Vintage by John Varvatos
Bottle Design Jon Cisler Design
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7.5 / 10 228 Ratings
A perfume by John Varvatos for men, released in 2006. The scent is spicy-leathery. It is being marketed by Revlon Inc..
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Main accords

Spicy
Leathery
Woody
Sweet
Fresh

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes Top Notes
Juniper berryJuniper berry Santolina White lavenderWhite lavender
Heart Notes Heart Notes
Fir balsamFir balsam PatchouliPatchouli JasmineJasmine
Base Notes Base Notes
SuedeSuede TobaccoTobacco Tonka beanTonka bean

Perfumer

Ratings
Scent
7.5228 Ratings
Longevity
6.1192 Ratings
Sillage
5.8192 Ratings
Bottle
7.6194 Ratings
Value for money
7.671 Ratings
Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 18.04.2024.

Reviews

12 in-depth fragrance descriptions
7
Bottle
4
Sillage
6
Longevity
8
Scent
DonJuanDeCat

657 Reviews
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DonJuanDeCat
DonJuanDeCat
Top Review 13  
For the last time... I'm not a bottle victim!
Hello and welcome to a new fragrance from me. I hope you didn't melt too much yesterday because it was really hot! Now it's a little bit cooler again, which is very pleasant and I can also try scents again, which didn't go so well with me in the heat of hell. Well, today's about a Varvato's scent. Vintage.

Hmm,... I have to admit that I only became aware of the John Varvatos fragrances because of the great bottles of the Artisan fragrance line at that time. These great bottles had a braided disguise, which I thought was really cool (at least as far as the Artisan scents are concerned).

So I tested some of the scents and found most of them not even bad, on the contrary, I found some like the Artisan even really good. However, a good friend of mine did not believe me and she still thinks that I would like the fragrances ONLY because of the flacons (which is so not true!) and has therefore often called me a bottle or packaging victim... *sigh* :D

Well... the bottle of this fragrance here is less spectacular, but maybe it's just as great as the other fragrances of this brand!

The fragrance:
The beginning is fresh and slightly citric. Somehow it smells quite classic, about as similar as all these barbershop-like scents. Only then does the scent become sweeter and I think I can smell the juniper berries. With lavender I'm not sure what white lavender is again (there you learn that lavender are these purple flowers, and then they suddenly turn white as well.... Tsss....!), but the fragrance smells like normal lavender to me, so bitter-herbal.
Tannenbalsam, which also begins to smell from the top note, is one of the stronger fragrances here and smells of great firs or pines, forest, together with a soft, balsamic note, which makes the fragrance very pleasant. The berries from the beginning are getting weaker and weaker and fade into the background in the course of the heart note, so that one can now best smell the woody pine scent together with the lavender. Tobacco is added later, but it is very weak, so that you can't actually perceive it when you smell it normally, but only when you flatten your nose at the sprayed spot. The classic and barbershop-like note is still there, but now it seems a bit like oakmoss to me. Otherwise, suede is quite good smelling from the base, mixed with slightly woody scents. The sweetish one also remains and I would say that this should be the tonka bean, even if the sweetish scent should also look a little like cinnamon because of the bitter notes of the scent. All in all a beautiful, classic and mature fragrance.

The Sillage and the shelf life:
The Sillage is normal to slightly weak at the beginning. Unfortunately, it loses more power quite fast, so that it doesn't get close to the body, but still remains very weak and can only be perceived from close up. The shelf life was somehow also not so long, so that after six hours the scent was hardly really to be smelled, at least with me.

The bottle:
The bottle has the thin bottle shape like all Varvatos fragrances and is dark brown. Around it there is a reptilian/snake-like leather label with the name of the fragrance on the front. The lid is slightly golden and cylindrical. It doesn't look bad, but there are much nicer flacons of Varvatos (e.g. Artisan).

Well, vintage is also a beautiful John Varvato fragrance. In contrast to the other fragrances of Varvatos, however, this one looks much more mature and is therefore less suitable for younger ones. Normally I would also recommend it for going out, but since the Sillage is unfortunately really weak, it is more suitable than day and office scent. The type can be used at any time, here I cannot decide on a certain season. So for me it is a good all-rounder, which you can test, even if I personally prefer to smell the Artisan than this one.

Soo... the bottle is by the way a little less great than the fragrances with this "straw wrapping", so I'm less excited to buy this fragrance and I'd rather go for the normal Artisan from this brand... no WAIT! That really sounds like a bottle sacrifice... *sigh* Well, maybe there's some truth to it, but aren't you the same? At least I don't say like you something like "If the bottle looks good, the scent smells better", you FREAKS, you!!! :DD

Well, that's that again. I wish you all a nice evening, then until the next time :)
3 Comments
8
Bottle
6
Sillage
7
Longevity
8.5
Scent
Libre

13 Reviews
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Libre
Libre
Helpful Review 8  
Allrounder with vintage touch & Barbershopflair
All of you who read my comment about the "Icon" already know my weakness for barbershop fragrances ;-)

Now, is that a barbershop scent, is it soapy?
No, he's not, at least not to my way of thinking!
And still would assign him to the barbershop scents.

But actually it doesn't really matter. You don't have to put everything into a drawer ;-)
For me, there is definitely something very attractive about the scent. I already felt this way when I got a bottling of it months ago. I liked it immediately and couldn't even say exactly why. For me it is a typical feel-good scent.

However, this feel-good fragrance had a decisive catch. Durability and silage are not really the best. But unfortunately this is apparently typical for the fragrances from the house of John Varvatos. For this reason I decided against buying it. But it should come differently ...

Thanks to Warilol's statement, which suggested good durability, and an exchange with him, I finally decided to buy it. Fortunately for me, at that time there was a little used bottle in the souk :-)

I don't know if this is an older batch or if I was just lucky, because both durability and sillage are really satisfying for a Varvatos.

A lot has already been written about the fragrance itself. To be honest, I find it difficult to assign or interpret the fragrances of the pyramid correctly, because everything is very well coordinated and merges smoothly into each other
Yes there is leather in it, but I do not find it leathery at all. Also he has a slightly sweetness without being a gourmand. The same applies to the spices and boozy notes. There is nothing too much and nothing too dominant. Nothing disturbs and everything is in its place.

Conclusion: Successful all-rounder with a vintage touch and barbershop flair.

4 Comments
8
Bottle
6
Sillage
6
Longevity
7
Scent
Tom27

39 Reviews
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Tom27
Tom27
Helpful Review 6  
Vintage meets modernity
John Varvato's Vintage opens with a rigorous very soapy juniper, enriched with bergamot, chamomile, lavender and basil. The foundation of this mixture forms at this time a lightly acting moss chord. After half an hour, the fragrance slowly enters the heart phase. Patchouli, exquisite fir resins and other woody aromas on the one hand, and a spicy jasmine note on the other, which perfectly combines the woody soap green with a dry floral aspect.
The base of Vintage is incredibly densely woven with oakmoss, tonka bean, suede and even tobacco. Now the fragrance appears deceptively light and clean, accompanied by a hint of balsamic, creamy smoke. The more vintage dries off, the more wooden aromas prevail and give the fragrance a mild, gentle aftertaste that ends after about 6 hours on my skin.
The ingredients used for Vintage make a high-quality, natural impression. It seems that Ambroxan and Norlimbanol were deliberately avoided in the composition in order to make the fragrance experience as natural as possible.
Vintage is a recommendation for the mature gentleman who is olfactory at home in the 80s, but also appreciates more modern aspects of a perfume. Whoever can't come to terms with the subject of soap moss/wood Fougère is probably badly served with this fragrance.
0 Comments
10
Bottle
7
Sillage
7
Longevity
8.5
Scent
Kreisquadrat

14 Reviews
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Kreisquadrat
Kreisquadrat
Helpful Review 8  
Golden, warm shimmer in darkness. Earthy, oily and spicy smells this environment
Discreet, sweet, gentle and warm barbershop flair fragrance.

If you don't like sweet scents, this one's not for you. This one has no sharp edge of a classic from the past. Yet this soft approach to the barbershop theme makes it modern and accessible to the masses, I suspect.

Definitely has a certain vintage touch to it nonetheless. I can imagine this fragrance for situations from neatly dressed (jacket to casual style etc) to pithy edgy with motor oil (biker style).
A beard vorllendet the visual to the olfactory. And the full beard düfte thereby also represented the age limit from when you can wear this fragrance confidently.

I have often read that the JV Vintage is too liniar and boring.
He acts at the beginning quite uncomplicated Geradelinig, but this must not necessarily be a negative criterion. I personally like in particular its sillage which conveys to me neatness, stability and order.

At the beginning meets me a fragrance monolith and splits only with time to different nuances. Where the beginning, as well as the top note here can actually make skeptical.
There is on the one hand the citrus-fruity freshness, then the soapy and in the background something tart and dry. Possibly it is the leatheriness, the woody and smoky. This is not dominant at all and rather supports the overall impression. I clearly enjoy the sillage more than sniffing it directly. The earlier. Mentioned fragrance monolith can be exhausting at the beginning.

Yes the durability distinguish JV Vintage not exactly to a club fragrance, even if you necessarily want to project strongly with a perfume. JV Vintage is good for close-to-the-body interaction or for situations in which it would be inappropriate to confront his counterpart with a strength fragrance sillage. The scent composition doesn't seem particularly natural or high quality. JV Vintage moves on a good Disignerduft level.

The bottle is very gulungen. Elegant, in the sturdy brown glass, wrapped with a faux leather and a gold print lettering. Lies comfortably in the hand, even if the spraying and thereby the 125ml bottle securely in the hand to hold quite a certain reaccustoming brings with it.

Whatever your opinion of this fragrance, to me it brings back vague memories of vaguely pleasant events from the past. I have a good time while wearing the John Varvatos Vintage. I like him as he is, even if some criticism would be justified.
1 Comment
6
Bottle
6
Sillage
5
Longevity
9.5
Scent
MrHonest

110 Reviews
MrHonest
MrHonest
Helpful Review 7  
Polo, my brother!
I don't care what anybody says, this stuff is NOT Burberry London LoL. And let's be real - if you buy a Varvatos frag, you're also buying a travel atomiser. 'Nuff said. That's just how we keep the good times rollin'.

And guys, Vintage is one hell of a good time, let me tell you. If you're a cowboy, this is your scent. If you're on the prowl for cougars in the nether-regions of a desert town, this is you. Mexican? Well...let's not stereotype...

But if you've ever seen a John Wayne movie, everyone in there is wearing Vintage. Just look at the note pyramid and you'll notice that it shares 5 prominent notes with Ralph Lauren's Polo - tobacco, leather, patchouli, juniper berry and some kind of pine. So can you blame it for smelling so similar in the drydown? Sure you can! But to me, it's actually a tad smoother and more well-rounded - easier on the nose. That's why I like to think of this as Polo's little brother. And I just love it. It's basically 90s masculinity in a bottle.

So if you're a fan of the original Polo formulation, but found it a little too sharp, you'll find something in here for you at like half the cost. Well, plus the atomizer. Let's not kid ourselves...
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Statements

7 short views on the fragrance
HugoMontezHugoMontez 8 months ago
A masculine fougère from the 90s with a 00s sweetness. Fir balsam with a tobacco aftertaste. Really nice.
0 Comments
JacobCedarJacobCedar 1 year ago
8
Bottle
6
Sillage
5
Longevity
6
Scent
Interesting scent. Very unique but not very versatile. Barbershop or business meeting vibes.
0 Comments
BrightstarBrightstar 6 years ago
10
Bottle
9
Sillage
9
Longevity
10
Scent
Very nice tobacco scent. Suitable on night or cold/rainy days. The bottle is with a leather label, very nice. Very elegant and classy scent.
0 Comments
WolfHunterWolfHunter 6 months ago
5
Bottle
3
Sillage
4
Longevity
8
Scent
Masculine sweet tobacco scent that is perfect for the fall and winter. The only thing that lets it down is the weak performance and projection.
0 Comments
RobbieXRobbieX 1 year ago
10
Bottle
6
Sillage
5
Longevity
7.5
Scent
An very unusual blend of spices and fruits. Moderate performance and unique. I like this a lot. It has loads of character.
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