Aqua Allegoria Harvest Mandarine Basilic Guerlain 2023

Do you know the feeling when you open a super juicy, perfect mandarin with your fingers? When the fresh juice runs over your hands and the bitter-sweet peel leaves orange-yellow traces under your thumbnail? When you can't stop sniffing the remnants of the peel and the entire room is filled with the most beautiful sour-bitter-sweet mixture of the wonderful essential oils of the fruit.

Yes, that’s exactly how Mandarine-Basilic Harvest smells. The top note, right after spraying, is the most realistic fresh mandarin I have ever smelled in a fragrance. I have actually examined all 3 of this line closely and must say; this one is, in my opinion, the most rounded and the most beautiful. Here’s a little comparison to help you decide:

If the MB Original is a bit too herbaceous/basil-heavy & soapy for you, I would recommend the Harvest. Because with the OG, I sometimes felt like I was inhaling bubble bath. In contrast to the OG, the citrus note in the Harvest lasts through to the end. So, the mandarin and the green notes resonate evenly together. With the OG, I found the green notes to come to the forefront quite quickly.
The Harvest smells generally more photorealistic. Just incredibly real, and I have longed for such a fragrance, as the essential oil of mandarin has such a mood-lifting effect and makes your mouth water.

The Forte is also very nice. However, it leans more towards an overripe or candied mandarin with much more syrupy depth. It’s better when you don’t smell it directly from your arm, as it is quite strong and sweet. In the dry down, you can hardly smell a mandarin anymore. It is really sexy and beautiful, but in terms of scent, it is very different from its 2 brothers. The more realistic mandarin is offered by the other 2.

They are both fresh, yet the Harvest is a bit warmer, more concentrated, closer to the skin, sweet/bitter, smelling more of the wonderfully tangy peel, somehow brighter and sunnier than the original, which I find to be very cooling and more bounces off the skin, hovering around your head. The OG has a more complex development, as it moves from mandarin juice to an extremely soapy, refreshing, yet not entirely harmonious basil tea for me.

I clearly prefer the Harvest with its simpler scent progression, as it captures the most beautiful mandarin in its original and unadulterated form, with lighter green and tea-like accents that never steal the show from the fruit.

It should be added: It hardly lasts on me. Still, for me, it’s a totally valuable purchase that I do not regret, as the quality is so beautiful. I will see how the other 2 hold up in the future. I had the impression that the original was more detectable/better sillage and that the Forte lasts quite long, maybe one of them will find its way to me. Really great scent.

Update: It doesn’t hold up so badly after all! Yay. I initially sprayed it too often, so I became nose-blind. It then makes a brilliant switch in the base. Very light green tea with crushed basil leaves + light woods. It resonates with you like an essential oil. Such a mood this fragrance, really. I can still perceive it after 4 1/2 hours, in this delicious green/aromatic form. Chef's kiss!