Néroli Portofino: A fragrant journey to Italy by Tom Ford After bewitching us with a Black Orchid more intoxicating than ever, Tom Ford repeats the feat with its collection of twelve fragrances for connoisseurs released under the Private Blend collection.
With Black Orchid, Tom Ford managed in 2006 to offer a fragrance worthy of his chic and sophisticated collections. However, Tom Ford still had many beautiful olfactory paths to explore, and as early as 2007 he set out to take his devoted audience to the heart of a collection of charms, Tom Ford Private Blend. Néroli Portofino is one of these precious bottles which, composed by Rodrigo Flores Roux, exhales the charm of the Mediterranean as dreamed by the designer.
Néroli Portofino, or the dreamed-of riviera of Tom Ford and perfumer Rodrigo Flores Roux
While some major houses explore perfumery with some hesitation, Tom Ford demonstrated from his very first steps in the field his great love affair with fragrance. Indeed, Black Orchid offered, from the very beginnings of Tom Ford fragrances, a luxurious distillation of the house's finest values.
However, Tom Ford, as a devotee of scents and fragrances, wished to explore the talents of the perfumery geniuses he had met while creating Black Orchid. Thus, barely a year later, he offered a collection of limited-edition bottles that he named Private Blend.
I believe people are starting to grow weary of the globalization of fashion (I bear a large share of the responsibility for that) and that they are going to want things that are more private, more personal. Private Blend was created in that spirit, with hand-blown bottles, extremely luxurious ingredients, and the guarantee that it will not be on every skin. Tom Ford in L'Express on the occasion of the launch of Private Blend, which included the magnificent Néroli Portofino.
Among the twelve bottles that make up the Private Blend collection, we have the pleasure of discovering the beautiful Mediterranean Néroli Portofino, composed by Rodrigo Flores Roux. Néroli Portofino is built both on the classic scents of eaux de Cologne and on a new amber sensuality typical of Tom Ford's favorite scents, the designer being especially fond of offering fragrances that resemble him in every respect.
The citrus and flowers of the Mediterranean dissolve into the magical amber of Néroli Portofino
Each fragrance in the Private Blend collection was composed by a different perfumer with complete creative freedom. As for Néroli Portofino, we are hardly surprised by the profusion of tangy citrus that makes up its top notes, given that the perfumer who created this ultra-modern cologne delights in playing with citrus to convey freshness and energy. Indeed, Rodrigo Flores Roux is nicknamed in the industry the king of citrus…
However, this citrus cocktail quickly gives way to the delicate, exotic flowers of neroli and orange blossom, lending Néroli Portofino a refinement of absolute femininity. These relatively classic perfumery notes are then completely upended by far more unusual depths. Indeed, white musks and an amber note bring to this cologne a new, far more sensual dimension, and one that is ultimately so emblematic of the Tom Ford style…
For Tom Ford, this fragrance perfectly captures the freshness of the breeze, the sparkle of clear water and the opulence of the foliage of the Italian riviera. Tom Ford on Néroli Portofino, Private Blend.