Vanagloria Laboratorio Olfattivo 2021

Let’s talk about this gem that will go on hype very soon…

If you know Rosendo Mateu N5, remove a littke bit of its strong sweet vanilla (it’s still sweet) and add incense.

For those who haven’t smelled RM5, Vanagloria is such a forward thinking perfume…
It’s 50% modern molecular sweetness and 50% incense. The combination is just perfection, and it has something addictive to it that makes it smell really different and modern. Try to imagine you dip an incense stick into sugar and add some weird molecules from 2056

Longevity and projection are way beyond normal perfumes. Packaging is wonderful, the bottle very heavy and the sprayer is top notch.
This is sexy as hell.

Front-loaded with enough iodine (saffron) and pineapple to cripple an elephant, Vanagloria makes a weird first impression – metallic, fruity, acid, and terpenic, like a burning tire onto which someone’s lobbed some opened cans of Del Monte pineapple pieces. And just under that, a ripe banana custard-like vanilla, like something you’d make out of a packet, but also really thick and expensive-smelling. Ribbons of smoke from just-lit frankincense add a slightly ashy-woody darkness, deepening the chiaroscuro effect.

It takes some time for all of this to settle, but when it does, what you get is a luxuriously creamy vanilla-incense accord that accurately reflects the aromas gathered in a dried vanilla bean pod – the slightly burnt-smelling woodiness, the booziness, the leathery dryness, the faint thick sweetness of it that floats in the distance. I smelled it first in Romastore, in Trastevere, in January 2022, and was appalled at its ‘crude oil’ start. But later, when it dried down, it became an obsession for me, far more compelling to me than any of the other more popular perfumes I’d gone there to try, like Gris Charnel by BDK Parfums. I bought a bottle the next day and it’s become one of my favourite vanilla perfumes, a group that by itself is very, very small.

Its like burning a sweet incense stick with a slightly leathery saffron smell. The pineapple in the opening is juicy and realistic, but the pineapple dries down to just a hint of sweetness that is beautifully blended with the vanilla and frankinscense. Thus, I wouldn’t say it’s a fruity incense. A beautiful and long-lasting fragrance, really a statement piece!

A synthetic and cold vanilla is one of my favourite smells, and pineapple and saffron are as well. This perfume hits so many faves for me. I love it. It's warm and smooth and rich but with this weird synthetic cold tinge as well. Veers into being too sweet for me, but ultimately pulls me back into it's drama every time... wahoo!

I always love to try different variations of this DNA. My favorites are a tie between this beauty & Salas Bianco Eterno.

I will admit, I found the opening of Vanagloria to be somewhat challenging due to the pineapple. Sometimes I find pineapple to be dusty and I experienced it here in the opening, but once the dry-down commenced I was immediately mesmerized. When it comes to this DNA Vanagloria is definitely the driest—The vanilla is more dry vs sweet, an inherent quality of Bourbon Vanilla. I truly appreciate how this makes it stand out from its counterparts. It has pretty good projection and creates a comforting cloud. I’d say it’s slightly less spicy than Babycat and lacks the burnt tire smell of Ros5. This is wonderful!