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Vaara Penhaligon's 2013

7.3 / 10 233 Ratings

A perfume by Penhaligon's for women and men, released in 2013. The scent is floral-fruity. It is being marketed by Puig.
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Main accords

Floral

Fruity

Spicy

Fresh

Sweet

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Quince

Rose water

Carrot seed Saffron

Saffron

Coriander seed

Heart Notes

Bulgarian rose

Moroccan rose absolute Peony

Peony

Freesia

Indian magnolia Iris

Iris

Base Notes

White musk

Sandalwood

Cedarwood

Honey

Benzoin

Tonka bean

Perfumer

Bertrand Duchaufour

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

7.3233 Ratings

Longevity

7.1172 Ratings

Sillage

6.5172 Ratings

Bottle

8.0177 Ratings

Value for money

6.934 Ratings

Submitted by Cassandra · last update on 08/05/2024.

Source-backed & verified

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Reviews

17 in-depth fragrance descriptions

07/25/2013

10Scent 7.5Longevity

SchaumB
10 Reviews

SchaumB

Helpful Review 5

fruity & sophisticated

Having read the notes of the fragrance I was really intrigued as to how a quince top not blended with rose and fairly creamy base notes such as honey and tonka bean would work. The outcome is really beautiful, Bertrand Duchafour has created a fabulous soft fruity sophisticated and elegant fragrance. Not at all sweet or cloying just fresh, fruity and creamy.

03/04/2014

3Scent 5Longevity 5Sillage

VegaOcean
155 Reviews

VegaOcean

Helpful Review 2

Generic Flower/Honey Scent

If u like roses. Go with it. I think it is very feminin scent. Sillage and longevity are more then moderate. For young girls to heavy. Changes after 2 hours into a soft balsamic/honey floral drydown. For me it is not special enough and to generic. Predictable in his Drydown. Sorry Penhaligon's.

You should try Kings Road by Boadicea the Victorious or Amouage - Hommage to sniff real perfection compared to this one.Amen.

10/20/2017

Anthology
18 Reviews

Anthology

Helpful Review 2

Nice and quiet

The perfume opens with a loud bitter smell where I can detect saffron, coriander and a bitter fruit. The opening is sparkling and bitter. It is like feeling orange blossom but I don’t see the note listed. The same bitterness is here.
The heart is still bitter but mixed with a floral odour. At this point is a bitter-sweet fragrance with a wonderful rose note.
The dry-down is sweet, with honey, benzoin and tonka. Now the oriental facet of the fragrance appears. Only a hint of bitterness left behind can be felt now. The sweetness of the honey gives a warmer and pleasant touch.
Vaara is a nice perfume that says close to the skin. Nice and quiet.

03/17/2016

8Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

Drseid
828 Reviews

Drseid

Helpful Review 2

When Traditional History Couples With Modern Day Tweaking...

Vaara opens with a mild saffron spiced slightly dewy, airy rose. Moving to the early heart, the spiced airy rose remains as star, deepening, while adding in supporting moderately sweet honey, slightly sharp floral peony and well-integrated subdued cedar wood. During the late dry-down, the honeyed spiced rose considerably recedes, leaving its remnants supporting emerging slightly sweet sandalwood from the base. Projection is average but longevity very good at around 11 hours on skin.

Penhaligon's is a house that tends to offer up mundane, safe traditional perfumes. While there is nothing wrong with traditional, per se, it is the mundane that has generally disinterested me and many others. That said, the house while not veering too far from its roots has in recent years added some real character to its releases, beginning with the sublime Duchaufour-like As Sawira, and now with Duchaufour's own Vaara. Vaara starts things off on a high note with an outstandingly transparent and natural smelling watery rose. When the rose turns airy, adding the supporting peony floral, the mild, natural smelling cedar and fine saffron spice to the mix I knew Penhaligon's had another winner on their hands. The combination is extremely complex, and it took several wearings to really appreciate all its subtle nuances, especially the initially faint cedar that grows in strength as time passes though never calling attention to itself. If there is a mild weakness, it is in the late dry-down as the rose recedes and sandalwood takes the fore. This combination definitely works, but it lacks the complexity of the composition's mid-section. I suppose when one can only fault a late dry-down being "less complex" than the heart, it is not much in the way of criticism at all, and indeed in the case of Vaara there is little to criticize. The bottom line is Penhaligon's may have a stodgy release history, but the house is making subtle strides to change this and the $160 per 100ml bottle Vaara is yet another "excellent" rated 4 stars out of 5 success. Vaara may not be quirky or particularly innovative, but it does smell *darn* good!

09/03/2022

7Scent 6Longevity 5Sillage

ScentGrail
109 Reviews

ScentGrail

Overpriced but nice

Vaara by itself is a good fragrance if we ignore all the comparisons with some other rose-forward fragrances.During my time with this scent, I had three main issues. One is it is not worth over $200 USD no matter how good the presentation looks, who was the perfumer, and how many natural ingredients are there inside.

The second issue is with the performance. It is not bad as for example Jo Malone fragrances tend to be, but for this amount of money, the quality of the fragrance isn’t at the highest level I wanted for more than four hours.

The third and last complaint was the capture of the spirit of Jodhpur. If no one told you, I highly doubt you would guess right which country was the inspiration for this creation.

TOP NOTES
Vaara opens up with a thoughtful and carefully mixed watery rose, and a mixture of quince with hints of spices. The rose here is watery but much soapier than today’s standards. It mostly reminds me of fragrances that used this kind of rose in perfumes from 30 to 50 years ago that were worn by maybe a little more mature and well-dressed ladies of high society.

HEART NOTES
As the fragrance gently transitions into the floral heart, the rose starts to settle down, and the magnolia switches places with the citruses from the opening.

I have to point out that for this amount of money, the fragrance is shockingly sharp and synthetic which pinches my nose in the wrong way.

However, the fragrance shines the most when it’s fully dried down when woody, spicy and sweeter aspects get their chance to play the main role.

BASE NOTES
There is no denying that Vaara is primary a floral fragrance, and women’s fragrance, no matter what Penhaligon’s marketing is trying to tell you.

The unisex part comes from the base notes when the honey, musk, and saffron get intensified. There are zero sandalwood, benzoin, and tonka beans notes here, but what I found is a high dosage of Iso E Super which can mimic javanol – industrially made sandalwood, musk, and cedarwood notes.

I bet that Bertrand knew that without Iso E Super this fragrance would be completely gone from the skin in one to two hours.

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