Italica Casamorati 2016

I can see why this is either a hit or miss for most people. For me, it's one of the most beautifully crafted gourmand fragrances I have ever experienced. The opening is an explosion, an accident in the kitchen. The pastry chef got into a fight with the sous chef and the almond extract was used as a weapon. Strong, IN your face and UP your nose, marzipan and essence, saffron and almond flakes flying everywhere. Even though it's not listed in the notes, I swear there are some Maraschino cherries who have fallen victims in this brawl.

Then, the lactonic notes start to appear, a resolution has been reached, hands shook, and folks are sitting down over a plate of almond biscotti and glasses of milk. It keeps changing and enveloping you in a cozy, musky sandalwood. Never too sweet, just right, no wonder this restaurant has a Michelin star. Bravo, Xerjof! I'd pay your inflated prices for this.

This review is based on a full bottle of Italica that I bought a few months ago. I had tested a sample of Italica that I bought initially from Xerjoff before making a commitment.

In my personal experience, perfumes from Xerjoff follow the notes and olfactory pyramid disclosed on their website fairly closely. Italica is no exception.

Italica opens as a milky almond dessert with a tiny whiff of saffron. The creamy milkiness transforms quickly into the heart notes - primarily toffee and vanilla - that appear soon after. The almond in the opening persists through the heart notes. This creates the core personality - a milky almond toffee dessert - of Italica. The woody base notes that appear many hours later don’t create much of a bang as their intensity is low. The overall development of Italica is very gradual, if any at all. It starts with an almond toffee explosion and ends in a mild woody musk. Fortunately, what we have is amazing enough.

Italica provides very good performance, like any other Xerjoff perfume. It lasts on my skin for 6-8 hours and almost twelve hours on my clothes. The sillage is good but it does not project across the room. Italica comes in a deep carmine bottle with exquisite packaging that we expect from Xerjoff. A smaller 30 ml is preferable as Italica is not a versatile all-purpose perfume. I wanted it primarily for the novelty of a toffee-almond-milky dessert scent.  Italica delivers everything that it promises.

I can appreciate this fragrance, but on my skin it is very very laconic thanks to the milk... and I don't like it. It smells like something curdling. The milk lasts for a very long time for a top note, but it doesn't travel far from the skin... which I am thankful for. Instead, I smell a buttery caramel reminiscent of a werthers original. I do not get any almond but I do get saffron. The almond becomes more apparent the closer my face gets to my arm. I do not understand the mass appeal of this fragrance but do admire the creaminess of the milk note... they can easily become very sharp on the skin. There are much better gourmands from Xerjoff, namely Lira, Dolce Amalfi, Dama Bianca, and Golden Moka from the Coffee Break collection. I will not be buying this, upset that I still have 9.5ml of a decant to get through.

Also for the price of a full bottle, or even the 30ml, the silage is poor after 1-1.5hrs of wear. I would expect more for a fragrance of this price.

This is my first buy from Xerjoff, after many videos of trusted experts telling me this is one of the best gourmand scents you can buy nowadays, I decided to blind buy it.
The presentation is great, the box is very pretty and luxurious.
I was not disappointed when I sprayed it for the first time. The scent is very round, very well made. I sprayed 6 times..It made me so happy.
I have a collection of more or less over a hundred scents, and for the first time in years
my partner FINALLY actually said " whaw! you smell so goooood" without me even asking... a triumph.
Later, 3 hrs later I went to play badminton and got complements from two persons.
The reviews for this perfume are so strange, people are strange... some complain the scent is too strong..since when a great performance is a problem? if is too much, just spray less.
Other people write is too sweet, I do not agree, this is far from a syrup sweet girly scent. There are many sweet ingredients, but the level of sweetness is perfect, also is perfect for a man, is so special and niche quality.
The opening accord Cherry-Milk-Almond is so amazing, in a moment I imagined I smelled Coriander, but after I realized it was the Cherry and the type of Vanilla working together.
I understand you may not like a scent, but to give such a high quality scent a 0.5 rating is just ridiculous. This scent deserves a better rating, for me is a 8.5 but I will give a 10 to contra rest the 0.5 rating someone grumpy gave.
Anyway I am very happy with my new scent and can wait to buy from Xerjoff again because the quality of this scent is just top.

Italica is one of the very few gourmand fragrances that I can wear and enjoy. It strikes a far better balance between smelling like desert and smelling like perfume than many other gourmand fragrances are able to achieve. It doesn't become excessive or cloying and it's quite well composed overall. The opening is good, but a bit peculiar right off the bat. At first, it smelled salty to my nose, but that aspect faded very fast in exchange for a delectable, lactonic almond note that smells like a fresh almond croissant. There is some vanilla layered in there as well, but it never becomes sugary or cloying, and stays fairly mild overall. As it dries it keeps the almond croissant vibe, but also gains an odd fresh/zingy note from the woody base notes. It blends with the sweetness quite well, creating a balance that most gourmand fragrances tend to forget about. I think this woodiness really helps make this fragrance great, and makes it far surpass many other gourmands.

Though perhaps the concept of a sweet, lactonic almond gourmand is not entirely new or groundbreaking, I think it's safe to say that Xerjoff did a wonderful job at refining this fragrance into something that far surpasses other scents in the gourmand genre. The woody dry down mixed with the gourmand qualities is immensely welcome and incredibly unique. I highly recommend this one to anyone who is on the fence about gourmand fragrances!