Almost Dawn Bottega Veneta 2025

At first sniff Hinoki was the stand out to me and my favorite from the new mezzanote collection … BUT After wearing all three fragrances from the collection on skin for a few days my opinion has changed drastically .. this is BY FAR the smoothest and easiest to wear , Hinoki comes off too harsh after the beautiful opening almost burning my nostrils everytime I would smell it off my arm . Almost Dawn on the other hand is smooth like butter and last all day because these are actually all parfum concentration. I don’t have anything in my collection with delectable truffle vanilla and chestnut wood . This is not a gourmond vanilla by the way and its perfectly unisex if anything leans more masculine because of the heavy chestnut wood . All three of these are woody but in different ways. Almost dawn is chestnut wood, Hinoki is obviously Hinoki wood and GoodMorning midnight is oud wood . I just went and purchased my bottle of almost dawn can’t wait to use it this fall/winter . I HIGHLY recommend to try these all on skin as these are very high quality ingredients and change according to your chemistry.

The way I have been dying to try this scent out since I caught wind of it. I finally got to try it the other day at Bergdorf Goodman (my New Yorkers, if you know you know), and I had the most gorgeous sales rep bless me with a 2 ml sample to take home.

Now I’ll be honest, this is probably the first Bottega fragrance I’ve tried because quite frankly, my mind doesn’t go to ‘perfume’ when I think of the brand. But it seems like this Mezzanote line is the most elusive and exclusive line as of recent. I can’t remember how they landed on my radar (probably through the main page of Parfumo tbh), but I’m so so happy that I came across this specific one.

Almost Dawn smells like if you took the entirety of Planet Earth, wrapped her the finest of suede, and dipped her into a divine, creamy, and natural vanilla. I can’t lie and say I wasn’t scared of the truffle oil, but it’s really not as ‘foody’ as some are making it out to be. At least, not on my skin. It’s more soil-like/savory than it is ‘mushroomy’. Paired with a soft patchouli and some woods, makes for a beautiful, earthy and woody scent that gets sweeter as it dries down. It’s so rich and delicious, and smells as expensive as it is.

Speaking of, for the price you’re paying, you do get a long lasting, high quality scent that is sure to stick to your clothes and hair. It’s truly perfect for the cooler seasons, and would make an excellent date night / gala fragrance. Now I don’t know where I’m getting $500 to spend on this, but I might treat myself to a bottle after I finally get promoted. Bottega, honey, you ate snapped with this one! So unique, yet so wearable and stunning!

Almost Dawn from the Mezzanotte line is probably the most pleasing. It is warm, sweet, and slightly powdery. A subtle woody note accompanies it. At the beginning, it is spicy/sharp.

The opening is distinctly spicy and almost sharp due to the pepper. However, the truffle note makes it interesting again, as I have not encountered truffle in any other fragrance like this.

After a while, it becomes somewhat green/herbaceous due to the patchouli and the chestnut wood, which I have also found very rarely in other scents.

Until the fragrance sweetly and woody fades out with vanilla, tonka bean, and cedarwood.

All in all, a quite good everyday companion that offers decent longevity and sillage. It lasts a long time. Unfortunately, it is not very affordable.
Suitable for both women and men.

Three new fragrances from Bottega Veneta's Venetian collection have been released as perfumes (the first five were EDPs).

In my opinion, all three reveal different facets of oud. Goodmorning Midnight is an almost classic combination of rose with almost animalistic oud. Hinoki is a woody, pure oud for meditation. And in "Almost Dawn | Bottega Veneta," the oud adds a very soft, leathery undertone. The leather, or rather suede, gives the rich vanilla a subtle bitterness and thus a special nobility that makes it a true perfume, not a gourmand.

If I had to compare it to other fragrances, I would liken it to some Shalimars that have the same leathery, slightly rubbery undertone. And with "Mica d'Oro I | Valmont," where I would draw a parallel between the vanilla notes. While I smell Valmont for a few days, Almost Dawn lasts about 8-10 hours on my skin and then fades delicately. It envelops the wearer like a cocoon, a roughly one-meter-high aura of bitter vanilla.

And of course the bottles - it's a story of hate to love. When I first saw them in a photo, I thought it was a mistake, but time passed, and when I held the bottles in my hands, I was already enchanted: their shape, the marble stand, and the tiny bubbles in the glass that remind the bottle of frozen tree resin and bring it to life; it truly seems to be a creation of nature.

To summarize: The perfume suits me; it will be my scent this autumn. The first bottle has almost run out in sharing, and I am now considering a second one.