Sake

I had long forgotten about the bottle I still have of this once beloved scent until this morning. I'm so happy that I decided to give it another whirl! It's the epitomy of a 'clean' aroma, but with a stimulating ginger and grapefruit bite! While those are the most pronounced of the notes, I feel the sandalwood is a grounding element and keeps Sake from being too cloying. It is certainly not your standard 'citrus' fragrance. What I think is most satisfying about Fresh Sake is that it lingers close to your skin, but is JUST present enough for you to catch the occasional whiff of yourself and think 'Gee, I smell good'! It's a refreshing, cooling tonic of a scent that has, at least in my experience, solid longevity. Perfect for when you want to create an uplifting yet subtley polished air about you via scent!

I tried Sake on a whim, and it has quickly become my most reached for scent. Sake is a gorgeous mix of citrus, ginger, peach, osmanthus, and lychee, with a heavy dose of white rice underneath it. I'm surprised rice isn't listed in the notes or in the reviews below, because the rice stands out so strongly on my skin! The rice and ginger (and sandalwood, I suppose) keep this perfume from being a simple fruity floral fragrance, and lend the scent a lot of comfort and warmth. To me, white rice is really nostalgic, and this scent feels downright cozy on my skin. It almost reminds me of a mango sticky rice type dessert. Sake is the most grown up of the Fresh perfumes, and with its excellent sillage and staying power I have become a devoted fan.

I really, really love this - I came across a tester in Sephora, only to find out it's being discontinued for reformulation and thus unavailable. However I managed to track down a current, full-sized 100ml bottle. It smells absolutely lovely on my skin - fresh and not overwhelmingly sweet, but perfectly well-balanced instead, and the drydown into a gentle vanilla-y musk is very cozy. I find the longevity to be pretty good even in my tropical country's hot, humid weather - sprayed on in the morning, could still smell it on me in the early evening.

I love this perfume. It is so different from what I usually wear, which are florals. Fortunately, I do not get the grapefruit vibe. Nothing says grapefruit like 3 L'Imperatrice, which I hate with a holy passion. The dry down is a great body scent that is a musky, vanilla-ish, with a whiff of lotus thrown in. Wears like a comfy favorite sweatshirt. My skin just seemed to absorb it. I don't necessarily see this as a man's scent. This is for women who are sure about themselves. Definitely not for the wishy washy.

My nose doesn't interpret this as a citrus, or a floral, or a fruity. The drydown of this is pretty vanilla-oriental-gourmand. It is LOVELY, and one of the few light vanilla fragrances that isn't too sweet. There is DEFINITELY a rice note somewhere in this fragrance that's not listed here. It's extremely obvious in the drydown and smells like an aromatic Thai rice pudding or something like that.