Tom Ford Private Blend Venetian Bergamot1 was just released. (Does anyone know the connection between Venice and bergamot? Me neither.) A nice, but distracted — there was a Seattle Seahawks' player standing next to me — sales assistant at my local Nordstrom made me a huge sample of Venetian Bergamot, and he let me know it was selling, selling, selling (sotto voce) "...as all Tom's things do."
Venetian Bergamot starts with dark bergamot seasoned with pepper, ginger and indistinct, cheap-smelling, "flowers"; the ginger is of the preserved, not fresh, variety. Venetian Bergamot then presents a so-so bergamot-ginger-light floral combo for about an hour on my skin. Then: things turn unexpectedly nasty. On the first day I wore Venetian Bergamot, about 70 minutes after application, I detected a wild-animal/fecal aroma in my office. I immediately looked at the bottoms of my shoes (all clear) then "gingerly" sniffed the trash cans, before realizing I was the one stinking up my office — courtesy of Venetian Bergamot.
Venetian Bergamot's peppered, gingered, musk-ed-up mid-section (civet-y) is unpleasant on me: is it musk (I usually like civet) or a fragrance accord gone waaaaaaay wrong? Unfortunately, this distasteful part of Venetian Bergamot lasts a long time before fading into a vague, hard-to-smell tonka bean-and-Cashmeran finish. On one day of wear, I described Venetian Bergamot to a friend as dumbed-down Guerlain Jicky. Venetian Bergamot is my least favorite Tom Ford fragrance...by a wide margin: overall, it smells "stingy," dull and unpleasant. And you get all that for a minimum of $220.
I wondered why the Nordstrom sales assistant gave me almost 10 ml of Venetian Bergamot. I discovered the reason over several days of wear: if you apply a "normal" amount (three or four sprays) of Venetian Bergamot, it fades fast and you (mostly) avoid the feral accord. I used over 3 ml with each wearing to get a feel for the fragrance, and the more I applied, the harsher and more apparent the "musk" was.
Tom Ford Venetian Bergamot is available in 50 ml ($220), 100 ml ($300) and 250 ml ($535) Eau de Parfum.
1. The fragrance notes feature bergamot, black and pink pepper, ginger, ylang ylang, magnolia, gardenia accord, cedar, pepperwood, sandalwood, tonka bean, amber and cashmere accord.
Note: top botanical images and civet tail [both altered/cropped] via Wikimedia Commons.
Oh dear, I was really looking forward to this one too. Thanks for saving me £145, I guess!
Lizzy…still sniff it…ya never know!
Wow! I was just wondering about this one. I usually steer clear of the TF line due to price, but I love bergamot and was looking forward to giving this one a sniff. oh well…
Deva…to me, bergamot is not the star here
What I’ve noticed with Tom Fords is that the full bottles are ridiculously expensive, but the decants are very reasonable to cheap on the Ebaze…
You can try 6-8 different 5 ml decants of his for under $100.
Kelly…I buy very few samples or decants…Robin has taught me to be frugal…and it’s easy to sample Tom Ford scents in Seattle
But, I thought you liked indoles, Kevin 🙂
Kindcrow…I love indolic flowers, but it’s hit or miss with animalic musks…maybe the artificial musks like this I hate?
You know our real question, Kevin- did the Seahawks player buy it??
Ari…he was with his personal shopper and was choosing several of the $500-plus bottles…don’t know if he bought this one.
That, and what Seahawk was it?
Poodle…have no idea! I couldn’t name a Seahawk if I could win $1 million! The only reason I knew was the non-stop congratulations, staring and someone exclaiming: ‘ A real Seahawk! I touched him!’
I was look big forward to this one as I usually like bergamots, but when I tried it today it was a big disappointment. It was very fleeting on me!
The SA told me that “Italian cypress” and “fleur de chine” were now discontinued – I fail to understand why TF keep discontinuing their better fragrances and replacing them with wish washy inferior concoctions – I long for the good old TF days of moss breches, purple patchouli, Japan noir, Bois rouge etc though I guess I’ll get another stab at these as TF are reissuing a lot of the discontinued fragrances as store exclusives
Nathan…agree…hope Purple Patchouli makes a reappearance, too.
PS. The cypress and fleur de chine are being discontinued but are going straight into the new ‘private reserve’ range along side the limited editions revival of Amber Absolute (and the other revived discontinued fragrances) but only A few premium stores will carry them so i guess ‘private blend’ isn’t exclusive enough anymore and they felt the need to add another layer of ‘exclusivity’. I re-smelled the Amber absolute and it smelled exactly like my existing bottle so doesn’t seeeem to have been reformulated.
Nathan…so complicated! And for what!?
whatwhatwhat? Amber Absolute is BACK? omigod omigod omigod!
… yeah I might be interested. 😉
I think you’re right that the problem is likely to be an artificial musk gone wrong. I’ve never sniffed pure musks, but whenever I’ve smelled an older perfume said to contain musk it doesn’t smell nasty to me. In contrast, I can’t bear Pd’E Musc Tonkin.
I’m curious – did others notice the stinky smell? A lot of perfumistas really like Musc Tonkin, so I suppose these chemicals smell different to different noses. And that Luckyscent special edition (No. 8??) that smells like pure poo… it must smell good to someone.
Noz: Musc Tonkin was fecal on me…and if I remember right…I didn’t enjoy wearing it all that much.
“Then things turn unexpectedly nasty.” There’s really no reason why I should love this phrase so much, but I do.
I read that sentence…and laughed out loud!!
I did too!
I did too!
Sounds like this isn’t the one that will make my wallet open 🙂 (Credit card sighs with relief) I actually expected it to be a variation on Rive d’Ambre from which I get quite a strong bergamot note. Sounds like not!
Merlin…ah…trying to remember Rive d’Ambre but it really didn’t make a big impression on me…and I love me some amber perfumes.
Not a huge favorite of mine either!
Bummer that it was a bust for you! TF fragrances are usually a hit or miss for me…no in between.
Scent…I will make some bergamot marmalade and be much happier!
And bergamot is usually so pleasant! Yikes. You wonder what they are trying to do?
Ann…we should know to ignore names of perfumes, right?
Ha!! Kevin, you perform a true service to the perfume community with your ability to turn even bad perfume into, at least, a really fun read! I join the chorus of folks who laughed out loud. Thank you, it really is wonderful when crummy juice can be a source of at least SOME mirth!
CH: Thanks!
Lol, always a good laugh when reading your reviews, Kevin. Will prop not try this, did try Noir Extreme though and it was meh.
Sometimes I wonder how much the actual Tom has to do with Tom Ford Inc. anymore? Good for him if he is no longer a control freak, but his work recently lacks the obsessive compulsive desire for perfection that his work for Gucci and the early Tom Ford scents had IMO.
Chandler…things do seem more and more ‘assembly line.’
Tom Ford’s new house is across the road from me in London and I pass it every day on my way to work. It’s been a building site for 3 YEARS while he’s refurbishing it and digging down to make a super-basement with pool/cinema etc so I think I know why the number of fragrance releases has increased significantly ! When you buy a £45 million pound house, then spend another £60 million doing it up the money has to come from somewhere!
Nice to know the money is going to a good cause – his private pool, cinema…etc!
Apart from being a listed historical building and boasting a few Doric columns it’s reasonably modest in size – it’s even in a street , not stand alone – it could have been so much more extravagant. With the quatari royal family having a £250 million house further down the row Toms looks almost restrained !
I think since he came a father he’s relaxed his grip a bit – I guess there aren’t enough hours in the day to be a control freak when you have a small child in the house clamouring for your attention – he does seem to have lost focus re the perfume side and it has become a cash-making conveyor belt rather than anything interesting or creative
Love the graphic. I thought at first it was a graphic from TF… after reading your review, I looked at it again and had a hearty laugh. It’s a Civetian Bergamot!
OF…a civamot!
What was their latest release, something with Violet Whatever…?! I got some of it along with my TF make-up purchase and the SA sprayed some of it in the bag.
It smelled like poo, and heading with some other beautyblogger to a lunch, we all had to throw away the bags, and each of us four agreed on the nasty, unpleasent smell!
Poo. Boo!
Who is the perfumer/s?