BDK Parfums Villa Néroli and the view of the famous Santa Stefano church as painted by Wilhelm Emil Robert Heck in “Capri” (1872) – ©Wikimedia

 Founded in 2016, BDK Parfums has become a consumer and industry favorite, with their exciting range of niche perfumery. Ambre Safrano will soon be available worldwide, after a one-year exclusivity at Harrods. Gris Charnel in its Extrait version was launched a few weeks ago. Just in time for the heat of summer BDK Parfums Villa Néroli was added to the Collection Azur last month. The collection is a tribute to the Mediterranean region where  David Benedek, the brand’s founder spent happy days of his childhood. For the brand’s 17th creation, the island of Capri located in the Bay of Naples, whose unspoiled nature and art of living inspired him. “When I first discovered Capri, I had the strange and fascinating sensation that time had stopped. Walking on the heights of the island, under the light of the setting sun, I could see sumptuous villas. In their alleys, the bigaradiers (bitter orange trees) give off their fragrant scent. For me, it is like a solar joy, between optimism and serenity. This new creation from the Collection Azur is an invitation to live the dolce vita”. -David Benedek

Alexandra Carlin and David Benedek celebrating (at L’Appartement Symrise) BDK Parfums Velvet Tonka which won the 2022 French Fifi Best Fragrance from an Independent Brand – ©Alexandra Carlin and David Benedek Instagram accounts.

To bottle Capri, David Benedek once again called on Alexandra Carlin, perfumer for Symrise. When BDK Parfums Villa Néroli was unveiled to the media last April, both shared with us how they worked hand in hand on Velvet Tonka, their first collaboration which was awarded the 2022 Best Fragrance from an Independent Brand French Fifi on June 16th, marking an important milestone in their respective careers.  Capri famous for the natural beauty of beaches, cliffs and coves was fertile ground for both to play with the colors, landscape and the smells that characterize the island.

A beautiful view of Capri from the Monte Solaro – ©Pixabay.

David Benedek imagined BDK Parfums Villa Néroli as a mysterious fragrance wrapped in his unforgettable memory of enveloping and sensual orange blossom, the starting point for perfumer Alexandra Carlin: “I imagined a garden of orange trees in Capri, a garden of abundance overlooking the Faraglioni, thousand-year-old rocks eroded by the wind, the rain and the sea. When the sun is barely down, this garden takes on an air of honeyed sweetness”. The perfumer focused on the sensual facet of orange blossom, deliberately moving away from its soft and fresh symbolism evoking childhood and innocence: “I started with an orange blossom that I had worked on at ISIPCA (the famous Versailles fragrance post-graduate school). I wanted it sensual, honeyed, amber and heady. Narcotic, even”. Alexandra Carlin has used orange blossom in very large quantities, accompanied by neroli and petit grain, three raw materials that she loves to incorporate into her compositions. This trio is entirely derived from the bitter orange tree, since the petit grain is produced from the distillation of the twigs and leaves. The Symrise perfumer was able to craft this multi-faceted perfume by integrating Nérolione®, a powerful proprietary molecule evoking the scent of cleanliness that enhances the ultra-dosed orange blossom. So, is this new fragrance putting orange blossom on the spotlight rather than neroli? “BDK Parfums Villa Néroli is indeed more focused on orange blossom, but neroli is such a poetic-sounding word…I kept it for the name“, explains David Benedek.

BDK Parfums Villa Neroli during the media presentation: several raw materials were introduced individually- ©Emmanuelle Varron

The beautiful lagoon blue bottle might give the impression that BDK Parfums Villa Néroli is an eau de cologne but the concentration is at 25%, the same as eau de parfum. This is immediately noticeable on the skin. If at first I found it clean and cooling, just a few seconds later were enough to raise the temperature. I shared with Alexandra Carlin and David Benedek my first reaction in person; that I had perceived a powerful and bursting light, like a ray of sunshine reflecting in a bay window. Several weeks later, in addition I imagined a gastronomic interpretation: that of the mille-feuille, with varied textures, between the puff pastry finesse and the cream delicacy, all elaborated in mastered layers that mingle in perfect balance. Villa Néroli has an intense olfactory luminosity which is imparted by the neroli-Nerolione® duo with a fresh and tangy opening, where the juicy lemon and the crunchy and woody petit grain are also part of the game, all with rare power. Then comes the orange blossom absolute, round and carnal, with solar and honeyed facets, delicately softened by a fresh, almondy Bulgarian rose. This is the moment when my nose can no longer come off my wrist. BDK Parfums Villa Néroli oscillates between freshness, sensuality and purity, but always of an unstoppable luminosity. This back-and-forth impression goes on for long minutes, accentuating its astonishing power at the same time. But finally, I imagine myself reaching the peak of Monte Solaro, with a magnificent view and a deep blue sea! The sun is bright and I can hear the lapping of the water on the ancestral Etruscan rocks. I quickly fall asleep in the shade of an umbrella to wake up a few hours later at sunset. My skin warmed up with notes of vanilla and cistus labdanum, one of the most sensual alliances in perfumery, moving between balmy, suave and resinous facets. Orange blossom, neroli and petit grain are still perceptible, playing extra time. And if the drydown lowers the intensity, it does not decrease the temperature. The round, woody notes of vetiver and patchouli offer an ideal return to dry land, framed by the peaceful waves of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Night is falling and summer seems eternal.

BDK Parfums Villa Néroli is a true warm weather fragrance with a burnished brilliance, both fresh and carnal. Truly uninhibited. It smells of the sun, the sea, long walks on the beach at dusk: that’s what I call la dolce vita! It is also a fragrance that one will want to wear at the beginning of autumn, to still cling to the sweet memories of summer, and that one will be eager to wear again in spring, to bring faster on sunny days. Its power and its longevity are exceptional given its olfactory profile which could suggest yet another clean orange blossom. With each spritz I imagine myself in this Mediterranean paradise and wear it regularly since summer has settled in Paris. Villa Néroli is another successful collaboration between David Benedek and Alexandra Carlin.

Notes: Verdelli lemon (Calabria), neroli essence (Tunisia), Nérolione® (Symrise), petit grain essence (Paraguay), orange blossom absolute (Morocco), rose absolute (Bulgaria), vanilla absolute (Madagascar), vetiver (Madagascar), patchouli (Sulawesi), labdanum resinoid (Spain).

Disclaimer: A huge “merci” to BDK for the bottle provided for this review. The opinions expressed are my own.

Emmanuelle Varron, Senior Editor and Paris Brand Ambassador

BDK Parfums Villa Néroli 100 ml bottle – ©Emmanuelle Varron

Thanks to BDK Parfums, we have a 100 ml bottle of Villa Neroli for one registered reader in USA, UK and EU. You must register here. To be eligible, tell us how you feel about Emmanuelle’s review of BDK Parfums Villa Néroli and where you live.  Do you have a favorite BDK Parfums fragrance? Draw closes 8/5/2022.

BDK Parfums Villa Néroli is available on BDK Parfums Website and Jovoy Paris websites.

BDK Parfums Velvet Tonka won the French Fifi Best Fragrance from an Independent Brand and was one of Olya Bar’s Top ten fragrances of 2021. Please read Olya Bar’s review of Gris Charnel here.

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