Goldlocke

Oh how long I have searched for a wearable vanilla!
Now I have found it.

One thing upfront: Yes, I have slowly become a vanilla junkie. I am downright addicted to vanilla fragrances of all kinds and am always thrilled by what can be conjured from vanilla. In the past, I always thought vanilla was something for sweet teenage scent bombs, simply heavy and intrusive.
But Vaniglia Fior di Mandorlo shows - like many other vanilla perfumes - that this doesn't have to be the case. Rather, we have here an adult vanilla that knows what it wants and does not smell like squeaky candy vanilla sugar, but radiates elegance and strength.

Acca Kappa achieves this with bergamot, which, contrary to what you might expect, stays on the skin quite a long time. The refreshing note is perceptible for about four hours and provides the vanilla with a summery, cool support all the way into the heart note.
As the fragrance develops further, it becomes beautifully creamy thanks to the almond blossom. Delicate flowers, slightly reminiscent of honey. Vanilla is clearly in the foreground, but the flowers make the scent experience more complex and softer. Don't get me wrong: the almond blossom does not come across as floral at all. Rather, it warms up the vanilla and makes it elegant.
Then after about 6 hours, we reach the base: Almost smoky sandalwood and tonka bean make the scent appear a bit harsher than at the beginning. Here we have the adult, strong aspect. Amber and musk add a touch of animalic at the end - very interesting and something I have never smelled in another vanilla perfume before.

Overall, the fragrance lasts all day. A single application in the morning is enough to perceive the gently changing scent journey throughout the day.

The bottle feels super high-quality. The glass is heavy in the hand and the cap sits nicely firmly on the bottle. The spray mist is also lovely! Not a short "Pft," but a beautifully elongated "Pfffffffffffft" for connoisseurs ;)

At the beginning, in the first two minutes, it strongly reminds me of Cologne water. For me, it evokes positive memories. Freshly cleaned apartment, freshly showered, fresh laundry.
Then it becomes creamy and remains increasingly creamy until the end, a remarkable 8-9 hours later. I don't know any other citrus scent that does this.

In detail:
This one is not a dry lemon or grapefruit scent. Rather, it starts off spicy in the sense of Cologne water, which is probably due to the lavender. Not soft, not floral, but herbal. It's pleasantly refreshing, a bit like standing in a garden amidst lavender and lemon trees.
Then comes the aforementioned creaminess. Amber and musk probably manage to elevate the citrus fruits to such a soft, creamy level. There’s nothing sharp that stands out, which is (unfortunately) often the case with citrus scents. No, here everything is balanced. Nothing stands out, everything blends into a lemon-bergamot-grapefruit-musk cream. Like a luxurious body lotion. Quite potent though, not a faint breeze.

After that, it doesn’t change much anymore. The spicy freshness from the beginning disappears within the first few minutes. The citrus-musk cream becomes even creamier towards the end, and a hint of vanilla can be detected after about five hours. By no means sweet. Rather soft, pleasant, deep.

The longevity is fantastic for a citrus scent. Where others fade after an hour, this one projects for about eight hours. After that, it can still be smelled, but only with the nose close to the wrist.

Who can wear it: everyone! The first scent where I truly think THIS is unisex. Neither spicy-masculine nor sweet-feminine. Rather spicy-soft-creamy. Simply beautifully composed.

This is not a pure vanilla scent. No, this is a real perfume. So something wearable, something elegant, not a cake scent for on the go. Not a sugary body spray. Nothing monothematic.

Let me describe Aura Sublime in more detail:
The opening impresses with its balanced composition of 50% citrus accords (freshly cut lemon and a hint of bitter bergamot) and 50% warm-soft vanilla (a classic vanilla, rather sweet, but not sugary).
I had been searching for exactly this combination and yet feared that it would turn out to be a cake scent and that I would be the little cake on two legs when wearing it. With a vanilla-lemon combo, it can quickly seem that way...
But no, this perfume develops into a wearable fragrance - cozy and elegant.
This is made possible thanks to the iris butter, which soon brings a booming-powdery note into the vanilla-lemon blend. And then after a while, the "balsam note" described in other reviews comes into play. While reading the comments as I waited for my blind purchase, I couldn't quite imagine what that might be - not some kind of tiger balm, like the one you use for coughs and colds? Or something smoky-scratchy?
Rest assured: neither of those applies. Rather, the note that appears after about 2 hours reminds me of warm cocoa and incense. The cocoa is unsweetened, very important. Not sugary cocoa for a children's birthday party, but noble, defatted cocoa and very subtle. The noble vanilla is clearly in the foreground. The cocoa might also be my imagination, as it is not listed. In any case, it is something very similar; fragrance experts are welcome to write to me about what else it might be. And the incense that I think I can smell is not yet lit, but still has a balsamic-oily scent and is in no way smoky or scratchy. If this description doesn't help you either, I might assist with a comparison to a spa visit. It doesn't quite match, like the unlit incense, but I believe this clarifies what I mean. A noble spa that smells of essential oils without being able to pinpoint a specific oil. But as I said - cocoa and balsam are really subtle, and Aura Sublime remains a vanilla-lemon perfume. In the drydown, this (imagined?) cocoa and the balsam are indeed the supporting characters to the tonka bean, which allows the vanilla from the base to continue living.

The longevity on my skin is excellent - even in the evening, I can still clearly smell this perfume on my wrist.
The sillage is good, especially the projection is (according to my colleagues) pleasant. Noticeable, but not annoying.
The bottle has been changed. It is no longer as shown in the picture above, but even simpler (who thought that was possible...). Very simple. Quite the opposite of the stunning, multifaceted perfume. Overall, the new bottle also appears very high-quality. It feels heavy in the hand, the cap comes off quite firmly (so it doesn't constantly fly off by itself), and the spray is luxuriously misty, in line with the higher price category.

Conclusion: beautiful perfume. Through Aura Sublime, I have personally recognized the difference between "scent" and "perfume" - and I love this perfume!

Right after spraying, you find yourself in the damp cellar of an old villa. Herbaceous, musty mandarin radiates from the wrist, vintage DNA makes the scent of an old, once magnificent villa perfect.
So I remain (thankfully, imaginatively) in the musty cellar for about 10 minutes, wondering why this perfume is so hyped.
Then slowly and hesitantly, a hint emerges that at the end of this cellar's corridor, there could be a vanilla. It sparkles subtly from the herbaceous, spicy darkness and lures me closer.
I get closer to it over the following minutes.
And with a bang, the door opens and a magnificent, sparkling, warm amber room comes into view. Opulently fruity-sweet, even slightly powdery vanilla evokes the association of soft, rich golden amber. I turn around in the room and this amber vanilla appears more beautiful, powerful, and richer to me. Where the musty mandarin was in the initially described cellar, now there are freshly peeled mandarins with shaved lemon zest, and the juice of ripe oranges mixes with the vanilla into a soft, deep, viscous syrup. Oh, I never want to leave this sparkling, warm, impressive amber room.
I don't have to, because this perfume radiates this enchanting, opulent scent from my wrist well into the evening hours. Time and again, it draws me back into the amber room.
Then in bed at night, after 10 hours on my wrist, such a soft vanilla can be perceived, like in hardly any other perfume. Still so full-bodied and soft, so enchanting and tempting, the vanilla accompanies me into sleep, now without the fresh lemons, yet still with warm orange, and I actually dream of an amber room that night...

Thank you very much for the recommendations in the forum. I had asked for a scent that smells like buttermilk lemon ice from my childhood.
This fragrance here is the mentioned ice cream in liquid form.

It hardly develops - at least on my skin.

From the very beginning, it is a balanced blend of:
- zesty lemon (fruity without being sharp or smelling like "toilet cleaner")
- ripe grapefruit (which brings a bit of bitterness to keep the scent from becoming too heavy)
- vanilla (sweet but not cloyingly sweet. By no means heavy-oriental)
- sandalwood (together with the vanilla, it creates the cone of the ice cream)

Projection: Surprisingly strong for a citrus scent. It doesn't smell out of this world, but it is definitely noticeable to those around me -> my husband's comment: Wow, did you eat ice cream in the city? You smell so good like vanilla-lemon ice cream!

Longevity: Solid. Projects for about 2.5 hours. Right up close to the wrist, I can still smell it after 5 hours. After that, the fruitiness of the lemon fades, and only the cone remains. But still not heavy-sweet-wanting-to-wash-off, rather vanilla-soft-subtle.



______________________________________________________________________________
Additional note: For me, it is NOT a scent twin to "Dulcis in Fundo." Dulcis in Fundo is much more vanilla-forward, with less of the refreshing, yogurt-like lemon. Dulcis in Fundo is the adult, big sister of this buttermilk lemon ice. If we want to stick to food comparisons, this one is the ice cream, while Dulcis in Fundo is the freshly baked cheesecake with a lot of real, soft, high-quality vanilla in it.