more mainstream fragrances. They all seem to blow up on me, in the worst possible way.
I really don’t know what the note is; if pushed, I’d say it was some sort of wood, but I get it in just about everything these days, so it can’t just be wood, since I usually go for florals and Orientals.
The musks almost suffocate me, too. I don’t like real musk anyway, let alone this stuff that smells like the detergent aisle. I am literally gasping for air by the time I get to the end of the aisle.
I have a horrible feeling all these fake notes are going to end up being worse for us than everything IFRA keeps banning.
And I may as well confess that my 51 year old self often sits demurely (well, actually very excitedly!) in a chair, waiting for my husbnad to get home from work! 😛
Oh, then not at all sure you’ll like this one! I do not find it loud, but definitely persistent (through a shower and beyond) synthetic musks.
Do you call your husband on your pink phone first? Because then maybe you need Signorina 😉
Wait – is there another way to phone hubby?
There’s always the batphone!
😀
I don’t like a lot of the musks either. A little, OK, but I always feel like they end up twice life-size after a little while.
Older women…Lol.I guess I’m an older man then,turning 37 in June?Btw,I put the young ones to shame on the dance-stage last weekend at UltrafestSA,seeing me and Armin van Buuren(THE BEST TRANCE-DJ EVER!!),are the same age and we rocked the party till about 6am….Ferragamo is a brand I just don’t get.Like Armani and Lancome.But I guess this will have it’s fans as well.
If This is ANYTHING Like Si by Armani… I am on the boat with it 1000% I LOVE The smell of Si and was so Mad when they took Love, Chloe off the Market… it was such a BEAUTIFUL Scent! I have loved pretty much all the Ferragamo fragrances even those Billion flankers to Incanto… All well done… Signorina is not just for a Young woman Either, I think if you’re a Confident, Secure woman you can wear anything, Like my Mother, she wears Fruity, Girly scents one day and is Dabbing on the Vintage 1983 Nina Nina Ricci fragrance the next, then on to Les Exclusifs No. 22 the day after… it’s all about the woman! as for Emozione… BUYING!!!!
On a sniffing mission, I took in some Emozione and was pleasantly surprised–gosh, it really is all grown up and it stands out!–until I left the spritz sheet on a table with sample sniffs of Portrait of a Lady… and Good Girl Gone Bad,,, and Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia… still nice and eminently wearable, but no contest. I shouldn’t do this to myself.