Matsuri

祭

Annayake 2006

I walk through the jungle, searching for Mowgli and his friends. I call out loudly, but instead of the underbrush swallowing the echo of my call, a bright echo returns. What has happened here? I look around and now it dawns on me: The jungle is bare! The plants are trimmed, no sounds of wild animals, only... the chirping of a few pseudo-exotic birds. Hush..... a few little monkeys scamper quickly over the stripped branches.
Dumbfounded, I look around once more, desperately searching for something familiar, something wild, but the scenery does not change; on the contrary - it slowly begins to blur....
Did I perhaps hear an elephant in the distance?
Everything goes black before my eyes.......

The young keeper keeps speaking to me: "Can you hear me? Hello, madam! Can you hear me?"
I open my eyes and look at him in astonishment. Now I also notice that I am lying on the ground.
"What happened?" I ask the uniformed man.
"Madam! You just collapsed!"
"Where have the elephants gone?" I stammer.
"Elephants?" the keeper repeats in surprise, "There have never been elephants here!"
"Never?"
"No"
"Where am I?"
"Madam," the keeper smiles, "you are here in Matsuri Park."
Disappointed, I lower my head.
"For a moment, it really felt like I was back in the jungle, just like before... I think my memories played a trick on me."
"Well, if you want to see elephants and prefer it a bit wilder, then you are in the wrong place! You need to travel to Kenzo Jungle! This here is just the petting zoo for beginners!
(So much for my last short trip - "Matsuri" means "holiday")
~
Conclusion:
Matsuri is a delicious scent, I must admit... hardly sprayed, the fragrance makes its way through my nose, shoots straight up to my brain, and docks onto my memory synapses. "Knock, knock" - "Hello?" - "Don't we know each other?"
Spices, fruits, and woods swirl through my head, ringing here and there, releasing a bit of serotonin and causing further confusion.
The chaos only settles when I identify the supposed relative. It is KENZO JUNGLE!
Matsuri presents itself more subdued, delicate, and does not directly swing the spice club around. Nevertheless, the similarity is groundbreaking. I would almost claim that Matsuri begins where Kenzo's Jungle usually ends - in a delicate, creamy spice puree!
Actually great, Adam Riese could now say to Eva Zwerg, but as soon as the prominent top note fades away, Matsuri drifts into a somewhat boring and pleasing warm wood-fruit mishmash and trails behind a delicate wax-(plastic?-)thread, which personally puts me off a bit.
Nevertheless, I must emphasize that I have encountered this wax-plastic note several times in modern fragrance creations, and it is quite possible that it only comes to the forefront with certain skin types.
~
Thus, Matsuri is a pleasant winter fragrance with a present spiciness that hints at the jungle of spices and fruits but is actually just a petting zoo for the less "wild" (extroverted). In my opinion, something is missing in this fragrance composition. Where are the wild animals, the roar of elephants and tigers? Did they perhaps once call out: "I'M A STAR, GET ME OUT OF HERE"? Were they replaced by canaries and tame monkeys?
So, if Kenzo's jungle has always been too intense (grrr and dangerous) for you, you should give Matsuri a try. Wonderfully safe and cuddly!
Lovers of powerful scents, flower fairies, neat freaks, and chypre enthusiasts will likely struggle with this fragrance, as will I!
The longevity is mediocre, sillage is okay, but as a fully grown predator and jungle fan, I am of course used to bigger performances....