Femina Alberta Ferretti is a Fragrance for Fairies
a magic potion of fruity florals
Femina by Alberta Ferretti is the story of my brief encounter with hunting down vintage perfumes online. I came, I saw, I purchased…I somewhat regretted if I am being honest. This was, as they say, a ‘blind buy’ that was based purely on aesthetics because I think the bottle is very, very pretty. To me, it looks like something from Fairyland, it looks like something Titania would distribute to her court. I didn’t even particularly care what the perfume smelled like.
Upon arrive, the bottle was beautiful, I can confirm it feels like you robbed Tinker Bell’s medicine cabinet when you hold it in your hands. Yet, the perfume itself immediately disappointed me and I decided it would be nothing more than a sparkling curiosity on my perfume tray. However, time has passed and my tastes have changed and evolved, and the more I explore perfumes, the more I find details to appreciate in every perfume. Maybe Femina is not all looks after all….
I love everything about the branding and design of Femina by Alberta Ferretti, which originally came out in 1993. The design of the bottles is inspiredly Dali. This goes back to my love of arty alien life form Boschesque design, as noted in my Féminité du Bois review. Can we bring back these beautiful and whimsical perfume bottle designs? I think it’s time to be unrelentingly excessive again with aesthetics. Give me large plastic jewels, everything technicolor, otherworldly, gold, gems, sparkle, glamour. Put me under a spell.
Now it comes time to describe the actual scent itself. In this, the perfume comes with a very handy and aesthetic notes card tied around the neck of the bottle with a wine-colored thread. (Has Femina sailed the wine dark seas?)
Immediately, I feel you get the orange, the watermelon and something somewhat off putting and vegetal which I am guessing is the ivy leaves. Femina wants you to chase her around the Villa d’Este and she will be waiting for you behind the Herm with the face of Dionysus. This perfume is all fruit, all flowers, she is like a child putting together a magic potion of mud, sticks, leaves. In this case it is a magic potion of fruity florals. Why not add violet leaves and wisteria and jasmine and gardenia and mimosa? More bitter orange, more watermelon, more ivy leaves (I keep brushing past those darn ivy leaves, those pesky ivy leaves…). This garden is overgrown, it needs to be pruned, it needs to be wilder. It’s from the 90s, it’s simultaneously too much and not enough. It’s very much from a bygone era with supermodels and decadent excess pre turn of the millennia.
In the end, I don’t know if I can recommend Femina for anything more than her aesthetic appeal but she is definitely a fun 90s curiosity. I actually do like it today as I am wearing this and I would wear it again simply because sometimes it’s fun to feel like you are chasing fairies around the garden.It’s dated, it’s silly, it’s whimsical, it’s fae, it’s Femina by Alberta Ferretti.
“Fairies, away!”