It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea—summer’s perfect blue
YOU HAVEN’T seen blue— the color blue —until you’ve seen the Mediterranean Sea.

A hyper thought it may be, but that’s what crossed your mind as you stared at the Mediterranean sea on a hot summer day, its blue so deep, rich yet translucent.

It rolled on to the horizon, in a seamless melding with the sky. The line separating the sky and the sea was but a hairline—that monochromatic blue.

And another over-the-top thought—so this was what a tycoon could see every time he sat on the terrace of his seaside villa in the Mediterranean.

Last summer, when Bulgari celebrated its 125th year, this iconic Italian luxury jewelry brand also launched its fragrance, Blv, at the summer villa of tycoon and philanthropist Jean Paul Getty just outside of Rome.

La Posta Vecchia is a 17th-century palace built by Prince Orsini over the ruins of two imperial Roman villas beside the Mediterranean Sea. It had been the guesthouse for centuries of the Odescalchi Princes until Getty took over.

Now it’s open for special events.

It was appropriate that Bulgari launched Blv in this seaside villa, since it’s a fragrance inspired by color: a natural, stimulating yet calming blue.

Master perfumer Jacques Cavallier created Blv Eau de Parfum II out of a modern vision of the color blue— “spatial and temporal infinity, a breath of eternity,” the fragrance notes said. He wanted to evoke both intensity and transparency.

The fragrance starts with the top notes of fresh violet, then the airy hints of star anise from China and Vietnam, and light and frosty mandarin.

Its floral elements are iris absolute from Italy along with jasmine petals. The woody elements come from natural vetiver from Haiti and patchouli flower.

Other key ingredients are soft and sensual benzoin from Laos, cistus flowers from Spain, the woody and intense ambergris, and luminous musk.

Blv is a refreshing natural scent, yet sensual and deep.

It’s now in Manila, available in leading perfume counters.