buenalucha

My grandfather was the director of a youth orchestra exchange program where he and my grandmother lived. I still remember how shockingly good the orchestra’s actual performance was, especially being that all the musicians were kids, that I was still a kid myself when I went to see it live, and that I had never been exposed to classical music before. These same grandparents are also the reason I’m respectably well traveled myself, having sent me to Europe twice before I even turned 18. I spent a lot of time there walking through museums and admiring the cities’ architecture.

Genuinely, in that way, this fragrance reminds me of my grandfather. Even if it’s hard to find occasions where I can actually wear it, this is dignified and timeless to me like how an old art museum, opera house, or concert hall is. I go to smell the cap a lot and will sometimes just spray it once on my hand to appreciate it at home. It’s a resinous, coniferous, and aromatic masterpiece that’s ultra comforting to me in a very specific way. Definitely not blind-buy safe purely because of the violin varnish IMO, but this is never leaving my collection regardless.

This is honestly a bit of a disappointment to me—I don’t think this is bad by any means, but I find the opening (roughly the first hour) way more interesting and enjoyable than the drydown.

This opens slightly fruity, musky, and has a mild watery quality that I’m assuming comes from the magnolia—one of my favorite fragrance notes. As this dries, however, everything is overwhelmed by what I can only assume is the sapote and maybe some amber. I tend to be very picky with tropical fruit-leaning fragrances (especially sweeter ones) because they tend to dry somewhat sour on my skin. This was my biggest complaint about Hawas Sapphire and Hawas Boa, to give two recent examples.

While I find Mojave Ghost Absolu to be much more balanced and enjoyable in comparison to those, that’s still unfortunately how this develops on me. After a couple of hours, I’m only able to pick up on a sweet, rich, slightly pungent fruity note that isn’t really balanced out by anything else.

So, in short, how much you like this fragrance will probably come down to how much you like tropical fruits in your fragrances. This is too cloying for me, but I could see it working on others (especially ladies).

To preface this a bit, I’m (1) not the biggest fan of Imagination compared to what the consensus seems to be and (2) I simultaneously think Imagination is a tough one to dupe.

Many now say Mykonos Inception comes the closest, but I still think the tea and cinnamon in that one makes it a much warmer fragrance compared to the OG. My favorite—even if it isn’t the closest—has been Bujairami Hectic for awhile now. It’s more citrus-heavy in the opening and sweeter throughout the entire wear, but I tend to think those things majorly benefit its performance and balance the tea/cinnamon. If I had one complaint about Hectic, though, I find that it dries somewhat stale and synthetic smelling, to the point that I’d get tired of it toward the end of the wear.

Marwa Extrait, to my nose, completely fixes this and is a noticeable improvement over the OG Marwa. When compared to Imagination, I do still think this leans a bit darker in the same way the OG Marwa does, but I think the blend quality is significantly improved here, and I find it equally if not more balanced than Hectic even without the added citrus and sweetness. I also find the drydown of this much more enjoyable and less harsh than Hectic’s, which is my only real complaint with that fragrance.

All of that to say—this is probably now my favorite Imagination “dupe,” even if it isn’t necessarily a one-to-one clone. I’d probably pick this up over Imagination itself purely because of its price-to-performance ratio.

My mind doesn’t necessarily go to Marfa specifically when I smell this, but this screams springtime in Texas to me. This opens with bright white florals and peach that together make me think of Fredericksburg peach season to a T.

I strongly disagree with the folks here calling this a linear scent, because I think this only gets better as it dries. The sweetness from the tuberose and peach settles down quite a bit and a slightly vegetal agave begins to emerge, along with musk and just a suggestion of cedar. As far as actually wearable scent profiles go, I don’t think it really gets much more Texas than that.

I think I tend to wear more feminine leaning fragrances than a lot of guys, so take this with a grain of salt, but I think this is much more unisex than the audience rating on here suggests. Probably my current favorite and most wearable tuberose fragrance in my collection and something I’ll be spamming heavily in the spring and summer.

I think people are getting this one wrong by comparing it to Oud Maracuja, which this just flat out does not remind me of.

Exotic Oud is a bit of a misnomer to me in that it really isn’t all that oud-forward of a fragrance. But even if it is a misnomer in that way, I don’t think that should take away from how good this is.

While I could see why this is getting comparisons to Oud Maracuja as a fruity oud, Exotic Oud in comparison is much more candied in nature—so much so that black licorice is what immediately comes to mind when I smell this. But that licorice sweetness is nicely balanced by a drier coffee note and a subtle dark woodsiness that gives a slight impression of oud in the background. This simply does not have that oud tanginess or mild, naturalistic barnyard quality that something like Oud Maracuja has. That isn’t inherently a good or bad thing, but you won’t find that this is a 1:1 dupe. Exotic Oud is sweeter and a bit more approachable (especially in the opening), but is still interesting and balanced enough for me to think it could be sold at a much higher price point than what it is.