ThereIsNoOwl

This used to be my signature scent when I was in my late teens. Then the entire line disappeared for a few years, but apparently it's back. I tried to find a dupe in the meantime, without success:

L'Occitane's Verveine is much sweeter and sharper. After one spray I feel like I can taste it. Din-Dan has a much softer opening, and the peach blossom note rounds things out so that it doesn't attack the nose so much.
Carthusia's Mediterraneo is more bitter in comparison, less friendly. Although both it and Din-Dan are realistic lemon scents, Mediterraneo doesn't have the same dreamy, gauzy quality as Din-Dan.
Goutal's Eau d'Hadrien (I tried both EDP and EDT) has lemon with cypress, aldehydes and a touch of heavy florals instead of the peach blossom in Din-Dan. It's also sharp and can get cloying and sweet over time.

Compared to these alternatives, Din-Dan seems to float. On a bad day I do get a harsh edge reminiscent of disinfectants for an hour or so, but usually it softens, and most of the time it's absent altogether. I wouldn't say it's the freshest scent in the world, although it definitely leaves a clean impression. It doesn't smell soapy or green, acidic or overly sweet. It lasted six hours on me, and I did receive some compliments. I found it quite romantic, actually. It's like the scent of a summer dream.

Well this was a huge disappointment.

Summers on Estonian islands smell like juniper and the sea; on the mainland it smells like wet linden, sometimes strawberries too, but mostly linden after the daily rain, translucent, green and melancholic and only slightly sweet. I've been looking for a perfume representation of the smell for years. Thought this might be it, thought the bergamot would keep it light and sparkling, thought the absinthe and vetiver and orris would give an impression of wet soil and various other plants in the Estonian bush. Besides, walking is one of the things I love most. I can walk across five districts and still feel like I barely stepped out the door, and if it's summer, I might imagine that I have turned into a linden tree myself, like the ones on almost every block. But this perfume is a heavy, cloying, sticky mess. The orris note doesn't suggest wet soil, but adds weight to the linden; the absinthe note is dark green and does the same. And the linden (closer to narcissus than linden) is sharp to the point of being metallic. I could pick out the different notes if I concentrated hard enough, but the general impression suggests perfume rather than nature and the open air. I was looking for En Passant with linden instead of lilac; Flaneur has more in common with Poeme or some heavy floral oriental without the complexity of resins and spices. A ton of honey, a ton of metal and in my case, a strong headache.

I tried multiple times and let the sample rest for three weeks in between. Tested on clothing and skin. The best linden is still Heeley's L'Amandiere.

This one felt relentless and exhausting, all heart notes all the way through. I like light perfumes, I like gourmands and absolutely love aromatic notes, but here everything is so smoothly blended that the result is a bit grotesque. It's a sweetish smell that does not suggest any known confection, prickles the nose a bit (the herbs here, although not individually recognisable), and doesn't have a story to tell. I also find it unconvincing as a personal scent. It's a wall of smell without the sparkle of top notes or the depth and intimacy of a base. It's flat, it's dull and tiresome and I don't just mean that it's boring, but that it's the olfactory equivalent of an unwanted song stuck in your head.

Mandarins are some of my favourite things in the world, and this is probably the closest I have come to finding it replicated in a perfume. It's neither too sweet nor artificial, and to my relief there isn't even a hint of orange blossom, which my skin amplifies like crazy. Mandarino is realistic without being literal.

I should mention that it's mostly fruit; the curiously, the blackcurrant accord forms a slight impression of the rind. The bitterness of the pith is mostly absent as well, especially compared to fragrances like Eau du Sud or Ninfeo Mio. A clean musk base adds softness and blurs the edges a bit in the first two or three hours, but then the top notes fade away, leaving the clean laundry base to linger as a skin scent for the next eight hours. If I reapply or overspray, then the musk note goes stronger as well; in short, it's difficult to make the mandarin note last using this perfume alone. Because there isn't much development, it's easy to become nose blind to the scent, so I try not to wear it every day.

My husband frequently compliments me perfumes, but only seemed to notice Mandarino after I asked him to smell me. He said it was "peachy". But there were a few times when he said the entire room smells of mandarins, including me; he thought this was because of the kilo of actual mandarins I bring in twice a week, but it might also be because of my perfume. Recently I've been layering it with Heeley's Note de Yuzu to add some rind to the fruit, hoping that the combination gives an extra hour or two to the mandarine note. I always feel at my most beautiful when wearing a good citrus perfume.