Buying limited edition perfume is a mixed blessing: while I love the idea that a perfumer can release experimental work without a huge financial risk, what if you adore it? You’ll want everyone to share the pleasure, but that’s not possible.  I have no urge to completeness, or collecting for its own sake.

Hoarding seems silly — perfume in a closed bottle is not nearly as interesting as perfume on skin — but while music doesn’t get used up by listening, perfume’s beauty is only released by its destruction.

I am less and less prone to impulse buys*. I’m still curious to try new fragrances, but going all the way from a first sniff to a sample to maybe a decant to a bottle happens less frequently. I have to believe something is pretty phenomenal to justify its space and skin time among the things I acquired over the years. The idea of buying entirely blind–not just unsniffed but unreviewed by people whose judgement I respect–is unnerving.

Clearly, I overthink perfume purchases. Yet with all that, when Antonio Gardoni announced a new bogue profumo scent with a tiny release I didn’t hesitate. Not for a moment.

Writing about 0,7738, however, is full of hesitation. It feels like showing off–I have something that you can’t smell, ner ner ner. And a responsibility–too few people get to experience this, so how do I do it justice? By pointing you to the review by Mark Behnke of colognoisseur is probably how.**

I will have a lot to say about this perfume***. Each time I wear 0,7738 (aka “bello”) I start writing about it. Then decide I need to think about it more, so, you know, maybe next time when my thoughts coalesce, and I find just the right analogy to make it come into focus.

It’s a complicated fragrance.

I can tell you that it’s beautiful, and fascinating, and slightly strange, and shifts its weight between different aspects, or, yes, pulls focus to highlight different players in the ensemble. And that I am awfully glad that I was able to get some of this to think about and enjoy.

So, apologies: lots of words and not a lot of information.

*reader, this is not quite as true as I’d like you to believe
**via internet archive as the site is no longer there
*** six years later, i still haven’t written about it properly, though I have worn half the bottle. Read Mark B’s review.

first posted 5 April 2019, footnotes December 2025