Little Italy Bond No 9 for women and men

I wanted to branch out my perfume collected and decided to order some samples of Bond no. 9 perfumes. Little Italy was one of my choices, but call me unsophisticated, but it smelled awful on dry down. It started out with a blast of citrus, including mandarin which was OK...I like a bracing citrus on a hot day. But, on dry down...ugh! It smelled like wet dirty money with some moldy mandarin lingering. It reminded me of a walk down a Little Italy restaurant back alley late on a hot summer night. I had to take a bath to get the stuff off.

I too am one that finds the musk in this disagreeable. It starts with a wonderful citrus blast - very fresh and juicy and extremely natural smelling. All too soon a metallic/wet-dog musk begins to present itself, and sadly only grows stronger in time. It's the same metallic, spermy and just downright weird musk that is used so prominently in Secretions Magnifique.

So far my experience with Little Italy-

I was put off trying little Italy for awhile due to having bad experiences with citrus notes. I was afraid that this fragrances would turn out to be like synthetic orange peels. On me it is not. It is one of the most delightful citrus fragrances I have encountered so far.

Little Italy is very orangey and citrusy, Growing up in orange state (Florida) here in the US, I know the smells of orange and various citruses rather well. This to me is a very legitimate orange; like right off the tree and in the distance waffs of the orange being peeled or juiced. This fragrance also fresh; the neroli leaf being used to add freshness.

Some clementine; to me is acting as tangerine (which I have always known as sweet orange and less bitter) this adds a slight aromatic sweetness to the composition; sweet but not too sweet. It actually makes the orange seem slightly gourmand; like custard or baked goods. Slightly creamy and very realistic creamsicle. Little Italy reminds me of orange PEZ candy. The grapefruit adding a slight tang.

The musk is there but not a key player. The musk blends just right with the citrus. Little Italy to me is so different then any other citrus perfume I have encountered. It is definitely quality ingredients. Not being a big fan of citrus, I suggest any other who does not care much for citrus to give this a try at least once.

Longevity; it has lasted a good while, I got a good 8-9 hours from this one.

Projection; This is not loud nor light. Just right... it stays within two feet and does not fill a room but those up close will smell waffs. May I add, perfect for summer!


Note- Reviews are always subject to change based on change of weather or change to my skin chemistry.

To me, basic citrus notes are lemon, orange, bergamot and mandarin orange. Nowadays there are plenty of, say, new citruses, like yuzu, grapefruit, litchi, lime, 101 variety of orange and mandarin.
Of all the varieties Bond No 9 took the ugliest one. Clementine is a seedless mandarin, and while being juicy its aroma is much weaker than either mandarin orange or tangerine. It's neither sweet nor sour, neither refreshing nor warming, somehow faceless, I'd say.
When you have something like that as a center of your fragrance, there is a possibility it can be bad. And this one is not bad, it's just not nearly niche-worthy and its price tag is ridiculous. Basically you get a clementine juice in top and heart notes, with some orange flower and musk in the base - and, believe me, it's nothing special either.
This scent is clear and inoffensive though it projects at least a little and has a decent longevity, especially for a citrus scent.
A decent summer scent. Considering how expensive it is - and 200 USD is a hefty price tag - it's literally not worth it, there are hundreds of better fragrances out there.
5.5/10

I can't believe all the reviews and not a mention of the original Sunny Orange Tree air fresheners ?! It brings me back to my teenage years and my first car. Sunny Orange straight out of the wrapper, in a good way. My one complaint is its longevity is weak.

how about Hermes CONCENTRE D'ORANGE VERTE?
which one is better?

Little Italy tries to be a reminiscence of places like Capri,Sicily,it tries to capture the mediterranean breeze and sun's warmth although I am pretty convinced it doesn't manage to. This is not an orange scent at all,it is a pure and sour clementine perfume with an acid aspect. You will smell lemon,tangerine,clementine,neroli,all the kind of citruses but not orange. Very plain and unattractive scent which doesn't justify it's high price. The only thing I like is the bottle but I am going to spend 175$(50 ml) or 230$ for this one. Also very weak staying power.

Be careful with this one and do not be rejected by it easily as it varies a lot from season to season. The first time I tried it, was in winter and I didn't like it at all as, beyond beautiful mandarin smell, there lay some weird musk taking control of the smell. During hot weather and (extremely) high temperature, Little Italy gives you its best and there is not even the slightest trace of the unpleasant note I mentioned previously. It smells of sweet reddish mandarin all the way long, appears to be refreshing and very comfortable, uplifting fragrance that last for hours and hours.

The bottle is one of the cutest and the most funny I've seen!

Love love love this scent in the heart of summer in Toronto... So soothing on a 34 degree, hot and sunny afternoon or summer evening... Yes, it does not last as long other powerhouse frags, but one can always carry an atomizer and re-apply periodically.... The orange in this scent is scrumptious and like laying in a Tropicana field in mid-summer.... One of my BIG gripes with the Bond No. 9 line and I have three scents, is that the sprayers are dreadful.. Absolutely pathetic... Really guys, you can a lot better than this for the price you command per bottle of your juice.. You oughta take a page out of Creed's blueprint when it comes to the design of sprayers........

I don't know, I am so trying to like this but I have to be honest with myself. The cilantro note is definitely there, only for me, it also has a kind of fishy undercurrent, and I don't mean fishy as in awkward, but fishy as in squid.

All in all it ends up smelling like my grandmother after cleaning shrimp and washing her hands in some crazy dollar store liquid lemon soap. Serious "ew" factor, unfortunately.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this scent! It goes on bright and citrus-y. After it dries, you begin to smell something green and then you realize it's CILANTRO! Heavenly, amazing cilantro! But then after a couple of hours it fades to a soft, quiet musk. To me, this scent is amazing and addictive. I wish it lasted longer. But like all good things it comes to a quick end.

I agree with Grottola, it definitely has cilantro (in addition to all kinds of citrus) but I like it. Unfortunately it did not last long enough for me, though. Only about 3 hours.

i've tried this again and i guess it really does smell synthetic, as others have already said. for a true fresh orange i love atelier cologne's orange sanguine.

SOOOOOO DELICIOUS!!! I can't stop smelling it it smells so yummy and fresh. This fragrance is best for summer and is absolutely my most favorite to wear during the summer! This smells like fresh oranges and mandarins. It smells very candy like! I think it kinda smells like pez in a sense! This fragrance is absolutely delightful! Though, the longevity is very bad on my skin. This is the downside of the fragrance. Overall I absolutely love the scent!

I love this! It's actually something I find myself craving to wear! It smells like juicy oranges to me and even if the smell is synthetic, I find myself not caring because it makes me feel happy, energized and cheery when I wear it. It's "zing" just makes me feel uplifted. In my book, this one's a winner!

Interested on this one? PM me! :-)
I have one unused (First grazy about this one then I noticed I make a misstake..
This doesn't suit me..) 100ml/1,7oz. Original package.
Preferably from EU. I live in Finland.

Man oh man! I adore this scent! This is the juiciest orange I have ever smelled! If you like citrus, this is a winner! Just like peeling a ripe orange and you still smell the white skin of the peel. Nicely done Bond!

Just a tip, the SA at Bond mixed this with Wall Street by Bond and it was fantastic together!

personally i think some of the other reviews are a little harsh. little italy is definitely all about orange. not a complex or particularly "interesting" scent, but very pleasant all the same. does not smell synthetic to me. it is, as others have noted, very light, almost undetectable to the wearer unless you apply very heavily. but when i wore it yesterday, barely able to smell it myself, i got compliments from 2 people. this is kind of always my "dilemma" with fragrance. i wear it for my own pleasure, so i want to be able to smell and enjoy it. but i don't want to be one of those obnoxious people who invades everybody else's space with a cloud of perfume.

"Little Italy" is probably the most expensive orange juice on Earth... Oranges, oranges and oranges. A citrus parade on your skin.

nice citrus smell, but not outstanding,
only lasts for about 4 hours...

I have a huge orange garden and I can tell you this, Little Italy does not remind me of real orange. It doesn't last long, and I can hardly smell the musk.Also, it is extremely expensive...I can live without it!

Oranges....

And CILANTRO. FROM HELL.

The orange is marred by a big, fat cilantro note that ruins Little Italy for me. I hate cilantro in my food and to me it smells just like what it tastes like. An unpleasant, plastic-like, metallic sort of odor. The same odor emitted from french fry stands at a high school football game.

It may just be my skin chemistry, or my nose, but Little Italy does NOT work on me.

One plus, I guess, is that it lasts forever.

The idea behind this fragrance is make you think of a *PLACE* - not a people, and to give you an idea of what & how this perfumier associates with. It is Bond's take on the town called Little Italy, nothing more and nothing less.

P.S. - Keep in mind that many Bond's fragrances are very gourmand-ish (if you will) and purposely done in a "thinking outside-the-box" sort of way.

Yep orange plastic popsicles. Very linear with below average sillage. Another sub par fragrance from the most overpriced house on the market.

Of the many Italian people I have known, not one ever smelled like an orange Popsicle. Neither did their homes, nor their neighbourhoods. But if I forget about the name, and forget that it is a perfume, I like this as a sunny, happy, linear aromatherapy scent.

If you absolutely adore the scent of zingy sweet oranges and want to smell like one yourself, without much sillage, this is the scent for you...

If you love oranges and clementines (big time) you might kill for this. But, at the price point being charged, this one dimensional frag is a hard sell. Can't imagine it being one of the top sellers at Bond.

And, does Little Italy remotely smell like this?!? lol. More like an orange sorbet crossed with Lemon Pledge. Also, where is the musk, I ask?

Got to pass on it this one.

Little Italy starts with a huge bunch of citruses. Each note of Mandarin Orange, Grapefruit and Clemetine is pretty good to recognize. On my first impression it is chemical, like some cleaning agents, but then it is turning into one of the most natural scents I ever smelled. Delicious and fresh, without being a typical Citrus Aromatic.

Combined with Neroli the citruses notes make Little Italy smell like a addictive! bonbon. The Musk is skulking somewhere in the background and therefore it is hardly noticeable.

To me Little Italy is pure relaxation in a bottle, bright, sparkling and joyful. Unfortunately it also got the lasting power of a bonbon.

This literally almost induced me to gag. First sniff revealed a burst of citrus (nice) subsequently followed by a nasty, old cheese smell. Yuck.

When I think of Little Italy, I think of Pizza, Pasta, Gelato, and the foul odor from the nearby Chinatown. But this Bond No.9 Little Italy is nothing like that (Neither the Bond No.9 Chinatown!) People at Bond must be really creative!

This Little Italy packs a big punch of orange. It's the most concentrate orange scent I have smelled. It smells natural and there is nothing else to smell really, but just pure strong oranges til you get sick of it, and it lasts forever. Musk will eventually show up and blend in with orange, but by then it becomes uninteresting. Anyway, I still don't get it why it's named Little Italy.

Another addictive composition by Bond no 9, LITTLE ITALY opens with a blindingly bright burst of citrus, with an emphasis on orange zest. This is the nicest presentation of fresh orange that I have ever encountered in the world of perfume. But wait, there's more: as the citrus melange subsides slightly, a beautiful neroli-musk complex comes through, making this creation not just another citrus-in-a-bottle frag.

I have two concerns about LITTLE ITALY: first, the longevity is not great--I have zero difficulty spraying on large volumes of this delectable cologne-like edp and could easily empty a bottle in no time at all. Second, the very deliciousness of LITTLE ITALY makes it suitable only for those days when I really can just indulge in the conscious appreciation of the fragrance that I am wearing. When I don this juice, I find myself thinking about how wonderful I smell rather than whatever I was supposedly doing... LITTLE ITALY is a top-notch "I'm on vacation" frag!

Smells pretty strange on me- And not in a good way. Maybe it's the citrus blended with the musk. It smells bitter citrus and like it had a bunch of herbs mixed in. I waited for it to develop but it did not develop into anything that I liked. I have been testing samples and with this, I'm glad it was just a sample.

Lot's of fresh juicy oranges. Usually, when things are super citrusy I find that they smell like kitchen cleanser. But this was a nice surprise, no kitchen cleanser or anything medicinal.

Great orange scent. You can add this fragrance on top of another. It blends quite well.

This one is another Bond No. 9 that was pleasant but nothing special and not quite right on me.

Little Italy opens with one of the truest orange aromas I have ever smelled in a perfume. It's like a fresh, sweet blood orange being peeled in the room right next to you. The effect of the orange fruity note was amazing, but citrus notes are generally fleeting and Little Italy was no exception.

Most scents with prominent orange notes either veer into the "fruit salad and cream" direction or into the "clean citrus and herbal" direction. Little Italy gives way in about 15 minutes to a fairly typical soapy "Clean" type of scent. I loved the opening of Little Italy, but the dry-down "Clean" scent lingered for hours and I don't think I like it well enough to purchase.

I do give Bond No. 9 credit for having good persistence and sillage in all of their scents I have tried, and given their price, I would expect nothing less.

UGH! I really love the initial blast of this, but 5 minutes later it smells like a dog being washed! I'm soooo freakin' mad at that!

Oh the Orange in this zesty Bond No 9 fragrance! The nexus of tangy top notes will send you straight to Cloud 9. Simply stated it's as citrusy as you can get with flashes of jasmine and a base of infinite musk! This would be great to layer with other citrus oriented scents or by itself, this jaunty fragrance works well alone. It's perfect for a stroll along the quaint cobblestone street of Mulberry in New York's own Little Italy, or if your lucky enough to walk on the bridge of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy, you will radiate with pure, fresh citrus scents and Italian sunshine. The brightly colored orange bottle simulating opaque murano glass is as sparkling as the fragrance itself!

Goes on as a bright citrus with a touch of jasmine, but dries down to smell exactly like cheap shampoo on me. Not good,not worth the price and not wearable on my skin chemistry.

This perfume is going to be one of my favorite citrus perfumes! Very remarkable and joyful like sunny Italy. This citrus-floral composition is without any retro nuances, modern but unusual, citruses are so bright, freshly sharp and orange blossom gives all its warmness and sweetness to them. The scent of happiness.

This is the only scent that bond makes that i do not care for.It smells better after about an hour but it still not worth it.

I like the combination of citrus essences in this perfume, too bad cause it don`t last long on my skin. There are joyful citruses in the beginning, with sparkling energetic aromas. In one moment all citrus notes just disappeared, and then just pure and bitter sweet neroli stayed on my skin. Musk stays longer than first notes and it is very sensual and smooth.

This was one of those fragrances I was not sure about at first. I purchased it for my partner since he leans toward Citrus Notes. The first time I wore this scent, it was too sweet for me. But lately, I enjoy and have come to love this EDP b/c of the grapefruit notes with neroli.