Enter the Vendetta Era with Valentino
Forget soft-focus romance. Valentino Beauty is entering its Vendetta era, and this one is all instinct, intensity and a little danger.
Marking the Maison’s first new Prestige fragrance franchise in six years, Vendetta arrives as a duo, Vendetta Donna and Vendetta Uomo, built around the idea of passion as something deliberate rather than performative. The name itself reaches into the Valentino archives, paying homage to the original Vendetta fragrance introduced under Valentino Garavani in 1991.
But this is very much Vendetta for now. In a world of dating apps, algorithms and carefully curated affection, Valentino is making the case for something messier: chemistry, obsession and the kind of connection that makes everyone else disappear.
Vendetta Donna leans deliciously into that mood. Created by master perfumer Dominique Ropion with Andrew Everett, the floral gourmand woody fragrance centres on tuberose, amplified by Valentino’s exclusive Tuberose Osmobloom™ extraction. Red orange nectar brings a juicy, almost syrupy brightness, while sandalwood melts into the base with a creamy, skin-like warmth.
Vendetta Uomo, meanwhile, takes a darker route. Master perfumer Marie Salamagne pairs sparkling Peruvian ginger with Italian citrus before moving into a cinnamon liquor accord, patchouli and carnal woods. The result is spicy and woody, but designed to sit close to the skin rather than announce itself from across the room.
Even the bottles have been dressed for the affair. A sculptural V cuts across each flacon, while pleated caps reference the folds of Valentino couture. Donna glows in the Maison’s unmistakable deep red; Uomo comes in a warmer amber tone. Side by side, they feel less like matching fragrances and more like two characters in the same story.
And then there’s the campaign.
Dakota Johnson and Alexander Skarsgård step into the roles of Vendetta’s lovers, photographed by Inez & Vinoodh in a cinematic world drenched in Valentino red. The imagery plays into the fragrance’s “us-against-the-world” fantasy; intimate, magnetic and just slightly reckless. A campaign film is set to continue the story, following the pair through a modern romance driven by instinct and freedom rather than convention.
It is fragrance as seduction, but not the polite kind. Valentino’s Vendetta wants passion with a pulse.
Valentino Vendetta Donna and Vendetta Uomo are available now at Myer, with Donna starting at $160 for 30ml and Uomo at $165 for 50ml.