Varanasi 2020

Varanasi by Meo Fusciuni
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7.7 / 10 51 Ratings
According to EssenceVitae Research Team A popular perfume by Meo Fusciuni for women and men, released in 2020. Furthermore The scent is spicy-animal. The longevity is above-average. It is still in production.
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Fragrance Pyramid

Perfumer

Ratings
Scent
7.751 Ratings
Longevity
8.345 Ratings
Sillage
7.743 Ratings
Bottle
7.940 Ratings
Value for money
7.324 Ratings
Submitted by M3000, last update on 30.05.2024.

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Reviews

5 in-depth fragrance descriptions
8
Bottle
8
Sillage
8
Longevity
8
Scent
Medianus76

22 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
Medianus76
Medianus76
Top Review 23  
A Trip to India...
1999 - Central India. I am in Hampi, more precisely in Vijayanagar. This was the last Hindu kingdom, and today it is an ancient ruined city with a huge number of temples. The landscape around Hampi immediately fascinates everyone. Out of a whim of nature a hilly area was created, which is covered with a myriad of granite boulders piled up on top of each other. There are many myths and stories about the origin of this bizarre landscape. One says that the monkey god Hanuman let the stones rain down to demonstrate his power...
Anyway, Hampi and its old kingdom is an absolutely magical place where there is a lot to discover. If one wanders through the old temple complexes, one can perceive the smell of incense everywhere. It is almost as if these aromas are coming out of the old masonry of millennia-old temples to tell stories of times long past. Outside the temples, all sorts of traders offer their goods and delicacies for sale. Again and again one catches exotic scent clouds, and in the scorching sun of India one likes to sit down in a shady place to relax with a glass of Chai...

South West Coast, Goa, Vagator Beach. It is the 31.12.1999. The last day of the old millennium is approaching dusk. Goa resembled a witch's cauldron at this time. People from all over the world had come to celebrate the turn of the millennium in a place that was quite unique at that time. The air was electrified, and the great Millennium Bash was to take place in Disco Valley. A party location directly at the sea under a huge number of palm trees. It was a very unique experience at a very unique time. Bright fluorescent colours on the palm trees, illuminated with black light, created the necessary visual space. The smell of dusty sand and the steaming chillums of the party crowd was in the air. Pressureful, wafting basses of the whipping trance music pushed through the masses, and you had to be careful not to get lost in the turmoil...

Northwest coast, Bombay. A big-city juggernaut who is certainly without equal. Never before have I experienced a place that has such poverty and misery, as well as incredible wealth and prosperity, directly
revealed side by side. For me, Bombay had rather little appeal. But my stay there was not too long, so I surely missed many pleasant moments. But what I did not miss were the most different and manifold smells and scents that can be perceived. In the positive as well as in the negative. No matter if spices from street vendors or the air impregnated with exhaust fumes. Bombay has so much to offer...

When I now smell the wonderful fragrance Meo Fusciuni - Varanasi, I immediately have at least one of the three experiences described before my eyes. It's like pressing a rewind button, which catapults me a good 20 years into the past. One could also say that Varanasi is preserved India in its purest form.

But what does Varanasi smell like? The fragrance pyramid has a lot to offer, but in my opinion it makes little sense to filter out individual aromas in isolation.
Varanasi is smoky, woody, also has certain slightly musty musty chords. These in turn give the fragrance the necessary character. Floral, slightly sweetish tendencies round off the fragrance. Resinous-balsamic facets enhance...a little bit of everything.
The fragrance must be perceived in its entirety!
Plattly expressed one could also say he smells like incense, a very good one, mind you. But elegantly expressed, the label has succeeded in capturing, preserving, extracting and filtering the scent of a subcontinent. To create a true niche fragrance. From my current scent horizon, I have never smelled anything comparable.

The intensity and sillage seems to me sufficient to appropriate, and also the durability can be rated as good. However, this is certainly not an everyday scent. Varanasi is quite special, and even if I can associate many memories with it, I don't want to smell it all the time.

Coming back to the west coast again, I would like to close my story with a few words, which I could perceive again and again in the smallest state of India:

Goa is not a place - Goa is a state of mind!

Thank you for reading...

14 Comments
8
Sillage
10
Longevity
8.5
Scent
SebastianM

27 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
SebastianM
SebastianM
15  
Flashback
Rarely has a perfume moved me as much as this one. This is concentrated India beyond all brochure romance and spice clichés. At the heart of it is an aquatic-animal chord that has probably never existed anywhere before. I immediately smell the dirty water, the dust, the fruit wallahs, the garbage, the smog, the withering flowers. I hear the noise. It's like a movie. It's so directly Indian to me, an incredible emotional journey through time. Total flashback. After a few hours, when everything has calmed down, when I'm out of the plain and it's just humming from a distance, then I can even wear Varanasi as a perfume. Before that I prefer to be alone with it.

Sober addendum: Some synthetic woods have come into fashion recently. The longer it takes, the more "Varanasi" approaches "Lyric Woman", for example, until they can hardly be distinguished. Also a great similarity to the end of "Au Coeur du Désert" (another such durability monster) is noticeable. But Varanasi is more magnificent than the ones mentioned, and the warm spiciness also remains more vivid.
8 Comments
7
Pricing
9
Bottle
8
Sillage
9
Longevity
10
Scent
Bertalansar

1 Review
Bertalansar
Bertalansar
1  
An artistic masterpiece
I discovered the Meo Fusciuni brand very recently. I have previously not smelled anything from the brand, however I decided to try some of the fragrances from the brand, because I found the idea behind the fragrances very unique and interesting. Needless to say, the perfumes have lived up to my expectations.
Most of the scents are just as unique as their stories and they are all masterfully blended and put together in a way that the wearer can experience exactly what is intended.

I came across the brand in a store in Milan when I was randomly browsing, to find something new and exciting. The sales assistant asked me if I knew anything about the story of Meo Fusciuni and then started explaining in great detail what Varanasi and also some other fragrances were designed from.

Varanasi is exactly as the name suggests. It is spicy, oriental, quite animalic, but beautifully created with a lot of smoky incense. Just beautiful. I have never been to India, but should I have to imagine the atmosphere of Varanasi, I would say that this perfume gives back the vibes perfectly.

It is one of the most wonderfully complex fragrances I have ever smelled and I highly encourage everyone to try out some of the brands offerings, because they are truly ones of a kind.
0 Comments
Nselective

16 Reviews
Nselective
Nselective
1  
Varanasi
The inspiration behind this perfume fascinates me and even if I decided to sell it I would still like to have it at home for pure collecting. Having said that, I believe that the real problem with this perfume is its long duration and a dry down that tires you in the long run. The opening in theory is more animalic, it is here that the "fecal" smell is immediately noticeable, but it is well compensated with a smokiness that makes it dry and mystical. After that it only gets worse for me, the evolution is quite linear and all its characteristics slowly disappear, leaving room for an animalic musk that gives a quite oily and greasy sensation, and feeling it for 16 hours is not the best
0 Comments
HalfEntity

2 Reviews
HalfEntity
HalfEntity
1  
Teleportation device to Varanasi
This is not a fragrance. It's art for the sake of art of a teleportation device. Now, I have never been to Varanasi but as it's a famous place of India , I have read and watched documentaries about it. I have some idea of what it would smell like. The fragrance starts of smelling like ashy dirty water accompanied by incense in the air. If I wouldn't know that the fragrance is about Varanasi I would say it smells like an antiseptic bandaid but I get what Imprezzabile wanted to achieve here. The incense is not the sweet kind like in CdG Avignon or the aromatic kind like most of the Amouages have. It's dry but no devoid of soul. After 1-2h it's starts getting some sweetness but it's not distinct to anything from the note breakdown. That dirtiness and incense still linger. The dry-down is the most beautiful part of the fragrance. It's clearly some oudh as it's getting skankier and skankier along with some saltiness from the ambergris most likely. This is my #1 "don't buy for for compliments or to impress" fragrance. It's just a picture of Varanasi that Imprezzabile pained with his nose not with his hands. Performance is massive, I still get the ambergris and oudh blend after 12-14h easy. In fact, I showered after this period and the heat made it come alive again. 100% try before buying, multiple times and if you like it ...get a teleportation device to Varanasi for around $200.
0 Comments

Statements

4 short views on the fragrance
HolscentbarHolscentbar 11 months ago
8
Scent
Smoky and dark. Animalic floor with beautiful spicy. Complex
0 Comments
OdeurnicheOdeurniche 1 year ago
9
Bottle
8
Sillage
9
Longevity
9.5
Scent
This melt my soul. India in a bottle, sweet, dirty, animalic, floreal & leather notes will rise your senses to a true mind trip. A must try!
0 Comments
MeliponeMelipone 1 year ago
Once the memorable top notes start fading (about 1 hour in), to me this leans towards a rougher Leather Oud.
0 Comments
PatronrPatronr 2 years ago
8
Bottle
8
Sillage
8
Longevity
8.5
Scent
Scent mirrors the lowest caste life. So dirty, smoky animalic and spicy. Song of Kali by D. Simmons is the picture for that scent.
0 Comments

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Lily Roux

Hello! I'm Lily Roux, a passionate perfumer with over 20 years of experience crafting unique scents. I specialize in creating personalized perfume impressions tailored to your desires. This site is where I'll be sharing my love for perfumes and everything fascinating about them. Welcome aboard, and let's embark on a fragrant journey together!

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