Velvet Sublime
Dolce & Gabbana (2011)

Really pleasant citrus scent in the "Velvet Collection" series by Dolce & Gabbana. Love the combination of orange blossom's delicate accord, blending with the mandarin orange's juicy presence and the neroli's orange-ish shine.
The fragrance seems to have other notes - honeysuckle, tuberose, ylang, green elements - that feel like residual qualities from the three main notes mimicking other ingredients.

A fresh outing that, like its siblings, is quite expensive and is a hard sell for what's a basic citrus-floral fragrance. There are others that do what Velvet Sublime does, but for a fraction of the cost. Decant time!

A tangerine impression - more gently fruity than zestily fresh - blended with a white floral mix; in the latter orange blossom clearly dominates. Pleasant and agreeable as top notes.

In the drydown this is a rather linear development overall, but added touches come and go: an undertone of neroli, whiffs of ylang-ylang, and touches of tonka - but the orange blossom never goes away completely.

I get moderate sillage, excellent projection and nine hours of longevity on my skin.

Quite lovely a spring scent this is, if, however, a tad generic in the later stages at times. Performing well, and overall just a thumbs-up. 3/5.

Velvet Sublime kicks off with a nice juicy orange note, backed with orange blossom. As the orange fades, tuberose comes in, mixing with the sweetened orange blossom to make a decent homage to Giorgio Beverly Hills, though Sublime has an exaggerated saltiness that subtly modernizes everything. Given time, a sweet, tropical ylang note comes in, deepening the floral mix. The eventual basenotes are a pleasant mix of ylang and vanilla.

All told, Velvet Sublime is well done, though I can't help but be a little snarky and suggest that a nice bottle of Giorgio Beverly Hills could be had for 1/10 the price. The elements that make Velvet Sublime different (short-lived orange, salt, and a vanilla drydown) just don't feel like $200 worth of improvements to me. Nonetheless, it smells good and performs well, so I'm still giving it a thumbs up.

While I wanted to like this one (the concept sounds sublime, "Its inspiration is the orange groves of Sicily. Sun warmed acqua with Sicilian mandarin, orange blossom") alas, what got me was that acqua note, which most aqua notes usually do.

I smelled this delightful pastoral air for about 30 seconds, the time it took for my skin to react to the synthetic aqua note. At that point, all was lost, and I was left adrift in the big blue synthetic ozone that is my sad experience with most synthetic marine and water notes. I relate so well to the Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
"Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink"
:-(