The Italian applied sun oil to create a false impression (8)
I believe the answer is:
illusion
'a false impression' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the italian applied sun oil' is the wordplay.
'the italian' becomes 'il' (the in Italian).
'applied' is an anagram indicator.
'sun'+'oil'='sunoil'
'sunoil' is an anagram of 'lusion'.
'il'+'lusion'='ILLUSION'
'to create' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for illusion that I've seen before include "False impression" , "Something a person wrongly believes to exist" , "Fantasy or mirage" , "Wrong belief or fancy, may be optical" , "Magic trick" .)