Kar-wai Carine Roitfeld 2019

In the Mood for Love is my favourite movie, so when I saw this on luckyscent I knew I had to get a sample. I love the opening of this and I think it’s very unlike anything I’ve smelled before. It has a bright citrus and prominent cardamom with an obvious, but not too strong, osmanthus and rose. There’s a very soft leather in the background and a slightly smoky and bitter jasmine tea. The cardamom, bergamot and tea give it a fresh and slightly soapy clean feeling. There’s a bit of an apricot or peach skin quality as well here. The leather feels very light, soft, supple and bendable in the beginning, a very natural leather scent. The tea is dark and tannic while osmanthus and rose bring a subtle sweetness. After about 15 min the musk starts to come through a little.

Then from about 30min to 1 hour I start to find the scent very challenging. The musk and leather take the reins, the florals start to take a bit of a background, and it feels a bit heavy. The cardamom has totally faded and so has the brightness of the opening. I would call it a slightly “old lady” or stuffy phase of the scent. But it does go away and starts to balance back out soon enough.

There’s still a prominent musk with rose and osmanthus, but the leather lightens up again and returns to the background. There’s still the freshness of the tea in the depths as well. It feels like a very grown up and mature tea and leather perfume and has a good mix of dirtiness from the prominent musks while also maintaining enough of the fresher notes to still feel clean. I do wish the opening with the cardamom stuck around for longer because I found it so interesting, but the dry down is pleasant as well, just in a less unique way.

One of seven fragrances from the Lovers series by Carine Roitfeld. Furthermore, this is an image of one of the seven cities - Hong Kong.
In this scent, there are long flights from one time zone to another, with transfers in busy hubs.
You fly into another world, into a culture that is completely new to you.
Here, there is also the noise of the subways and the smell of heating oil.
It conveys the idea of being crowded, walking through the throngs of people in Hong Kong, amidst many different scents in the heat.

At first, the perfume greets you with a leather scent that is quite animalistic. Then the radiance of such a round, soft rose blossom appears, likely accompanied by the same osmanthus flowing through it.
And my God, what a wonderful tea at the end! Strong, with rising steam, at that perfect temperature!
It is interesting, complex, and fun to watch.
Long-lasting, sillage - one spray lasts me for 8 hours.
Well, the bottle is nice, made of dark green glass, with a magnetic closure, pleasantly heavy, fits well in the hand.

Yes, this is one of those perfumes that tells a whole story!