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Top Review
"To the moment I would like to say: linger, you are so beautiful!"
Now this Christmas cookie scent has actually compelled me to leave a comment!
Do you know that feeling when you've baked and the smell of dough still clings to your hair the next day? (Tonka Impériale sends its regards.)
It's pretty uncool, of course, if you've just fried fish right before your date - and the other person is a passionate vegetarian.
But back to the beginning...
I have tested Tonka Impériale several times, for the first time in 2017 on paper while searching for "my" scent, which, as it turned out in a fraction of a second, should be Cuir Béluga.
At first, it smelled somewhat old-fashioned to me, almost like something a grandmother would wear. Nevertheless, I took the violet, elegantly designed test paper with the golden letters home on principle - simply because it looked so beautiful.
Later, once I got home, I found it not bad at all; no, it smelled really delicious and pleasant, cozy, Christmassy, but not toooo kitschy-sweet, no, somehow mature, smoky, and a bit wicked.
And so Tonka Impériale fell into oblivion for years.
Only when a good friend asked me for advice about a perfume for his girlfriend (I was supposed to go with him to "my" perfumery and help him test, after all, I'm a woman and have a rough idea of what his girlfriend likes) did Tonka Impériale come back to my mind, because that girlfriend finds my Cuir Béluga pretty in the bottle and good on me, but personally thinks it smells too sweet and too "washed out" (that's what she said).
Then came the lockdown, and if there's one thing I don't like, it's spending large amounts of money on blind purchases based on pretty bottles.
A solution had to be found!
In our case, it was to canvass our circle of acquaintances and ask about their favorites - to exclude those if there were multiple mentions (yes, we really put thought and effort into it), but also to possibly get samples and decants that way.
Said and done.
For example, we were able to exclude Si, as well as La Vie Est Belle and a few others.
Now... Through various portals, including here, I then acquired a few samples and decants. But this one would probably have sufficed.
After we tested Tonka Impériale on paper, clothing, and on me and my good friend, it was clear: she would get it to try. Better safe than sorry.
Receiving a perfume for a special birthday that one doesn't like - especially from one's own partner - would have been somewhat sad. Now everything just had to be arranged discreetly. While that girlfriend was at my place helping me with a few things for the upcoming move, I left the test strips (labeled with the initials of the scents) on my desk.
And she, being as curious as she is, fell into the trap. So I sprayed Tonka Impériale on her, and her boyfriend and I were curious about her reaction. Later, when the message came on WhatsApp asking which perfume it was, I rubbed my fingers like Mr. Burns and innocently replied that I didn't know. And that she would have to try it again sometime soon.
She was a bit disappointed, but as a good friend, she at least didn't show me that she would hold it against me, and since she knows even less about perfume than I do, she couldn't describe how or what the thing smelled like.
So I was off the hook, and her joy was even greater when she recently received Tonka Impériale as a birthday gift.
Her first reaction was probably a slightly scrunched-up face (I wasn't there, her boyfriend reported), because she knew Cuir Béluga and probably thought that was the content of the beautifully designed bottle - unfortunately without the "Pfft-Pfft-thing" (pump atomizer, you know).
But she would have loved to bathe in it after the first spray.
Not me, but it is delicious!
Now back to the headline:
“Linger, you are so beautiful!” - I too would wish for a bit more sillage and longevity from Tonka Impériale.
The former is practically nonexistent after about an hour, and you feel like you have to bite your wrist or hold your nose really close to still catch a whiff of this scent. Both look ridiculous.
Unfortunately, the longevity also leaves much to be desired, BUT... sometime after I wrote my statement, I took a shower. And after showering and even the next day, the base note clung to my wrist, and I fancy that I still perceive the tonka note in it. A small consolation, then.
Because otherwise, Tonka Impériale disappears as quickly as a fleeting beautiful moment - or the delicious cookie dough that supposedly gives you a stomach ache if you eat it like that (I still can't confirm that to this day).
I find it a bit too spicy and smoky to bite into, but I've heard there are people who eat pine cones, chestnuts, and the like
- so: why not, really?
Do you know that feeling when you've baked and the smell of dough still clings to your hair the next day? (Tonka Impériale sends its regards.)
It's pretty uncool, of course, if you've just fried fish right before your date - and the other person is a passionate vegetarian.
But back to the beginning...
I have tested Tonka Impériale several times, for the first time in 2017 on paper while searching for "my" scent, which, as it turned out in a fraction of a second, should be Cuir Béluga.
At first, it smelled somewhat old-fashioned to me, almost like something a grandmother would wear. Nevertheless, I took the violet, elegantly designed test paper with the golden letters home on principle - simply because it looked so beautiful.
Later, once I got home, I found it not bad at all; no, it smelled really delicious and pleasant, cozy, Christmassy, but not toooo kitschy-sweet, no, somehow mature, smoky, and a bit wicked.
And so Tonka Impériale fell into oblivion for years.
Only when a good friend asked me for advice about a perfume for his girlfriend (I was supposed to go with him to "my" perfumery and help him test, after all, I'm a woman and have a rough idea of what his girlfriend likes) did Tonka Impériale come back to my mind, because that girlfriend finds my Cuir Béluga pretty in the bottle and good on me, but personally thinks it smells too sweet and too "washed out" (that's what she said).
Then came the lockdown, and if there's one thing I don't like, it's spending large amounts of money on blind purchases based on pretty bottles.
A solution had to be found!
In our case, it was to canvass our circle of acquaintances and ask about their favorites - to exclude those if there were multiple mentions (yes, we really put thought and effort into it), but also to possibly get samples and decants that way.
Said and done.
For example, we were able to exclude Si, as well as La Vie Est Belle and a few others.
Now... Through various portals, including here, I then acquired a few samples and decants. But this one would probably have sufficed.
After we tested Tonka Impériale on paper, clothing, and on me and my good friend, it was clear: she would get it to try. Better safe than sorry.
Receiving a perfume for a special birthday that one doesn't like - especially from one's own partner - would have been somewhat sad. Now everything just had to be arranged discreetly. While that girlfriend was at my place helping me with a few things for the upcoming move, I left the test strips (labeled with the initials of the scents) on my desk.
And she, being as curious as she is, fell into the trap. So I sprayed Tonka Impériale on her, and her boyfriend and I were curious about her reaction. Later, when the message came on WhatsApp asking which perfume it was, I rubbed my fingers like Mr. Burns and innocently replied that I didn't know. And that she would have to try it again sometime soon.
She was a bit disappointed, but as a good friend, she at least didn't show me that she would hold it against me, and since she knows even less about perfume than I do, she couldn't describe how or what the thing smelled like.
So I was off the hook, and her joy was even greater when she recently received Tonka Impériale as a birthday gift.
Her first reaction was probably a slightly scrunched-up face (I wasn't there, her boyfriend reported), because she knew Cuir Béluga and probably thought that was the content of the beautifully designed bottle - unfortunately without the "Pfft-Pfft-thing" (pump atomizer, you know).
But she would have loved to bathe in it after the first spray.
Not me, but it is delicious!
Now back to the headline:
“Linger, you are so beautiful!” - I too would wish for a bit more sillage and longevity from Tonka Impériale.
The former is practically nonexistent after about an hour, and you feel like you have to bite your wrist or hold your nose really close to still catch a whiff of this scent. Both look ridiculous.
Unfortunately, the longevity also leaves much to be desired, BUT... sometime after I wrote my statement, I took a shower. And after showering and even the next day, the base note clung to my wrist, and I fancy that I still perceive the tonka note in it. A small consolation, then.
Because otherwise, Tonka Impériale disappears as quickly as a fleeting beautiful moment - or the delicious cookie dough that supposedly gives you a stomach ache if you eat it like that (I still can't confirm that to this day).
I find it a bit too spicy and smoky to bite into, but I've heard there are people who eat pine cones, chestnuts, and the like
- so: why not, really?
Translated · Show original
2 Comments
And the fragrance story that followed didn't disappoint in terms of scent analysis and its place in life either.
Enjoyed reading it!