Gourmand fragrances fascinate me more and more. The selection is gigantic and can quickly overwhelm you! At first, I was looking for something special, unusual, and stumbled upon Gritti - Duchessa. I immediately ordered a sample from the souk. Full of anticipation and excitement, I dove in and was quickly disillusioned. What a pity (review available). So the search continued. Relatively quickly, I came across the perfumes from Swiss Arabian. Another Oriental offshoot with heavy sweetness in an Oud guise? No, apparently not ...
The price alone is already an argument and prompted me to make a blind buy. Then you sit at home and reconsider your purchase decision, okay, it wasn't that expensive, but is it worth it nonetheless?! I decided to take the plunge. The next day, the delivery person was at the door.
Of course, I unwrapped the perfume again full of anticipation and excitement. The first impression of the packaging and bottle was overwhelmingly positive. Can you now also convince with inner values or are you just supposed to look nice on the shelf?
With determination, I pulled out the test strips and off I went...
Wow! The roasted almond gently but firmly hits you in the face. After the strong opening, support comes from the heart. A light rose swings in, rounded off by a hint of cinnamon and a pinch of orange, and it feels neither feminine nor masculine.
Soon, the base makes its presence known with a truly beautiful vanilla note, blended with a bit of tonka bean. The vanilla does not come across as synthetic to me at all, and that must be counted as a huge plus point! In the later stages, when the top note has done its wonderful work, a very soft and distinct twist follows that beautifully rounds off the entire fragrance and makes it very gourmand! One could classify it as a warm, subtle vanilla with lightly roasted almonds.
Fantastic! Now the world out there must also hear about this.
So, two subtle, I emphasize again, SUBTLE sprays in the neck area and shortly after, I headed out onto the street. I could perceive the scent on myself for hours, come rain or shine. A few hours later, I was once again in the car and turned the interior into a bakery. H/S simply incredible! Does it get annoying at some point? No! Since it doesn't smell artificial or synthetic, nor does any note totally dominate - in my opinion, that makes it so pleasing.
So, now I seriously wonder how a perfume costing around 60 EUR can deliver like this, while the "big" names like PDM and Co. increasingly only sell us placeholders. I hope this becomes a trend, becomes State of the Art - gaining significant market shares to show the big players how it's done these days!
