This is the last of the Freedom Collection perfume that I'll be testing out (will be going through them in alphabetical order).
I've never tested Valaya so I can't really say how similar it is to it, but I can say it's somewhere between The Wedding Silk Santal | 36 and Vanilla Candy Rock Sugar | 42. Blindingly sweet, it has a non-descrpt floral, fruitiness to it. I wouldn't be able to pick apart the notes if it wasn't for the ones listed on Parfumo. It smells so generic and uninspired. The notes / accords all feel muddled in this one. Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes, the praline comes through and then it's that all the way. There's a weird, synthetic freshness that also seems to stick out with the praline note, making this just turn weird. Drydown is warm, woody, sweet with vanilla and that weird synthetic / fresh streak. Just nah.
I'm pretty disappointed in this collection as a whole. To me, none are worth the money. At least, the Vacay in A Bottle set had some sort of creative twist to it. The Freedom collection feels generic and already done. It's missing that oomph that previous releases had. I love Kayali, but this ain't it. I hope Mona can take her time for future releases and bring back that sparkle that I saw in previous Kayali fragrances. --- A note on the Freedom Collection set: I've learned from my Vacay in A Bottle blind purchase mistakes so this time I only bought the sample set and not the mini bottles. Reviews on social media have been lukewarm at best and although I'm always hyped to try out Kayali fragrances, I've become more strict about which fragrances enter my collection to avoid any waste and money ill-spent.
Based only on the fragrance notes of all four Freedom Collection fragrances, I've listed what I think will be my order of preferences : Musk Matcha| 45, Musk Latte | 41, Musk Bouquet | 27, Musk Santal | 34. At the end of the fourth review, I'll be seeing how I rank them after having tested them all.
