Perfume Review: Varanasi by Meo Fusciuni – A Complex and Powerful Unisex Fragrance

I bought Varanasi by Meo Fusciuni a couple of weeks ago, totally unplanned, while on an also unplanned shopping trip with my mum. It’s a heavy, animalic fragrance, and I loved it as soon as I smelled it. I was looking to buy an Oud-heavy fragrance, something that I could layer with my Tom Ford Tuscan Leather. I haven’t actually tried layering the two just yet – Varanasi is so strong on its own that I haven’t felt that it needs anything else layered upon it.

I first sampled Another Oud, Midnight Oud, and In The Mood For Oud by Juliette Has A Gun but none of them really took my fancy – they weren’t strong enough. I spoke with the sales assistant for a while and let her know what I was after – something animalic and powerful, with lots of Oud. She showed me Tiziana Terenzi’s Nero Oudh, an Extrait de Parfum, but that didn’t seem right either.

She then said she would show me the strongest perfume in the store, and led me to a display full of Meo Fusciuni fragrances. I’ll admit, I had never heard of the brand before. She sprayed Varanasi onto a small piece of cloth and as soon as I smelled it, it felt like a kick in the face, it was so strong! Super heavy on Oud, but with an underlying combination that just makes it so much more powerful and animalic than Oud alone. I immediately bought it. The next day I wore the perfume all day and so based on that experience, I have a proper review of Varanasi.

Varanasi was released in 2020 by Meo Fusciuni which is the brand created by Sicilian perfumer Giuseppe Imprezzabile. This Eau de Parfum is part of the Timeless Trilogy collection which also includes the fragrances Sogni and Encore du Temps.

Varanasi is inspired by a trip to India that Imprezzabile took in 2017 – Varanasi is a city on the Ganges river that holds great importance in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in Hinduism. Funeral pyres burn at Varanasi as the Hindu believe that if the deceased’s ashes are laid there, their souls will not be reincarnated on Earth but will instead go to heaven. The pyres burn all day long, seven days a week, due to the high demand for funerals here.

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The box features a photograph from Varanasi, and included within the box is a little book with photographs, poems and prose written in both English and Italian.

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The top notes are Cardamom, Incense, Nutmeg, and Saffron, and I do get a hint of these as soon as I spray the perfume onto my skin, but the Oud in the base is so strong that it almost overtakes them completely. None of the top notes particularly stand out alone – I can barely pick out the Incense, I can just about smell the Cardamom, and there’s a slight spiciness that comes from the Nutmeg and Saffron.

Within a few minutes, the Rose from the heart notes starts to come through. The heart notes are Ambergris, Ambrette, Cypriol Oil, Jasmine, and Rose, but it’s the Rose that really stands out. I’m not usually very fond of Rose in perfume, in fact I had tried Stéphanie de Bruijn’s Oud Oud Oud!!! which is quite similar to Varanasi – heavy on Oud, but also really heavy on Rose which never seems to fade. Luckily for me, the Rose heart of Varanasi is not as strong as in Oud Oud Oud!!!. The Jasmine in Varanasi is a bit more difficult to detect, because the Rose is just so prominent. By the time the heart notes are taking over, that initial blast of Oud has also faded away somewhat, and the fragrance has mellowed out a little bit, though it’s still definitely a more animalic than floral fragrance.

The heart notes fade away rather quickly also, just like the top notes did, with the drydown setting in quicker than expected. About an hour later, the Rose has mellowed out, and the fragrance is a beautiful warm Oud with a hint of florals. It feels like a perfect winter fragrance.

Meo Fusciuni Timeless Trilogy Perfume Set

Varanasi is part of a set of three perfumes called the Timeless Trilogy. Sogni is a woody fragrance including notes of Pine Needles, Bamboo, Cedarwood, Sandalwood, and Tobacco. Encore du Temps is a more floral and citrus fragrance and contains notes such as Bergamot, Mandarin, Magnolia, and Sandalwood.

Ouds by Juliette Has A Gun

These are the three ouds that I sampled by Juliette Has A Gun. I liked all of them, and I would consider buying them in future, but I like super strong perfumes, and I didn’t find these to be strong enough. If you’d like something with Oud that isn’t too overwhelming, any of these perfumes would make a great choice. Another Oud contains Raspberry and Bergamot, while Midnight Oud features florals including Rose and Geranium. Part of the Luxury Collection, In The Mood For Oud was the lightest of the three in terms of Oud when I sampled these three perfumes. In fact Oud is in the heart here not in the base – the base notes are Tonka Bean and Vanilla.

Alternative Ouds

These are some other Oud perfumes that I’ve sampled. Stéphanie de Bruijn’s Oud Oud Oud!!! is similar to Varanasi, but with much stronger and longer lasting Rose. When I sampled it I was waiting hours for the Rose note to fade away and it just never did. That was not a good thing for me as I find Rose easily overwhelming, but if you’d prefer a perfume that is more Rose than Oud, this one is definitely worth a try. Another perfume that I sampled when shopping was Tiziana Terenzi’s Nero Oudh, which I couldn’t really get a good feel for when it was sprayed on a test strip for me. I would like to try it on my skin, or perhaps on a piece of cloth and give it a second chance – it contains notes including Rose, Ylang Ylang, Magnolia, Patchouli, and Vanilla. Finally I’ve mentioned Rania J’s Oud Assam which is one of my favourite perfumes for layering. It is lovely to wear alone but I think it adds so much depth to other perfumes so I mainly use it as a base layer. It has top notes of Orange and Bergamot, Oud heart notes, and a base including notes of Black Pepper and Musk.

Layering Options

The whole point of my shopping trip was to get a base layer to go with my bottle of Tuscan Leather by Tom Ford, but I guess that didn’t happen. Another fragrance that I really like layering with others is Nasomatto’s Narcotic V which lacks any really strong base notes so it tends to fade rather quickly.