ChaiTee

"The game of seduction and surrender has begun. Dark, imaginative, and refined, Bitter Sweet excites the senses and inspires women to push their own boundaries. The daring fragrance teases with spicy black pepper, captivates with sexy suede, enchants with the feminine flair of white jasmine, and seduces with aphrodisiac vanilla."
This is the text in the promotional brochure that comes with the fragrance.
Big words.
Actually, I just want to smell good - I have enough opportunities to push boundaries elsewhere.
But that's not a problem either - completely independent of these grand words, "Bitter Sweet" is truly a beautiful fragrance, spicy, dark, warm, leathery, and long-lasting. The vanilla is not sweet, the leather is dark, and the top note is slightly sharp.
The transition from heart to base is smooth, and the longevity is good.
The sillage is quite strong at first but quickly becomes socially acceptable.
And when carefully dosed, the fragrance is also wearable in summer.
Presumably, "Bitter Sweet" would smell good on a man as well - I think it could also pass as a unisex fragrance.
And the rest of the promotional brochure can be safely forgotten...

..., that I can't warm up to this fragrance.
The ingredient list sounds so good, the comments were so enthusiastic - and I can't discover any of that in me.
No pear, no pink pepper, no pistachio ice cream. I remember musk and patchouli differently, and I've encountered vanilla in various fragrances, but not here. And suede? I don't know.
So nothing sweet, nothing spicy, nothing leathery.
Leimbacher writes that it's 'a fragrance you can't rely on.' That fits.
And so I also find it difficult to find the right words for this scent.
It's not bad, it's interesting - but it in no way meets my expectations of it.
And - I've already tested it in various weather conditions.
There’s always something that stings in my nose; I never discover the ingredients mentioned above, which is why I bought it - blindly.
Maybe this much - in my mind, I have a green plant with narrow, stinging green leaves that cling to my arm for hours.
I’m happy to pass it on.

A fragrance full of contradictions.
Clear, but not cold - with a warmth that is neither 'sensual' nor even 'sexy'.
Clean - but not a 'clean scent'.
Woody-soft-spicy - but not cuddly.
Adult - but not old.
Noticeable - but not flashy or even intrusive.
After several tests still somehow foreign and yet familiar.
At first slightly medicinal, I mainly noticed this during the initial tests.
Perhaps not so much anymore, because I know how it develops.
Very well lasting - sprayed on at noon, I still have a hint of scent on my arm at night.
And the next day while washing my hair, it comes back to my nose again.
In clothing, it lasts even longer.
A fragrance that suits many occasions, making one (and definitely also men - because it is definitely unisex) feel 'dressed'.
If I had to assign it a color - it would be a shifting light gray-blue.
A wonderful scent that has stealthily crept up on me and is my last fragrance discovery of the past year.

This fragrance was a blind buy - and simply because the Italian wholesaler I discovered in my area did not have the desired Tessori d'Oriente scent "Marrakech Essenze e Spezie - Ambra e Zafferano" available. And since I was already there and the shop had a certain charm, I didn't want to leave empty-handed. And spices and woods don't sound bad either, and for five euros, you can't go wrong...
Well - first of all, the spray head didn't work, so I had to go back to the car and exchange it. And since we were already there, I also picked up some Italian cookies. They were really good too.
At home, I tried out the new acquisition and ... the enthusiasm just didn't kick in. So I put it in the cupboard, so I could say 'oh, I've had that for a long time' in case anyone asked.
In some unobserved moments, I tried it again and again, but the enthusiasm was still not there.
The scent is quite strong, the spices and woods are not really identifiable.
And while "Marrakech Essenze e Spezie - Ambra e Zafferano" is a soft, warm scent that I really enjoy wearing, and "Vaniglia e Zenzero" is also a pleasant fragrance to wear, I have to say that I wouldn't necessarily dare to wear "Africa" around people. It's just too loud and has that hairspray note that clings to the arm for hours.
In the meantime, I have found a use for "Africa":
My little one likes to take Benno for walks. Benno is my mom's dog, who lives a bit outside of town.
So it happens that the little one goes to get the dog and walks into town, or I drive the little one to the dog, then we put the guy in the car and drive into town, and she walks back with him. He enjoys it because he loves riding in the car.
Unfortunately, he doesn't really care about personal hygiene, which is especially noticeable when it's a bit wet.
Then my little delivery van smells like 'wet dog' for days.
And that's where "Africa" comes into play - spray a paper strip well, stick it in the ventilation, turn on the heating - and the 'wet dog' is no longer detectable.
With the remaining 98 ml, I can still take the dog for many walks.

How can it be that the very fragrances that hurt your nose last so long?
I find myself wondering this again after I first tested Elizabeth Arden's "Spiced Green Tea" and found it to be very good, although the longevity did not really satisfy me. Later, I also tried the original "Green Tea," which is simply a nice summer scent with mediocre longevity that I picked up today at Rossmann on special offer.
So, I casually had a little spritz of the above scent applied - it was also on sale and from the description, it could have been something for me. What a relief that I didn't make a blind purchase.
From the fragrance pyramid, I can’t detect anything at all - all that reaches my nose is initially a piercing smell that then transforms into an opaque, sweet, white cloud that neither changes nor dissipates. Now this cloud has been clinging to my hand for six hours and won't wash off.
My poor daughter, who had to sit in the car with me, also said that this scent is quite overpowering.
And Grandma's dog didn't want to come near my hand either. The poor guy has an even more sensitive nose than I do.
This scent has clearly failed.
However, my initial question still remains unanswered:
Why do horrible scents stick to the skin like Pattex, while beautiful scents disappear in no time?