Uomo Born in Roma Purple Melancholia is an eau de toilette for men by Valentino, launched in early 2026 alongside the Donna version. The house describes it as an ambery aromatic woody: cardamom opens it, lavandin forms its heart, and a creamy coconut accord melts into amber woods, over the bergamot and lavender trail of Born in Roma Uomo.
Joshua Graham, of Attitude, likes the cardamom opening and a coconut accord that is refined rather than tropical: a grown-up scent that gets noticed without demanding anything. Varanis Ridari, of the blog The Scented Devil, rejects it: a woody coconut close to Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Beau, with a medicinal lavandin.
Olfastory’s review
Attitude won over
On March 11, 2026, Joshua Graham tried the eau de toilette for the British magazine Attitude, after the London launch party. The cardamom opening, deep, aromatic and slightly spicy, struck him as warm and sophisticated, without ever taking itself too seriously.
The creamy coconut accord, which in his view defines the fragrance, avoids the register of beaches and sunscreen and stays refined. The aromatic amber-wood base leads him to see it as a grown-up scent, one that gets noticed without demanding anything.
A dissenting view
On April 12, 2026, Varanis Ridari, of the blog The Scented Devil, judged it harshly: a woody coconut that poaches on the territory of Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Beau, less vanillic, and that slides toward a dry wood with sandalwood pretensions.
Varanis Ridari detects a sweet opening, a coconut coated in muted spices and a medicinal lavandin reminiscent of Dior’s Sauvage and Prada’s Luna Rossa Carbon. The whole comes across as a polished variation on another project of the L’Oréal group.