Donna Born in Roma

Valentino pitches this scent as a way to show character, and its description skips the usual top, heart and base labels. It is split into Color, Couture and Cool instead; the Italian page calls the middle part a sartorial note, so the scent is explained in the vocabulary of tailoring.

Color is Italian bergamot, bright and fizzy, there to wake the senses. Couture layers a trio of jasmines into a floral note with more than one facet, then adds Bourbon vanilla, which gives the sweetness depth and a skin-close weight.

Cool is a modern woods note that Valentino describes as both mineral and warm. It forms a dry, slightly stony layer beneath the sweeter jasmine and vanilla.