Pomelo Oolong

My introduction to d'Annam with Pomelo Oolong was quite welcoming. I recently sampled this scent and have to say it has grown on me. As a lover of tea notes in fragrances, I was excited to see what perfumer Anh Ngo presented in this scent. I was first hit with a blast of florals and only a soft hint of pomelo, something I must say I was slightly disappointed in. The oolong profile is gentle on my skin, something I love and admire in Ngo's work. Pomelo Oolong is for sure more feminine; however, it walks the fine line of unisex, with the heavy dose of florals making it teeter over. On skin, it lasts for a moderate amount of time, with a pleasant sillage drying down into a nice skin scent. It's best described as a therapeutic fragrance, one that calms the mind and constantly demands the smell of the wrist. For a citrus, tea, and floral fragrance, Anh Ngo and d'Annam do a great job refining the scent down into its core elements, doing nothing more or less. A realistic tea scent is something I love, staying inoffensive and pleasing both the user and those around them. The dry down is where the expected comes to life, with many people giving Pomelo Oolong backlash for its misleading opening. The airy, light scent profile is one aspect of this fragrance that must be appreciated. The hyper-realistic oolong becomes the star of the show just after the opening and somewhat upon the opening as well. Overall, Pomelo Oolong is a great, basic scent that checks off everything a tea/floral enthusiast would look for. The simple structure and lovely dry down are what make Pomelo Oolong unique. Even though it does not last as long as people would like it to, the true and artistic meaning behind this scent is more for the individual. You can always overspray and reapply if you want to share this masterpiece with the world, but I have learned to appreciate this scent for what it is. It's creamy, smooth, and hyper-realistic, which is hard to find. I look forward to exploring d'Annam and the works of Anh Ngo, as well as eventually picking up a bottle of Pomelo Oolong.

i’ve come to realize that, while it truly does not matter, i want to use different scents to match the different seasons, therefore i must make use of my sample collection to find something cute. i got a tiny decant of this from somebody last year, and at first i wasn’t super crazy about it, but i found myself finishing the decant and now i’m getting a bigger decant just to be sure. that being said, i think i love it. i’m not usually one to reach for tea or floral or fruit (unless it’s fig), but i think really like this. the first initial sprays is the sharpness of a pomelo juice and rind, mixed with oolong, and it’s tea-y for a bit until the dry down. at least, for me. it’s important i preface this by saying that this is purely for my skin chem because on me it dries into a creamy (i guess that’s where this porcelain accord comes from) sunscreeny floral, and some tea. like, it smells like a really expensive milky sunscreen. kind of reminds me of ‘skank’ by barre in the dry down ON ME. maybe even like an oolong milk tea. it was raining the day i wore this, but it stayed on my clothes for a decent amount of time, and projected pretty well for the amount of sprays that i did (6, both wrists, both inner arms, 2 on the neck and 2 on my chest). my friend said she could smell me in the passenger seat right as i got in the car, and it lasted into the next day. v sweet v awesome v pretty man who shares luv for fragrance w me also tested this, as a designated tea lover (it was also his first time having pomelo after), and it’s way more herby tea on him and i am jealous.

Immediate reaction to my first spray is that I think this is a pretty safe blind buy for the shampoo scentheads - you get a sweet fruity citrus opening, with no sharpness. As it settles on my skin, the tea note blooms, but again without any tannic bitterness that I sometimes get from overly tea-forward perfumes. It feels very clean and is just barely sweet - the word I keep coming back to is sparkly? This is feminine without feeling excessively girlish or immature. Will be a lovely warm weather scent and is probably office/public transit safe. By hour three it’s mostly gone but hour two was an interesting powdery, musky tea - possibly the porcelain coming through - that retained just a hint of the early sweetness. Edit: the porcelain is like no other powdery note I’ve smelled, it’s so clean and neutral. I find myself reapplying every few hours just to experience the dry down over and over again. I probably would have gone through half a bottle per week if they had dropped this earlier during peak summer. The bottle design is eh for me but I have to acknowledge that that atomizer is 15/10 quality at this price point.

This is disgustingly good, and I can't look at tea fragrances the same after smelling this. The first spray fills the air with the smell of a freshly poured cup of oolong, paired with a heavy dose of osmanthus and indolic jasmine with the pomelo poking out behind it. The indole and the sweetness make this surprisingly rich and narcotic. As the fragrance progresses, the florals take over. The smell is strong at close distance but tapers off quickly, not a room filler, which I'm fine with. The price is quite high, and that's my only qualm. However, when you consider the price is on par with Tom Ford, this is far superior to what I've worn from TF and far more interesting. It's still more than I care to pay for, though. A note on longevity: people need to get off this obsession with longevity. This frag lasts ~3 hours, but you really shouldn't expect more out of a tea and citrus fragrance. Those are top and mid notes, it's just the nature of those materials. If you want to smell like citrus and tea, you have to accept that you need to reapply.

First spray is an immediate bright sweet citrus with a slightly bitter note behind it, which is balanced by a powdery, polleny but fruity floral, a very beautiful blend. The bitter/floral combo pushes through after half an hour and pomelo takes a backseat, keeping it refreshing but not very sweet. After two or three hours, it’s more powdery and mostly floral with barely any fruit. Interestingly, after four hours the drydown is fruit-forward again and much sweeter and lactonic, very close to the skin. It essentially disappears by hour five and is barely detectable. Very pleasant and more addictive than I expected, but I'm disappointed it fades so quickly. The longevity is possibly the worst out of all the perfumes I own. I don’t mind more intimate projection, in fact I prefer it, but the drydown doesn't even last to the end of the workday. I will probably just get myself a larger decant and leave it at that, because I'm not sure the price is worth it for me for just 50ml.