Keora

This review is for the original version of Keora, made in 1983, splash EDT in a glass bottle with carved bird top.......... Keora is deep, dusty, soft spicy, and powdery. Keora fragrance is based on the kewra flower that grows wild in Burma, the Adamans, and in Southern India. The male kewra flower used for perfumes is similar to a rose scent, but has also a fruity, spiced peach smell. This flower is also used to flavor foods in India, such as a rice pudding called Kheer. Jean Couturier's Keora is powdery, musky, dusty, sweet, but not too sweet. Amber is sweet, but it's wrapped in vanilla and mellow spices. I detect spices such as nutmeg, cassia, cloves, cinnamon, mace and cardamom. All the ingredients are expertly blended, softened by vanilla, musk, and the exotic fragrance of keora flowers. Keora is very long lasting, 12 hours or more, with projection of about 12 inches to 6 inches after drydown. A truly beautiful, unique fragrance that could be unisex. According to notes listed here, looks like this current version of Keora may have deleted the spices ? but still retains the softly spicy keora flowers. I must try this current version soon.

Wish I'd seen the bottle with the lovely bird cap, before I ordered the less-exciting one topped with a golden onion dome. No matter; hopefully I'm getting the same juice. Update: this is a benzoin-forward amber floral with a woody backbone that dries down to something with the slightest hints of chypre. Smells like ylang-ylang to me, although it isn't listed as a note. Could be the jasmine and spices, since ylang can have that spicy-sweet aspect. The rosewood stands out, almost smells like opoponax (a beloved note to me!) I really like this perfume, it's similar to other vintage classics I'm familiar with; Shalimar, Emeraude, and Chantilly come to mind, but Keora is less citrusy. Definitely more benzoin here than in Opium or Cinnabar. This one is for the powder lovers!

It is true that Kéora's lineage can be traced back to the iconic ambers such as Shalimar, Emeraude, even Tabu, but what Keora shifts forward, among considerable benzoin and assortment of spices, are ample yellow flowers. Mimosa and Ylang-Ylang color it a warmer, brighter hue, their radiance reaching through its dusky richness. A column of woodiness strikes through Keora and the savory ripeness of animal notes, including an ambergris accord, just touch the surface, contrasting with its resinous sweetness. It seems to have gotten lost in the swarm of resurgent ambers released in the late 70s and early 80s, but is so deserving of merit for its diversion from its time-tested template. It's lovely.

Just like people below me said, this perfume is in the likes of Shalimar EDP, but without its notable and heavenly vanilla and with added yellow florals like ylang-ylang, even though they're not listed. Its base is spicy, resinous, ambery, warm and woody, due to the benzoin (which is aplenty), palisander wood and tonka, and a slight touch of ambergris also makes its presence. It's more powdery and brighter than Shalimar. I frankly am very happy to own a bottle, I think this is quite beautiful!

After reading the reviews I was very curious to smell this scent. I LOVE amber, and like vanilla, and this EdT is a bargain for less than 10 euros in the Netherlands (Kijkshop)! Surely the list of notes mentioned above is very incomplete, as Joliecat mentioned, because Kéora is mainly spicy. I sprayed on a tiny bit, and got an explosion of scent. My first impression was: nutmeg and cloves. Lots of it. Plus (here I consulted my Indian cookbook and turned to my spice shelf) doses of mace, fennel, cardamom, saffron, cinnamon, ginger, pandanus, kentjur, turmeric. It reminded me of an Indian/hippy EdT I owned when I was a teenager, called Parvati, which was very spicy/patchouli. Kéora is also very, very oriental. The vanilla is not very overt, also I don't detect any typical amber. Musk, yes. After one hour I smelled some smoke, cream and leather, as it became more powdery, reminding me more and more of Rumba. To sum it up: a scorched Asian spice bazar, or an Indian sweet dessert containing lots of spices that got a tad burned. Quite nice! Actually, very nice, but one must be in the right mood for it. This is a scent for overly confident, assertive dark-haired ladies. And ditto men.