Casamorati Gran Ballo
Xerjoff (2015)

When I first started sampling perfumes, I'd go shopping and spray those little paper strips, meticulously label them, and take home like 30 of them to smell later at home. It didn't work because the scents would co-mingle (and because the smell would be pretty overwhelming on the subway home!). But that's what Gran Ballo reminds me of - a bag full of perfumed strips, or the smell of a crowded perfume counter with people spraying a bunch of competing but familiar perfumes.

In terms of specifics, I smell an Angel-inspired caramel base and nondescript fruity floral topnotes, with a faux rose floral middle holding them together. Late in the day, the caramel makes way for a pink pepper/tobacco layer. Part of me wants to give Gran Ballo credit for doing so much, but it's not nuanced or clever - instead it's more like a layering experiment gone awry. And because all the elements they're awkwardly combining smell fairly cheap and common on their own, Gran Ballo comes together like a badly composed symphony of cheapness.