Juliette Has a Gun is the spunky niche brand from Romano Ricci – great grandson of Nina Ricci. The name is taken from Shakespeare’s most famous heroin and the gun that she brandishes is a metaphor for her perfume, which she uses as her weapon of seduction. Juliette Has a Gun has a kick-ass attitude, she’s a gal with tons of moxie and takes no prisoners.

There are currently 8 perfumes in the line, well 7 if you you decide not to count ‘Not a Perfume’, which I’m not, because it isn’t a perfume and it gets on my nerves. Anyways, Romantina was released last year and is Juliette Has a Gun’s latest perfume. With Romantina, Ricci adds something new to the line – its very first white floral, that at first seems quite out of place amongst the mixed bag of misfit characters that hang around with Juliette and her Gun.

Romantina (I love that name) is described as “an ode to insouciance” [1] and is based on a modern love story. Like the other perfumes in the line, Romantina has a strong character, but rather than being a bad-ass bitch, it exudes a confident innocence that if fallen for, can prove much more deadly. When I received my sample set I immediately reached for Romantina, I am a white floral lover after all, and whilst it may be an ode to insouciance, my feelings for it certainly aren’t indifferent.

“The story is a love story: it’s about a young woman visiting Rome. She falls madly in love with a local guy, but leaves within 24 hours so that the love story stays untouched.” [2]

The Notes

Orange Blossom, Jasmine, Lily of the Valley, Rose, Iris, Osmanthus, Vetiver and Vanilla [3]

How Does it Smell?

Romantina’s top notes are full of orange blossom, orange blossom and more orange blossom. I find it to be quite a soft version of one of perfumery’s most ubiquitous flowers, it’s got a good balance of milky flowers and indolic petals that frankly smells great. On top of the orange blossom there are touches of citrus and something peppery, but the overall impression of the opening is very floral.

White flowers can either be innocent of filthy, it depends on just how much of their true indolic nature is allowed to shine through. In Romantina the flowers err on the side of innocence but that’s not to say that Romantina is some kind of wallflower, not at all, there is a stripped-down essence to them that suggests that Romantina isn’t averse to showing her naked self.

The white florals intensify with time and the rose, lily and jasmine become much more prominent as we progress into Romantina’s heart. These florals are joined by a strong white musk which really intensifies Romantina’s milky quality, it adds a beautiful smoothness that makes for a wonderful velvety texture. I have learned to love white musk, Puredistance I taught me that a good quality musk can really add that extra something to a fragrance, and when it’s done right the results can be nothing short of spectacular.

Despite the fact the musk is almost clinical in its cleanliness, Romantina isn’t short of a dirty aspect or two and she’s not as innocent as she may seem. As it dries down a strong patchouli note becomes more and more noticeable until you are confronted with a stark contrast between milky/musky white floral and earthy patchouli with a hint of vetiver. It’s a good contrast, but I think that the dirtiness doesn’t quite get to come through as much as it should and it feels like a little bit more of the heavy stuff would have allowed for a greater balance.

As far as white florals go, Romantina isn’t bad at all, it perhaps places too much emphasis on the musk for my tastes and I’d have liked them to amp up the florals more to allow for some of that dirty raunch to come through. If I were to compare it to another perfume, I would say that Romantina is quite similar to Dior’s Pure Poison, although it lacks the oomph and the ability to defeat an entire army with one spray. That said, Romantina is perfectly lovely, I’m just not sure it’s quite lovely enough to convince me to part with £59, especially when there a better white florals out there and also whilst I have my eye on a bottle of another Juliette Has a Gun fragrance – Calamity J.

The Bottle

Romantina is housed in Juliette Has a Gun’s signature bottle, and this time the bottle is coloured in a very soft beige.

I adore the simplicity of the Juliette Has a Gun bottles, and despite the fact that they are all coloured differently, there is still a degree of uniformity to them that makes them look very good together.

The only problem is that they are undeniably girly…

Availability 

Romantina is available in 50ml and 100ml Eau de Parfum. Prices range from £59-£79.

Disclaimer

This review is based on a sample of Romantina sourced myself.

[1] & [3] juliettehasagun.com
[2] fragrantica.com 

Image 1 & 2 newsonbeauty.net
Image 3 leiweb.it