I'm a real sucker for the mandarin/black smoky tea combo. "Russian Caravan Tea" by "CB I Hate Perfume" is my favourite scent in the whole wide world. But unfortunately doesn't work out to well on my skin. It's just to clean to make sense.
Therefore I great anticipations to sample Mandarin Mandarin. According to the internet the scent has top notes of Chinese orange and nutmeg; middle notes of candied mandarine orange peel and Lapsong-Souchong smoky tea; and base notes of rock rose, labdanum, Tonka bean and ambergris.
For me, the top notes were a very clear warm mandarin note, flanked by spices such as cumin and a general dark brown smoky huskiness. I loved the start. No clean fruity fresh whatsoever, unusual in citrusy scents.
But then, something happened. The smoke vanished and the spices with it. Left was that mandarin note but now layered with a lilyish, garish, white flower note. I'm no fan of lilies. This was not what I had hoped for. I got the feeling like you've had a big night out and are desperately trying to brush your teeth in the morning and spraying room spray all around, pretending that all that stuff you kind of half remembered from the night before (that was actually great but you would never ever admit to that) never did happen. The scent of anxiety. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else, but anyway...
So I'm giving Mandarin - mandarine a 3 out of 5. The start was great, but the finish was just not something I'm going for.
No comments:
Post a Comment