Cacao Porcelana

A boutique in my city added this line of fragrances to their library in late 2021 and I ended buying a discovery set in mid-2022 but I own so many fragrances, discovery sets and samples that I hadn't yet added any of the fragrances into my rotation. Today, I finally picked a scent from the house to tryout and wear, and lucky me, it's Cacao Porcelano. This fragrance is gorgeous on skin. It smells absolutely amazing. It reminds me of a smoother and creamier version of Valmont's Blu Cobalto. The scratchiness in Blu Cobalto gets on my nerves after awhile but Cacao Porcelano has none of that abrasiveness. It does open a bit dusty but it doesn't last long, if that's your favorite aspect of this then try the above mentioned fragrance.As Cacao Porcelano dries down, there is smooth creaminess that comes out with a bit of a booziness. It smells like a boozy hot chocolate on me. It's absolutely intoxicating. And so well blended. Once it hits the mid, everything is so together that I can't detect any individual notes. It's just magic as it all blends together into one magnificent work of art. The downside is that it's really very pricey. The full bottle is $305 CAD for 100ml. I have some fragrances that are more expensive than that but I'm not sure Cacao Porcelano is quite worth that much. It is absolutely a work of art but I don't know that I would wear it enough to even make a dent in the full bottle. Luckily, the boutique that carries it sells 1ml samples for $5 and I can just buy a few samples here and there for when I feel like wearing it.

Holy moly. Thick, unctuous, rich, dark, gooey, bittersweet, strikingly intense chocolate, the 80%+ cacao solid kind, the really really good stuff that snaps hard in your hand and fires off all sorts of spicy, warming, exotic, jungly notes in your mind. Just astonishingly charismatic cacao all the way through. I am no gourmand fan - the only thing this chocolatey I've ever worn for myself is Arquiste's Anima Dulcis, which is spicy enough to get far enough away from the dessert trolley for me to feel comfortable - but this is incredibly solid work. So robust it's almost ganache-y (without the sugar), and with the patch throwing a few more adult shadows into its contours. Still very much a food-centric approach rather than more multi-faceted tobacco-and-booze-and-smoke inflections of something like PG Coze or Slumberhouse Ore though. All melts into maybe the most grown-up gourmand imaginable... only thing to match it I've ever smelled is Abdes Salaam Attar's very tropical and even wilder Maya / Chocolate Spicy, which adds great tangs of orange, so is a different beast. Cacao Porcelana is definitely edibly good - though I still prefer to eat my chocolate rather than wear it. Pretty much a definitive answer to the question "what could, what should, an adult niche treatment of cacao do?". All gourmand-lovers should go for it. Don't walk, run to taste-test this one!

Out of curiosity, I tested this alongside Gourmand Coquin, which has some similarities in the opening with the prominent chocolate and rum notes. After the similar opening, CP goes in a different direction. Whereas GC retains its rum-chocolatey sweetness and rests firmly in classic gourmand territory, CP quickly (within just a few moments) evolves into a powdery, chocolate-patchouli and loses much of its opening sweetness. The cacao note reinforces and brings out the chocolate-y facet of the patchouli and these two notes play off each other throughout the life of this fragrance. I only detect jasmine, sandalwood, and tonka as supporting players lending a mild sweetness and balsamic depth. Sillage is low to moderate, but longevity is good (6-8 hours). It could be considered an inoffensive, low-cal dark chocolate scent with a complexity, and slight powdery-softness that I quite enjoy. Full listed notes: Top: White cacao, Rum, Everlasting Flower (Immortelle) Heart: Indian jasmine, Light tobacco, Davana Base: Patchouli, Sandalwood, Tonka bean

Underrated gem, you gotta spray on skin and let it settle for the masterpiece to come alive! I hate patchouli to death! But here the context makes all the difference, hear me out: Every other note here shares a facet with patchouli and with each other: immortelle and davana are dusty/herby, tobacco is floral/dry, cacao is bitter/dry and tonka is sweet/powdery. So when structured together, they create a patchouli mirage! I'm almost convinced there's no actual patchouli oil in here, which is why I love this in spite of my eternal aversion to patchouli. Also, others alluded to its versatility, so I wanted to add that it's everything and nothing at the same time: You can wear this casually, on a date, or even to a formal event, and it will always mesmerize: mysterious, molding to the setting, intriguing while smelling like nothing else... So, please just do yourself a favor and give it some time to develop on your skin, not on paper stuck to your nose, not on your clothes, and be ready for your socks to get knocked off! <3

I just love this! The smell of a dusty cocoa sprinkled into rum, surrounded by fresh jasmine in the background. The patchouli is light and spicy, and the tonka is warm and bright. This actually is a very fresh scent, fresh in that it is light, airy and gorgeous and not too sweet. It reminds me very slightly as a lighter and subdued version of Ambre Eccentrico on the gourmand side, plus some light floral notes dusted with the cacoa. Very hard to describe, but the quality cacao, if one can visualize, dusted onto a white porcelain plate that is clean and bare sums this one up. Unusual and sensual. Any season (but more cool weather appropriate), any time of day, more mature attitudes and any occasion. Note 3/4/23: more than one compliment today saying this is beautiful. The comment was- it is so beautiful and soft too. I forgot I was wearing it - it is quite soft and slightly powdery, but it has good sillage. Something in this adds a slight fruitiness and I am not sure if is one of the flowers or not.