Leva
O'Driù (2011)

This was the female counterpart to Ladamo in the Genesi collection, though it's very much a unisex fragrance. In simple terms, it's a spicy citrus scent, anchored by some earthiness and a touch of sweetness. Much of the spiciness is driven by tumeric for me. It's more suitable for warmer weather than most of Angelo's compositions, and I like this one particularly in the late summer as it transitions into fall.

I've always gotten a distinct impression of something hay-like in this ... something earthy, herbal, grassy, and perhaps a touch musty. Upon doing some reading, I discovered that marigold (tagetes) can give this impression. So there you go, I'm now very much a fan of marigold.

Biblical

Leva Opens with a tart Grapefruit melded with spicy pepper and marigold this opening has that nose tickle sparkle to it , I get hints of vanilla sweetness now and then amongst the culinary herbs and blessed spikenard, lemon grass is one of the aforementioned that sticks out and adds edge to the heart amongst a earthy spicy turmeric.
The base has a lovely vetiver and creaminess to it with light edge to it

If you have horses, perhaps occasionally you supplement their winter diet with a little sweet feed. High quality sweet feed if you love them, but feed with molasses added.

If you love your horses, you keep the winter stalls very clean...relatively. You, yourself, are right out the shower, happily wafting clouds of Jean Nate splash. A bit of sour horse urine, a bit of spilled sweet feed, a few straggly bits of fine alfalfa hay, the straw of the bedding that perhaps you used to wipe down your baby after the last sweaty ride, and a bit of not too old manure. Curry down the love of your life, and give him a little handful of sweet feed. Okay, you're feeling indulgent...the horse may be losing weight in the cold, so even though he's slobbered on your hand you don't mind, and hand feed him another little mouthful of sweet treat. Wipe off your hand on your jeans leg and stare into those big brown eyes. Tell yourself you'll wash this horse blanket soon.

You're the barn Queen. Dressage has nothing to do with clothing. Who cares about clothing???? You spend your money on tack.

If you love that smell...you're in luck. You can buy it in a bottle from O'Driu.

The opening phase is strongly lemongrass, part sweet (thanks to the vanilla) but also part sour. The sourness is more obvious when sniffed up close, & l find l prefer to sniff it from a distance, which isn't hard as the projection is pretty impressive. At a distance l detect a pleasantly woody, smoky, incensy vibe, & l quite enjoy this stage. After thirty minutes, however, this is overtaken by an accord of immortelle (although it's not listed) & spices, which is what remains right to the very end for me. lt's rich, full & syrupy, & although l don't altogether dislike immortelle, after a few hours it becomes decidedly dull, & it's still going twelve hours in. l also smelled immortelle in Ladamo when l tried it, so l guess it makes sense that its more feminine counterpart should have it too, but this kind of kills it for me.

Leva bears O'Driù's "signature" opening mixture, a dense and pungent concoction (here however gentler than in other scents) which is basically a floral-vanilla blend with lavender, a lot of spices (cumin above all), citrus notes, tonka, an earthy-dusty woody accord with a slight salty aftertaste (vetiver), benzoin, possibly some castoreum providing a carnal, sweet but at the same time sticky and "rotting" animalic note, and finally, "something" fruity, a sort of bittersweet note which I guess may be due to tagetes (which is a material I don't know). Overall Leva has something deeply classic and silently nostalgic, without smelling "opulent" or baroque, mixed with the peculiar, visionary and provocative dada-futurism of Angelo Pregoni – although unlike other scents by this brand, the latter is less present and prominent here. If comparing to most of other scents by Pregoni, Leva is fairly closer to classic perfumery - possibly the most close of all of them. By "classic" I mean the tradition of both feminine chypres (spices, humid flowers, dusty camphoraceous accents of benzoin) and masculine ones (woods-citrus-herbs accord). Where other O'Driù's took that as a starting point to elaborate Pregoni's visions and obsessions, here somehow it seems like he chose to step back and keep it classic, and also brighter and simpler than usual. Finally, once the drydown approaches, Leva "opens up" and warms a bit, creating a sort of cozy, aromatic and sweet feel of warmth which lasts for hours, slightly reminding me of tea. Perhaps less charming, complex or challenging than other fragrances by O'Driù, but nonetheless intriguing, gentle and well made. Worth a try.

7,5/10

I don't know what to say about this fragrance!
It's definitely something different, but not in a good way!
It's not great, but it's not bad either!
This fragrance and the whole scent based on turmeric note and depend on how much do you like this note, you may like it or you may don't!
The turmeric is a special spice that in my country we use it alooooot in many different type of foods.
The smell and taste of this spice is something unique and it doesn't smell like anything else that I could mention!
The smell of it is a little sharp and bitter (not too much) with some earthy and slight powdery feeling and that's what you will get in every step of this fragrance.
The opening is a juicy fresh lemony scent with very light and transparent herbal note and some florals in the background, plus the main note of the fragrance ..... turmeric!
The citrusy scent is sweet and juicy with slight tart edge and I think that's because of grapefruit note. you can smell the turmeric note with that slight earthy and powdery feeling and it's special aroma.
Beside these two, you can smell a very light basil and some floral notes, but they are completely in the background.
The scent is OK and definitely something new for your nose in fragrances, but if you're familiar with turmeric, you will say ... man, this one just smell like lemony turmeric!
Add a little lemon juice in a glass, add some water, some sugar and a little turmeric. there you go, you have this fragrance!
As time goes by, the floral and basil notes are almost gone and now you can smell a little stronger turmeric note that has some earthy and some powdery feeling and that juicy lemony scent is poking the main scent form the background.
Maybe that earthy smell is because of vetiver, but the turmeric note also has an earthy feeling by his own!
From this part the smell is almost without changes till the end.
Projection is soft and mostly close to the skin and longevity is moderate. I got around 4-5 hours which is not that bad!

Creative mix of dark and bright.The opening is a rather unique mix of grapefruit, jasmine and black pepper, the latter making for an intriguing dark twist to the otherwise brighter beginning. On my - clean - skin the whole has an impressive salty background, at times reminding me of the smell of a rainy beach by the ocean. The drydown sees a strong turmeric note taking the lead, giving the whole the character of a dark and earthy vetiver-like scent. This further developes into a complex tart incense-style note by the addition of a strong spikenard component. Further in the drydown, just when this has settled into a more sinister territory, a fresh lemongrass emanates accompanied by benzoin. This oscillating between dark and brighter is typical for the development of this fragrance on my skin, which towards the end adds a herbal-vegetal note with hints of bean and basil. Over the last hour a mildly sweet and uncloying vanilla is present and lasts until the end. This is a truly creative and quite unique composition of the highest quality and very well blended. Good silage and projection fir the first half of it's lifespan, with a total longevity in the range of eight hours on me. Like with all unusual fragrances, getting a sample first is highly recommended, as this scent is very much a matter of personal taste.

Yes, Leva is a notable departure (in style) from the most representative fragrances of the brand cause nothing particularly arcane, mouldy, boozy or ancient is represented in here. Leva is more modern but close to the skin. Leva is subtle, floral, spicy and vanillic. I catch a remote conjuration about some Etro's fragrance as Sandalo because of the particular implementation of hesperides and the final (vanillic) woody/fruity and spicy mildness. Since the beginning you suppose it will be a citrusy/spicy and woody-vanillic scent. I don't catch just the lemony note but also a spicy orangy cinnamon/nutmeg, the curcuma (more than pepper) and a final creamy mild light sandalwood. The beginning is barely herbal, citrusy, fruity (grapefruit) and medicinal with a cola/ginger fizzy feel and a lemony (lemongrass, bergamot) rising temperament. The link of neroli/ylang-ylang/jasmine produces in the meanwhile and exotic floral whiff in the air that is sour-sweet by citrus and spicy with a fruity-floral undertone. The more the juice evolves the more a final creamy vetiver/vanilla on the side of a mild woodiness and some smoky/orangy spiciness develop their light effects on the skin. Leva is not my favorite O'Driu' for sure but is a well take on a sparkling spicy/vanilla kind of experience.

Leva is definitely a departure from what one expects from the house of O'driu based on most of their other offerings. It opens on skin with just the faintest hint of grapefruit and olive, before quickly featuring a beautiful lemongrass note at the scent's heart, sweetened by a natural vanilla that is not of the powdery variety. The lemongrass and vanilla tandem remain into the base notes, only sweetening a tad more via a minor infusion of tonka bean and maybe even a hint of sandalwood. Apart from the very short-lived top notes, Leva is quite linear to my nose. Projection and longevity were both below average.

I was definitely surprised at the subtlety of Leva. All of the other O'driu scents I have smelled have not been subtle offerings, featuring spice and rose combinations that can be quite potent indeed. Here, Pregoni lets the Lemongrass and vanilla stay as almost a skin scent, all notes well-blended and quite subdued throughout. Leva is classy, very accessible and extremely pleasant smelling (I should mention I am a big lemongrass fan). I do feel that Leva may be a bit *too* subtle and linear in this case, as at the price point O'driu scents go for, the purchaser almost expects something extraordinary, and while a very good scent, I don't think I would put Leva in that category. Recommended to try for certain, but at its relatively high price point I can't recommend a purchase. 3 to 3.5 stars out of 5.

"The nightmare that reveals the pleasure" -- indeed.
The juice is an olive-oil colour.
The scent starts with a slight citrus note and the promise of a woody vanilla. Lemongrass quickly appears. More vanilla, with a touch of cocoa; and more wood. THEN a really odd and rather uncomfortable fruity-ozonic note appears. It is like a strange, Lovecraftian version of a hyped-up peach/bergamot note. Some have called it "screechy" and it is kinda wierd and certainly not to my taste. That gradually fades away, and I'm left with a soft, powdery, close-to-the-skin scent. It is quite pleasant. It has a ginger/metallic brightness which cozies up to a woody-vanilla note. I normally detest vanilla but it is OK here in its muted form. This last phase seems feminine to me, somewhat pretty and a bit sweet. But it is not too sweet, and it is pleasantly woody so it could work for anybody. I'm not sure it is worth the trip through the X dimension to get there, though. :/

LEVA

It would be unwise to underestimate Leva, there is more to her than it first appears.........

Leva is a story. An olfactory story. Screened in fast forward.

Grapefruit, Jasmine, Black Pepper
Curcuma, Vanilla, Jatamansi
Lemongrass, Benzoin

If you have been fortunate enough to try other fragrances in this range, the opening of Leva will surprise you because it is very different from the others. The list of notes cites Lemongrass in the base but to me Leva begins with Grapefruit and lemongrass, enhanced with ginger. It is a yellow thing, bright and optimistic. Sunny. The notes are very natural, very true. It seems simple, too simple....

But soon, something happens, something familiar, yet unfamiliar, creeps in, you know that you should recognise it but for a moment it is elusive, and then suddenly you realise that it is JASMINE, but an hallucinogenic jasmine, difficult, not pretty. All of a sudden this simple thing has become discordant, conflicted.

If you are anything like me, you may find jasmine a difficult mistress. Beautiful and menacing in equal measure. Leva is no longer golden, it is green and white, the topnotes are incongruent with the jasmine, it speeds up, it is uneasy, the jasmine dominates now, it is screeching..... You are about to say STOP when all of a sudden it is OK. The ginger gains ground, it is warmer, it calms the whole, the jasmine softens. Instead of conflict we have harmony, relief.

Then, a surprising softness, vanilla, benzoin. Now, The Stockholm Syndrome. The captive falls in love with with the captor. The wearer falls in love with the fragrance.....

Leva was not what I expected. Having experienced Ladamo, I expected that she would be an earth mother, verdant, fecund, but she is not.
I have tried her several times. Just now I have gone back to the narrative that comes with the fragrance and I can't believe that I see "under the sun" listed as a note (the yellow beginning), and "the nightmare that reveals the pleasure" (the middle). I can't believe it!! Really, I can't believe it. How does he do it?