Maui In A Bottle Sweet Banana | 37 Kayali 2024

If you love Kayali fragrances, maybe your experience will be different - but I went into testing this knowing that I've never liked a Kayali fragrance. This isn't on purpose, I have no grudge against Kayali - but everything I've sampled from this house unfortunately has a very synthetic quality to my nose. I thought this could finally be the one for me, as I love banana and all things tropical - but sadly, Maui In A Bottle Sweet Banana | 37 turned out to be just as synthetic as other Kayalis.

This opens with a strong blast of artificial, musky banana candy. I've tried as many banana fragrances as I can find (it's been one of my favorite notes for many years), and so many turn out to be artificial - but this one actually wins for most synthetic banana I've ever tested, in my entire life. Think a slightly-creamy "Runts" banana candy, but far more synthetic - it almost scratches the back of my throat, from how artificial it feels. The banana note quickly fades into a synthetic pear + jasmine mid, but this also disappears fast.

So within a matter of mere minutes, I was left with a quiet dry-down of synthetic coconut cream (that turned sharper the more it developed), a bit of musky + artificial sandalwood, and a hint of lingering, synthetic pear in the background. The longer this went on, the more the base notes muddled together into an artificial blend that resembled something like plastic.

I hope I won't offend those that love it - I'll be glad if you have a different experience! But unfortunately, every part of this was headache-inducing for me. I actually can't remember the last fragrance I tried where every note was so strongly-artificial as this one was. (Which is saying something, since I sample a lot of "budget" and "cheapie" fragrances.) Even as a banana-lover, I'm thankful I only sampled - as I wouldn't say this is blind-buy friendly.