Emanuel Ungaro
Emanuel Ungaro
163 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The first spray assaults with cardamom's almost black-pepper bite, immediately tempered by a honeyed tuberose that's creamy and indolic. Bergamot brightness cuts through like a silk blade, whilst the aldehydes add an almost metallic shimmer—it's deliberately glamorous, slightly retro, unapologetically loud.
As the spice settles, the heart emerges as an unexpectedly refined white floral arrangement: carnation's clove-and-spice edge keeping narcissus and jasmine from overwhelming, whilst ylang ylang adds a subtle coconut-like warmth. Orris root provides a powdery, almost violet-tinged underbelly that softens the composition considerably. It's lush without being suffocating, complex without confusion.
What remains after four hours is faint but distinctive—oakmoss's dry, leather-like undertone paired with that undeniable civet musk, now more obvious as everything else fades. Sandalwood creeps through with a soft, almost creamy sweetness, whilst vanilla adds final warmth. It's animalic and intimate, a skin scent that's far more compelling than its fading projection suggests.
Diva is a fragrance caught in a fascinating contradiction—a 1983 powerhouse trapped in an Eau de Toilette bottle, which explains its notorious longevity deficit. Yet in those crucial opening hours, Jacques Polge has crafted something genuinely intoxicating: a spiced floral that wears like a silk evening gown with fur stole.
The cardamom and coriander create a peppery scaffold across a generous tuberose presence, the aldehydes lending that slightly soapy, almost ethereal shimmer that defines the era. There's an earnest sweetness here—mandarin orange playing against tuberose's buttery richness—that never tips into cloying. The heart reveals Polge's restraint: carnation adds a clove-tinged dryness that prevents the jasmine, narcissus and ylang ylang from becoming an amorphous white floral blur. Instead, there's definition, almost architectural precision.
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4.1/5 (97)