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Born in Roma is a popular series for Valentino, both on the men’s and women’s sides of the roster. Uomo Born in Roma has spawned off some well-liked colognes, two of which are: Intense and Coral Fantasy.
But, which of these two scents is better? In terms of how each smells and performs. I’ve worn and reviewed both Valentino options and will break things down in this post.
Tale of the Tape: Born in Roma Intense vs Coral Fantasy
Uomo Born in Roma Intense
Notes include: vanilla, amber, lavender, vetiver
Click here to try: Born in Roma Intense
Read my review: Intense
Coral Fantasy
Notes include: red apple, tobacco, patchouli, sage, geranium
Click here to try: Uomo Coral Fantasy
Read my review: Coral
Opening
Uomo Born in Roma Intense delivers some sweetness up front, but certainly doesn’t reach the same levels as the original release in this series.
The lavender plays a major part here, actually tempering the sweetness in this iteration.
Those mineral notes? Completely absent. I personally wasn’t a fan of them in the original, so I’m quite happy they’ve been eliminated.
Intense follows a distinctly different path than the EDT version. After that initial sweetness dissipates, it’s predominantly a lavender and vanilla experience.
Coral Fantasy begins with a sharp and succulent red apple note, which is flanked by cardamom with other spices in more subtle supporting roles.
Sage and some citrusy bergamot complete the opening profile. That bergamot pads out the red apple nicely. In the later stages, a freshness emerges through geranium, clean lavender, and tobacco.
Which is better?
It’s a close call for me. I do like what Coral Fantasy brings at the very start. It’s interesting, but I like the smell of Intense more in this part of the wear.
Edge: Intense
Projection
Born in Roma Intense delivers a powerful opening act, quite substantial, with a great projection . Particularly during those initial one to two hours.
No complaints regarding this aspect of the cologne. It’s definitely noticeable and leaves a pleasant scent trail behind you, for the rest of the wear.
Coral Fantasy is a more moderate fragrance overall. It doesn’t achieve the same reach as Intense or even the EDT, though it also starts reasonably strong. It’s also just not as heavy of a scent as is Intense.
Edge: Intense
Longevity
For much of my wearing experience, it remained primarily a skin scent. Roma Intense endured about 8.5-9 hours on my skin.
In my estimation, it wasn’t significantly superior to the original Born in Roma EDT regarding longevity. It’s certainly respectable, just not top-tier performance.
Coral Fantasy tends to persist in that 6-7 hour territory. Perhaps slightly longer, but I still consider it a step down compared to Roma EDT.
Edge: Intense
Versatility
Seasonally, both of these are best from autumn through the spring. Neither is built for hotter weather, but can do just fine when things are temperate.
They’re both quite versatile in their use cases. Can be worn by any age group, though, these aren’t very formal fragrances. Day or night wear for each of them is fine.
No real separation in this category.
Edge: Push
Overall Scent
Overall, which of these fragrances do I prefer?
I really do like the opening performance of Roma Intense quite a lot. It’s not perfect, but it is one that grabs my attention
Plus, this represents the peak of my enjoyment. The latter parts of Born in Roma Intense smells good enough, but strikes me as fairly uninspiring.
There’s nothing particularly thrilling with it. Intense is merely a lavender and vetiver combination with lingering vanilla and amber emerging from the base.
Nevertheless, it remains a pleasant cologne with solid performance and deserves the win, when compared to Coral.
With Born in Roma Coral Fantasy, I was excited to try it out upon its release. Ultimately, it wasn’t as good as I had hoped for. The apple note is good and is the highlight of the fragrance, but I was expecting more
It was above average with decent performance.
Note: You could pick up something like the Dua Brand’s ‘inspired by’ version: Rome in Coral Fantasy to go along with a bottle of Roma Intense, if you really can’t decide between these two.
So, with either of these colognes, I think that they are likeable. It’s just that neither is all that great. However, Born in Roma Intense is my favorite thus far from this Valentino series and it gets the win here.
Winner: Intense
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Best Men’s Colognes started back in 2013, as a way to share my learning experiences with the different fragrances that I’ve owned, as I dove head first into the hobby. Since then, that new hobby grew into a consistent passion, helping millions of readers along the way. I have personally written reviews for well over 800 perfumes and colognes for both men and women. This is along with writing hundreds of other in-depth fragrance guides.