Valentino Beauty is reaching back to 1991 for its first new fragrance franchise in six years. Vendetta, the name founder Valentino Garavani gave a scent that year, returns as a pair: Vendetta Donna, a floral woody by master perfumer Dominique Ropion with perfumer Andrew Everett, and Vendetta Uomo, a spiced woody by master perfumer Marie Salamagne. The house frames the duo as a rejection of performative, algorithm-shaped romance, built for an "us-against-the-world" escape.
Vendetta Donna leads with tuberose at its most carnal, a flower with a standing reputation as a narcotic and an aphrodisiac. Its heart carries Tuberose Osmobloom, a trademarked extract Ropion calls "an exclusive innovation," processed through what Valentino calls Air-Capture technology to push the flower's brightness and depth further. "Behind its whiteness and solar accents, Tuberose has an ultra-narcotic character," Ropion said. He called the extract invaluable for delivering the flower's scent as it blooms at dawn. Everett wraps that tuberose in a red orange nectar accord, juicy and syrupy with a salted edge, modeled on the Tarocco Rosso, an Italian orange prized for its sweetness; the salt, in his words, adds a crispiness that "triggers a modern vision of addiction." A sandalwood the house also labels exclusive finishes the composition, creamy and enveloping, and the juice is tinted red, the house's signature color made literal.
Vendetta Uomo opens on a shot of Peruvian ginger, captured as a CO2 extract, with Italian citrus underneath for freshness. A cinnamon liquor accord heats the heart, backed by more spice, before patchouli and a carnal woods accord ground the base. "I selected a very pure essence of patchouli, preserving its raw woody character while amplifying its depth. The composition develops a tactile, skin-like quality," Salamagne said.
Dakota Johnson and Alexander Skarsgard, the franchise's ambassadors, front the first Vendetta campaign, photographed by Inez & Vinoodh. The two play lovers who follow instinct over convention. The staging splits the difference between heritage and modernity, the camera between intimacy and movement.
The bottles make the couple argument in glass. A graphic V structures both silhouettes and repeats across the outer packaging, two separate identities in one matched frame.
