chaillaty

I bought a sample of this for my girlfriend; she did one spray on either side of the neck just to test it for the night; two sprays in total. Initially, it was a lot stronger than expected, and it left a cloud of fragrance behind wherever she was standing. I could smell it from five feet away. It wasn't unpleasant or overpowering, though; just a surprise for me considering that I'm used to fragrances much less potent. To give you a sense of longevity, the cloud of fragrance effect had certainly faded after, let's say, ~2 hours. Additionally, we tested it at ~7:30 pm / 19:30, and the strength had dimmed to where I had to be within a couple of feet to smell it by 3:30 am / 03:30. What amazes me is that I can still smell the fragrance on the neck/when close, a little over a full day later! The longevity is truly remarkable.

The scent disappointed just the slightest in that I couldn't really pick up on any rice or straw notes, but that could just be something in skin chemistry. It smelled like pure incense to me, not necessarily evocative of a temple. There was something about it that smelled (not in a bad way) elderly to me; perhaps it was something slightly medicinal about the scent, almost like an old herbal candy kept in a purse...?
Tatami reminded me of the roomy scent of my grandmother's house in Rhode Island. She is no incense user; a stay-at-home Catholic mom in her time with insular beliefs, who paints her house only in shades of light blue and white (if that could at all help describe the fragrance). But her house was a place of relaxation, peace, and community: that energy is something I keenly felt from this scent, and a wave of calm soothed me whenever I caught it in the air.

Overall, a powerful incense, with something else I couldn't quite place that was reminiscent of the smell (or memory) of a grandmother's house. Despite the absence of rice for me, it is incredibly pleasant.

To start, I do not want to discredit anyone who likes this perfume! Everyone's nose is different. However, this simply wasn't compatible with mine.

After spraying, it read as synthetic, strange, and overall, I felt that something was missing from the scent. It smelled like it should have rounded out to be warmer, but it was crisp and jagged instead. If only the woody notes had come out more...? Even the attendant at the perfume store who was helping me search for perfumes (and, obviously, whose goal it is to make sales) agreed that something was "missing" from the scent and didn't really like it.

It wasn't outwardly dislikable; if someone was wearing it next to me, I wouldn't run away or cover my nose. But it wasn't natural, either. It was nasally, not something I could breathe in calmly, which I suppose is the very thing that makes it feel heady and intoxicating for others.

Yes, it smells clean, but more like an "I went through a Resident Evil-type dystopian chemical mist cleaner on the way out of a lab" clean. Keep in mind, I am someone who is sensitive to certain fragrance ingredients, for example, aldehydes. If you are sensitive to similar compounds, it's worth trying this one for free (in a store) to see if you'll feel the same way I did.

Out of the bottle, I was struck by a creamy, vanilla-smelling heliotrope, perhaps with an alcoholic tinge...? I could not tell. On skin, thankfully, there was zero alcoholic smell, and, on me, it melted further into that creamy-sweet realm. I don't quite sense the powderiness of this as much as others seem to; it smells clean, yes, like it *could* in theory be a luxurious hotel bathroom soap, but it doesn't explicitly scream soap or powder. People may even mistake this scent for a pure, light vanilla perfume. The heliotrope has a warm tilt; if this scent were a color, it would be a faded, paled antique gold or cream.

I sense the hint of jasmine, but it's not the flower itself blooming in the dew — it's more of a Chinese jasmine tea, unbrewed, like opening a container of dried whole jasmine buds... More musky and slight than floral and fresh.

It's the perfect level of faintness, to me; not undetectable by any means, but not able to be picked up from 10 feet away. If someone were next to you, they would notice this perfume, but it would not be overpowering.
For context, I applied this perfume very lightly using a sort of disposable, papery-textured sponge applicator. The faintness and pleasantness of this perfume lead me to believe any who claim this scent is heavy might have applied it with a heavy hand?... I truly and wholeheartedly do not get a suffocating sense from this perfume; on the contrary, it is airy and breathable. This is coming from someone who is very sensitive to heavy perfume scents. :)

Edit: Coming back to this, the more I smell it out of the bottle, the more it is reminiscent of the cherry pie-elements of white heliotrope that some claim they can smell. Unfortunately, I have not detected that note in the heliotrope on skin, but it is still ever-pleasant