Chinese Calligraphy

Woah! Kind of weird. It smells like ink, milk, and a kind of alcoholic beverage. Then something almost like...purple modeling clay? Conceptually, it partly smells like a classroom. There is some note that I swear a teacher of mine was wearing in the 90s. I think that's just my personal baggage. The only notes that genuinely connect it to "classroom" are the ink and the milk. And man it does smell like ink, truly. That being said, NOT a good scent for a teacher. Not a casual scent either. It's not offensive, but it's not...inoffensive. Overall the perfume really unique and doesn't smell bad at all to me, but I think that not everyone will like it. Don't wear this to work unless you are the CEO or manager. Or unless you work at a tattoo parlor, then it would actually be a perfect scent. I can see a beautiful Chinese of Japanese woman in vintage times who works in an underground tattoo parlor, doing traditional stick and poke full color back tattoos and sleeves, and the parlor smells just like this from her perfume mixing with the inks and the hot sterile needles and people's bodies in the wood and leather chairs. So unless you are somewhere intense, brash, and counter culture, do not wear this perfume to places where people won't have a choice whether they want to be within six feet of you. If I smelled this on someone on a plane or during a standardized test I would throw hands. If I smelled it on my waitress or tattooista I would fall in love. Edit after wearing a few times: It really does not last long!! Like not even 4 hours! Is it just me? It smells extremely strongly when you first apply it, but it's like a surface scent, sadly it goes away. I wish there was a perfume version of make up primer because then I would put that on before using this perfume.

Chinese Calligraphy is my first sampling of d’Annam Chapter 3: Majestic China, a fascinating fragrance with a very literal inspiration in that key notes are ink, black lacquer, paper, coffee, and orchid. It’s fittingly dark and sharp but also feels appropriately midway between natural and manmade elements, the ink and paper paired with the coffee and orchid, conjuring the ink-on-paper writing perhaps in a setting with flowers and coffee, with plenty of darkness via the ink and coffee and a good amount of brightness via the orchid and paper. Over time, the sharpness and brightness fades and gives way to more of the coffee and ink. I’m a big fan of coffee in fragrance in general, and it being juxtaposed with ink especially is quite interesting, not to mention that yields a quite different experience from the sweeter, creamier coffee-rich concoction Vietnamese Coffee, which is part of d’Annam Chapter 1, one of my favorites of that initial group. But in Chinese Calligraphy I find a denser, slightly more provocative, yet still cozy and evocative grouping of ideas that blend together quite superbly, and I’m really impressed. It’s one of my favorites of the entire house that I’ve tried so far. The current pricing for this and most other d’Annam perfumes is $160 for 50ml, sold in the US via the house website as well as great boutiques like Perfumology and Ministry of Scent, most of which also sell the discovery sets for each of the three chapters—Vietnam, Japan, and China. 8 out of 10

Yum!! Chinese Calligraphy is my favorite perfume from the China line. The vibe to me is dusty, cold coffee, face paint from my childhood. Especially the face paint note is prominent to me, maybe those pigments have a certain scent that ink has as well? Do I feel the concept of old leather in the distance? Perhaps a type of paper? Ah, blue ballpoint ink too. Something in the distance is comforting, vaguely grounding, a pinch of warm. I found this note hard to describe, I kept thinking 'floral but not floral', must be the orchid. This fades away after an hour or so. The more it dries down, the more it leans towards a subtle coffee scent. Truly unisex to my nose. So comforting and addictive. It reminds me of Naked Dance by Oddity, they are relatives. My husband and dog like it as well so I will go for a full bottle of this. It layers nicely with White Rice. Edit: I detected the scent on my clothes 24hrs later, still papery delicious

This is awesome, totally unique. It smells like you’re sitting in a university library at a large, polished, wooden desk. The building next to the library is under construction and you walked past it on the way in. That morning, you spilt black coffee on your shirt, but you’re wearing black so it’s ok, no stains and no time to change anyway. There’s still Folgers black silk grounds under your nails. There’s an old book in front of you on the desk, it’s in the foreign language you’re minoring in. You’re struggling through the words and sucking on the back end of a cheap pen. I’ve been searching high and low for a “library” scent and I think I’ve finally found it. Only hesitation on the full bottle is that this a tad faint for my liking, and the bottle looks a little cheap. Longevity is maybe 3-4 hours. I want more “oomph” for the price point. But hey. The juice is exactly what I’ve been searching for.

I absolutely adore this fragrance! It reminds me of opening an old book that has been sitting on a shelf for years. Its a dusty, yet subtly sweet paper scent. I was initially hesitant about this fragrance because of the coffee note , but I was pleasantly surprised. The coffee note really does tie it all together; initially, it's what i'd imagine a coffee scented incense stick would smell like, but as it dries down it gives you more of a brewed coffee. Almost like it was spilled on the pages of a book and dried down a long time ago. Very cozy and wearable, but not a safe blind buy for the average person. If you want to smell like old paper this is absolutely for you.