Nobile 1942
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Bergamot cracks open bright and clean, immediately joined by grapefruit's tart gleam, while lavender adds an herbal counterweight. The effect is genuinely fresh—almost cologne-like—with no immediate suggestion of the florality to come. This is calculated misdirection.
The citrus notes don't vanish so much as recede into the background, creating space for orange blossom and neroli to rise with creamy, almost soap-like elegance. Ylang ylang adds a honeyed, slightly spiced sensuality, whilst petitgrain prevents the florals from becoming oppressive, maintaining that subtle bitter-green thread. The composition settles into a powdery floral sweetness that feels genuinely comforting—like skin itself.
Vanilla and musk emerge, merging with subtle cedarwood to create a skin-scent embrace. The fragrance becomes quieter, more intimate, the florals fading to whispers beneath a soft, creamy veil. What lingers is less perfume and more an elevated version of your own warmth.
Perdizione announces itself as a luminous, almost edible composition—one that sits comfortably in that increasingly rare territory where citrus meets gourmand without veering into either extreme. Mathieu Nardin has constructed something deliberately contradictory here: the opening salvo of bergamot and grapefruit suggests a crisp, almost masculine freshness, yet the heart's voluptuous orange blossom and ylang ylang immediately seduce that initial impression into something far softer, far more ambiguous.
What makes Perdizione genuinely compelling is the restraint with which these floral notes interact. Rather than the typical cloying density of a modern floral, the neroli and petitgrain keep the composition aeriated—they add a subtle bitter-green quality that prevents the rose and orange blossom from becoming dessert-like. The creamy accord (76%) arrives not as coconut or almonds, but as that whisper-soft quality inherent in quality ylang ylang when it's given room to breathe, creating an almost skin-like warmth.
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3.8/5 (90)