Profumum Roma Acqua Viva Perfume Review

Profumum Roma Acqua Viva Eau de Parfum is for lemon lovers; it starts with bright, zesty lemons with a hint of greenness before citrus blossoms emerge. The lemon turns almost candied at times, which lasted for four hours, and then the citrus florals started to takeover until they were the star in the drydown, which had light powderiness. The notes are listed as:

• top notes: lemon
• heart notes: broom
• base notes: cedarwood, cypress

Scent Development

Bright yellow, ripened lemon in its tart, zesty glory, just cut from the tree, opened the composition. It was bright, light, and aromatic with lemony blossoms in the background, compounding the intensity of the lemon facet. It sometimes felt almost candied, as the broom blooms added a floral sweetness to the lemon. After a half hour of settling on my skin, it was definitely candied lemon, sweet on the outside, tart on the inside but no woods in sight.

After two hours of being a more linear scent of candied lemons with floral sweetness, the citrus florals bloomed bigger and even sweeter with amorphous woods underneath. The woods did not seem to have a discernible effect on the fragrance for me, even in the drydown. Acqua Viva’s citrus florals started to smell slightly soapy and more powdery after four hours with the candied lemon facet dissipating in equal measure. The drydown was lemony, citrus blossoms that were sweetly powdered.

Application

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise. 

I purchased my sample in January 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime , so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.

Longevity

It lasted for five hours until it was a skin-scent and about eight hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate with the sillage dropping faster than the projection within the first hour of wear.

Personal Thoughts

I was impressed by how much it smelled like real lemons in the beginning, and then when the lemon turned more candied, it was sweet without being cloying, and the sweetness made it more gourmand and less “clean” (lemon very much reminds of liquid dishwashing soap, as we’ve used lemon-scented all my life). The florals end up a little stronger on me than ideal in the drydown, so I don’t think I’d be rushing to get a bottle for myself, but I’m passing along the remainder of my sample to mom to see how she likes it.

Available Sizes

• 100ml for $275
• 18ml for $93 (harder to find size in the US)
• 0.7ml sample for $6

Where to Buy

• Jovoy Paris
• LuckyScent
• Twisted Lily