After the
Nefs completely thrilled me, it was obvious to test the next steam hammer, the
Mana. Sprayed on, first impression: WOW! A rich, dark rose-oud fragrance that builds massively on the successful recipe of
Ombre Nomade!
But let's take a closer look at
Mana and compare it with
Ombre Nomade:
- The
Mana starts very intensely with a rose-oud combination, which is characterized by a good portion of spiciness and a slight sweetness from the saffron. This is also the big difference to
Ombre Nomade, which is rather slightly fruity due to the raspberry, even if the raspberry is in the background. But don't think of the opening as a spice box, the saffron dominates with the rose-oud combination and the remaining ingredients such as cardamom are practically imperceptible or extremely well blended; a truly wonderful composition from the very beginning!
- In the drydown, the rose-oud combination is then complemented with precious woods and, in contrast to
Ombre Nomade, is given even more depth by the benzoin and labdanum. It is not like
Ombre Nomade, which screams loudly for rose oud incense in the drydown, but is really finely tuned - but still very very loud - going into a woody base, which is characterized by incense, fine resinous labdanum and benzoin. Beautiful!
- The H/S is beastly, truly monstrous. The fragrance lasts a very long time and projects very well! The difference to the
Ombre Nomade is that the
Ombre Nomade screams loud and rustic, the
Mana is rather loud and finely tuned.
In summary, what you get here from Nishane is a more complex, deeper
Ombre Nomade, which is far more exciting DNA-wise, also massively performed in a different way, but of course also costs far more RRP. In the air, laymen can probably hardly smell a difference; yes, the
Ombre Nomade could be a bit smokier, but in the second and without direct comparison, the difference is negligible for a layman.
Would I prefer one or the other? Very difficult question; perhaps the most difficult. I would say that I would still go for the
Ombre Nomade, even though the
Mana is really top-notch. Simply because the price difference is so huge.