Layebana

Without looking at the notes listed on Fragrantica, my first scent impression of Layebana is coconut and gardenia with a hint of sweet, soft wood hovering in the wings. As I now look at the notes I may have mistaken the gardenia I smelled to have been the jasmine. The sweet, soft woods may have actually been the tobacco and the coconut the cane sugar note. It is more a milky sweet concoction, sort of like a rich dairy sweetener than just plain cane sugar. As the notes dry down I am noticing that the jasmine (gardenia) note remains while the sugary note becomes hardened sort of like a caramel, very creamy and soft. The tobacco note recedes a bit as if too shy to be around the more dominant notes. But it remains hovering in the wings just in case. I have no idea why anyone would want to reverse smoke to experience whatever they want to experience, giving how deadly that can be to the human lung, nor can I see how this can only leave behind the scent of tobacco. There are so many different tobacco scents that I would gladly experience only through a perfume, especially the scent of the tobacco note in Layebana. Even without having reversed smoked, I feel this is the healthier way to indulge in the scent of tobacco. This is a love at first sniff scent for me. However it dries down or changes later, (and it appears it won't change much from this point on), I will always be in love with the scents I experienced and found myself loving with the initial application. This seems to me to be a comfort scent, of being wrapped in the warmth of good feeling, fond memories and the safety of a scent that doesn't assault or intrude. No, it is a scent that you seek to experience. Again and again. This is a close to the skin scent; soft to moderate silage, depending on whether you dab or douse. Edit: smells as a flanker of Bohemia from same house: House of Grey.

I’ll have to do a proper review of this fragrance, it doesn’t get near the love that it deserves! Imagine sipping on an exotic milk tea, with black sugar boba, somewhere warm, where you can smell the jasmine blossoms & nearby tobacco being rolled through the humid tropical air. The sunset is large, & heavy with rain to come, big, green palm leaves droop in the languid air, people loll about, enjoying the end of the day. The scent of sweet sticky rice wafts about drawing your attention for a moment, and you feel content, serene, as though you could spend every evening exactly like this one. This is one hell of a unique scent in the realm of niche perfumery. That’s not something to be said lightly. If you’ve vacationed somewhere that you long for, if you want to long for somewhere you’ve never been, please, give this one a try. As a quick edit, it’s not quite gourmand, but in the same arena as sweet & intriguing scents. Satisfying sweetness, with enough soul, & character to make it more substantial than a mere dessert! The other offerings are equally as pleasing & interesting. Not just interesting, but genuinely great fragrances bearing a house signature. I’m officially a huge fan.

Masterful moist, custardy tobacco. Layebana opens with dark liquor, almost with a ripe apricot nuance; fermented stone fruits and almonds. Perhaps it's the pastillas de leche note that makes my palate tingle for creamy, sweet boozy nuts like amaretto. Then there is something decidedly gamey. I'm reminded a little of goat's or sheep's milk, but it's richer and sweeter. There's a hint of astringency that makes this quite wild, yet big and gentle. Florals infuse the sweet, untamed milk, dispersing into a satiny powder, yet it still bears weight. A hint jasmine, with some rosy fruit flesh. Tobacco is fresh soaked, delivering a damp woody ambrosial milk. No dry smoke. There's a certain heavy luminosity to Layebana, like warm resin. Beautiful in its gentle sensuality, yet bold. Unusual. Comforting. Exceptionally memorable.

Another masterpiece from this house that I just cannot wait to make mine. I grew up eating dulce de leche in South America, and although I could eat half a kilo of it in one seating back in my younger years, the thought of smelling like it makes me as nauseous, as most gourmand perfumes do. This sample grew on me with each try. It is sweet, gourmand and the dulce de leche is very present throughout, however sweet, it is not nauseating sweet. Layebana is elegant and exotic. Reminds me of Guerlain’s Terracotta a bit, but it’s far more interesting. I fell in love with it and will surely make it mine in the near future. Highly recommend sampling it.

@AveParfums Glad to find a tribute to my hometown so authentically studied that its worthy of presenting for the country of the Phillippines ^ ^ You know what this needs: something asiatic to root it back from its Spanish colonial heritage to our identities as Asians. Namely a guyabano fruit (native tropic soursop), which to adjust to this perfume smells a bit like a fecund, overripe banana fruit flesh (emphasis on the boozy fruit ferment and especially its deep, orris-y jungle soil skin) crossed with moist steamed hot indian pandan leaves with just a dash of deep basmati rice-y sweetness of the pandan fruit and a hint of creamy, waxy pineapple husk tang. Can't wait to try it sometime! Will review when ready.

Layebana is so comforting. It does feel like sitting in someone else’s kitchen. Perhaps in an exotic location, you’re welcomed with laughter, the clatter of cookware, the warm spice of unfamiliar dishes being prepared just for you, and a tropical drink in hand. There’s a bouquet of white flowers lingering in the air, mingling with traces of tobacco. It’s a memory — your best holiday, captured as a scent.