Fragrance Profile (⭐9/10)

Valentino Uomo Born in Roma EDT, is a perfume that will take you to the seaside, surround you with the freshest greens and then give you a metallic throne, hovering over the sea with a crystalline halo. I am sorry if that sounded like a mouthful but that is honestly how this fragrance feels. Don't take it the wrong way, despite being such a byzantine blend of accords, everything gels together marvelously, like a massive painting coming together, stroke by stroke as the scent traverses through its journey.

The first 15 minutes smells like a burst of greens with an aquatic freshness - you smell the salt as you wade your hand through the water, and you get a whiff of all the minerals that line the shore. The greens that I mention, are not herbal as you would imagine but smell like a wet forest with a slight mint like sharpness imparted by the sage and violet leaf notes; not too sharp however, very careful and subtle. There's also a metallic touch to all of it which gives it a sort of lustre(?) After the first 20-30 minutes, the scent starts developing a hint of extremely subtle sweetness with the previous green backdrop. It's only strong enough to remind you that there're some flowers in this forest as well (Note that the sweetness isn't floral, it's more like an ambery sweetness). The sweetness is also accompanied by a little bit of ginger which gives you a nice warm drink to sip onto as you admire the horizon.

After an hour or so, the scent begins to settle down into a blend of woody vetiver, salty, mossy greens with a sweet backdrop that forms the backbone of the fragrance for the rest of its journey. The freshness remains throughout but the subtle sweetness is what makes this fragrance a mass pleaser. From the first 15 minutes of barely being there to forming the backbone, the ambery sweetness slowly grows around you without it ever taking away from the freshness of the scent. Also, note that despite me mentioning the sweetness of the perfume multiple times, this isn't the kind of sweet you normally encounter - I personally cannot stand fruity and sweet perfumes but this doesn't bother me at all, the sweetness is very calming and balanced.

Performance and Projection (⭐5/10)

The performance however leaves much to be desired. On normal application of 4-5 sprays on skin and 2 on clothes - the hot indian summer is extremely unforgiving to this perfume and it barely lasts 2-3 hours on skin during the day. Slightly colder nights however, I have gotten about 4-5 hours out of it on skin, and 9-10 hours on clothes. The scent projects for the first 30 minutes after which it becomes a skin scent. I have tried overspraying (10-12 sprays) the perfume which gives me slightly better projection of around 1-1:30 hours and the longevity increases to 5-6 hours. It's pretty affordable so I don't mind overspraying or re-spraying throughout the day.

Overall Thoughts (⭐7.5/10)

I got the 100 ML bottle on sale for just around 4300 Rs on Myntra and instantly fell in love with it as soon as I opened the package. The first few sprays were enough to justify the purchase and the premium bottle design is one to die for. The scent trail you leave behind will definitely turn a few heads. Quite a few friends asked me what I was wearing and I have received multiple compliments for it in the past 1 month of possessing this. All in all, this is a massive crowd pleaser and extremely hard to go wrong with. All the notes are inoffensive and subtle yet imposing. A great, unique freshie for the summer after being bored of all the citrus bombs out there, this was a refreshing take (pun intended) in the domain of fresh perfumes. I do however feel that this may be a decent choice for the winters as well. This in my opinion, is an extremely safe blind buy - up there with the likes of YSL Y or Sauvage, I just don't see anyone going wrong with it apart from the wacky performance.