Valentino Donna Born in Roma Ivory Valentino 2025

So this is…underwhelming. Mild orange blossom with a touch of the DBIR DNA and a whole heap of baby powder. Fades to a musky skin scent within the first hour. It’s not as sweet as I expected, and there’s only the barest hint of marshmallow. It doesn’t really project either. If you’re looking for a quiet, inoffensive, softly feminine scent this is worth a look, but my search for the perfect white marshmallow gourmand continues.

Among the category of generic floral with a million flankers (LVEB, paradoxe, libre, chance, etc), this one just flew under the radar for me and I never bought into the DBIR line. I smelled it once and didn't like it so I categorized the entire line as not for me.
Since then, I've come around and really enjoy this line now, and ivory is SO good. I'm sad I didn't really hear about it until it was sold out so all I have is a 5 ml decant.
It's a beautiful sweet vanilla-y floral. It definitely reads floral first - similar to libre VC, but the vanilla base softens everything and makes it smoother. About an hour in, the florals seem to fall out and you're left with a much stronger marshmallow-vanilla scent. It's still not super gourmand to me, but rather a lovely creamy vanilla with a soft floral note.
It's got good longevity, it's versatile - you can wear this day or night and 3 seasons (I'd say it's a bit too much for summer). Lovely scent, FB worthy to me and I hope they bring it back!

Ivory opens sweet and marshmallowy. Not hard overly sweet store-bought marshmallow. More like a fresh homemade marshmallow with a little more vanilla than the recipe called for, with a little bit of musk to keep it fluffy. The orange blossom and mandarin fade into the background of vaguely powdery sweetness.

There's nothing WRONG with it, I just don't see myself as the kind of person who smells soft, fluffy and sweet. I prefer gourmands with more of a bite. My husband loves this for some reason and his opinion is that I should be less hard on a fragrance that makes me smell this good. Men really seem to like this scent.

This scent is everything I've searched for and more. I am so upset that so many people hyped it as a marshmallow gourmand and then it was criticised. It was never meant to be a sweet marshmallow gourmand. It is a beautiful, well balanced blend of notes creating an incredibly gorgeous and unique scent. Donna Born in Roma Ivory is a perfectly warm, slightly sweet, comforting floral hug that I wish I could bathe in forever. There is NOTHING alike, and I am devastated I could only afford to grab one bottle. I hope they bring it back, because despite the low ratings I have seen online, Valentino created something truly special.

I must be missing something. This fragrance is missing both structure and quality. It's like one of those body mists you'd find in the checkout queue of Marshall's, only placed in a beautiful Valentino bottle. Born In Roma Ivory is a cloudy, vague, semisweet scent that they are calling marshmallow. Emphasis on the word "scent" as I cannot justify calling this a perfume.

I am not surprised at all to see that there is no perfumer listed, as it doesn't feel like like it was crafted by one. If there were ever a Valentino fragrance created for babies and young children like Bvlgari and Tous has done in the past, this would be it.

Clearly a trendy cash grab. Prestige brands really need to escape these fads and get back to being creative. For those of us who were wearing Valentino in 2012 pre-L'Oréal Luxe, can relate when I say it is sad that this is what it has come to. Valentino used to be a very classy house, but it is clear the brand has lost its identity.

There was a time where limited edition flankers were exciting and something to look forward to.