Serpentine Eau de Parfum

Saffron placed between jasmine and vanilla is the idea behind Roberto Cavalli Serpentine Eau de Parfum, a 2025 release that is clearly built to be noticed rather than to blend in.

The opening is tart and prickly at once. Pink pepper gives a dry fizz, bergamot the bitter citrus lift, and blackcurrant a sharp, slightly green fruitiness that keeps the first few minutes from reading sweet. The heart is the most interesting part of it. Sambac jasmine is the heady, almost fruity kind of jasmine rather than the soapy sort, rose adds a familiar depth behind it, lavender runs through with a clean herbal coolness, and saffron brings that unusual dry leathery warmth which is what stops the flowers turning into a bouquet. The finish is smooth and sweet, with vanilla thick rather than sugary, tonka bean giving a dry, biscuit tin sweetness alongside it, and patchouli adding damp earth so the sweetness has something to push against. As an eau de parfum it carries a proper oil load and it shows. Two or three sprays will be noticed at conversational distance for the first few hours and will stay close to the skin well beyond that, so it rewards restraint rather than enthusiasm.

It is an evening fragrance and a cold weather one, aimed at women, and it suits dinners, parties and the sort of occasion where being remembered is the point. Anyone who finds sweetness tiring should try it on skin before buying, because this is not a quiet scent.

Gino Percontino, Patricia Choux and Ralf Schwieger are credited as its perfumers. Roberto Cavalli, the Italian house whose name it carries, was set up in 1970 by a designer from Florence and is remembered above all for pattern; the scent side of it is licensed.