Valentino by Valentino (1977)

The original Valentino perfume is one of very few fragrances (if not the only one) I seem to prefer as an EDT over the extrait de parfum concentration. Maybe that's because my very first bottle of it (bought around 1991) was, indeed, an EDT. I wore it over several summers but never repurchased until last year when I found old bottles of both the eau de toilette and the parfum on eBay and on a dusty shelf at an antique store.

This green floral is probably not the most balanced in the genre, as something about it (my money is on it lily-of-the-valley heart, a note that's ridiculously easy to mess up) can get loud and screechy. I don't mind the hint of a peachy melon (or melony peach?), as it seems to function as a sweetening and softening backdrop for the flower bouquet, but one must admit this is no Le Parfum de Therese.

A drop of the parfum under a couple of EDT spritzes is nice, but more than that is the stuff that gives floral perfumes a bad reputation as being too suffocating. Other than this little issue, the original* Valentino is a pretty, super feminine perfume. My favorite part is the green and hyacinth combination that is all about spring and wearing pretty dresses with a cute purse and adorable sandals (all by Valentino, of course).

Valentino is easy to wear on a late summer day, when you've had enough of the crazy weather, already exhausted your summer perfume collection and want something a bit different. Some would argue Valentino smells dated. It has a hint of an animalic base (though not enough to raise the eyebrows of your nearest and dearests) and enough oakmoss in the base to choke an IFRA bureaucrat. I don't care, though. Sometimes a perfume that smells like a perfume is a very good thing.

Valentino by Valentino is available online fairly easily, but it seems to have been discontinued at some point, since there's a new(ish) and very different perfume under the same name.

*Valentino was released in 1977 and again in 1986. I can't find any info on what, if anything, was changed in the formula. Since both bottles in my current collection seem to smell identical to the way I remember it from 1991 I'm assuming all I know is of the later version.