Notes: Sicilian petit grain, Calabrian bergamot, Italian citron, bitter almond, aromatic accord, subtle floral heart, leather accord.

Evocative of a Sicilian getaway, Taormine opens with a bright inviting warmth. I’ve never been to Sicily myself, so I’ll have to rely on the perfume and my own imagination to paint this picture. The hesperidic opening is lightly aromatic and just a touch herbaceous. It sets a sultry mood, like a salty sea breeze blowing onto the patio at cocktail hour. However, Taormine doesn’t open up into a big salty, beachy scent. I think that’s a good thing, because what it does instead is a little bit more interesting.

For me, the almond note is the star of this composition. It starts sneaking in about fifteen minutes after application and lingers for the rest of wear time. The almond is interesting because, while it adds a touch of sweetness and some depth to the aromatic citrus notes, it’s not enough to turn this into a full-blown gourmand scent. Instead, the almond keeps this composition dry and grounded, which helps make Taormine a lovely summer scent.

The leather in the dry down here is gentle. It reminds me slightly of Bottega Veneta’s Eau de Parfum, which is all the rich leather of Milan fashion week, high heels and handbags. However, the leather of Taormine is a little more comfortable and lived-in, like the shoes you wore down to the beach earlier, now covered in a dusting of sand.

Taormine definitely has a comforting feel, but there’s also a complexity to it, and, in that, a quiet elegance. I sometimes tend to think of summer scents (and especially the citrus-driven colognes) as being more sharply acidic and more simple in character than this fragrance is. With Taormine, Keiko Mecheri shows us that summery fragrances can be both soft and complex, and completely season-appropriate.

I can easily imagine wearing this fragrance while on vacation: relaxing during the afternoon with a book, or going out to dinner on a sultry evening. The only flaw is that I wish this one had a little bit more staying power. It’s very much a skin scent on me, which is fine. I get around 5 hours wear time from it, but I’d love for it to go just little bit longer, especially in warmer weather. Believe it or not, this is actually the first Keiko Mecheri scent I’ve tried. I’m happy with this as a first choice, and I’m looking forward to sampling more!

Taormine was originally released in 2010 as part of La Collection Hesperides. I’m not sure if it was intended to be a limited edition, but both samples and full bottles are still available from Luckyscent (which is where I got my sample).

Image is from fragrantica while info about fragrance notes is from luckyscent.