Camellia

I was quite excited to sample this fragrance, from looking at the notes, and it lives up to expectations. The perfume is based around the Asian flowering plant: Camellia, which produces beautifully colored blossoms. And it smells as pretty as it looks. Although this fragrance is based around Camellia, on my skin the magnolia tends to initially dominate this scent. It's very sweet and airy, with a lemon candy sort of feel. A slight fruitiness from the plum gives the perfume a zingy tang that sits well against the floral sweetness. In the dry down the camellia and the tea are a little more pronounced with the tea lending the scent a slight bitterness, and there is a woody base which also slightly tempers the sweetness. I also find the dry down a lot warmer and cozier than the airy top notes thanks to the presence of the amber as it emerges. In spite of the bitter tea and the woods, I was quite surprised by just how sweet this scent turned out to be. In the heat, I think that it could potentially get cloying. While it is quite light, I think that it's best suited in the fall or winter, but it might be passable in spring too. Initially the sillage was quite strong but it quietens down after the first 2-3 hours. Longevity is no more than six hours. All in all, I really do like this scent, and very much enjoy wearing it, maybe even enough for a full bottle.

I am not cool enough to know what Camellia or Magnolia smells like, but I adore this fragrance! To me this is a plummy abstract white floral. Yes, very vintage feel to it. The opening is mostly dusty dry white tea, then the plumminess and white flowers come in, and then it transitions into a divine, very powdery, bone dry amber-wood- tea drydown. A very unexpected strong like/borderline love for me. I am biased, but this is done in the best traditions of Feminite du Bois. It could have been a Serge Lutens fragrance, and since SL is very often an inspiration for Keiko's creations, I think this is deliberate. Overall, a very solid mature woody-plummy floral with a beautiful tea accord.

The triumvirate of white flowers: tuberose, gardenia, and jasmine, has dominated floral perfumery for quite some time now. With CAMELLIA, Keiko Mecheri has produced the pink equivalent to the big white floral perfume. The key flower here to my nose is magnolia, although I must confess ignorance as to the scent of camellias, which appear to be the flower associated with a plant much more renowned for its provision to us of that all important beverage: tea. I had not thought about it until today, but camellia sinensis is indeed one of the ingredients listed for all tea-containing products, whether food stuffs or cosmetic items. My efforts to ascertain whether camellia flowers have a readily identifiable scent were for naught, as even Wikipedia says nothing about the use of the flowers for the purpose of making perfume. Camellia oil is apparently used as a cooking oil in China and also, oddly enough, to clean Japanese knife blades! So maybe camellia, per se, is not all that aromatic. But magnolia certainly is, and there is a big dose of luscious, creamy magnolia in this composition. This is not quite a soliflore, but there is definitely enough magnolia here for me to think of this as a big floral perfume of the magnolia variety. This does not smell like a tea fragrance at all. Think about your favorite big floral fragrance featuring the triumvirate, and switch out the gardenia and the tuberose and the jasmine for magnolia. Needless to say, this is a very feminine, mainly floral composition. I suspect that it might even work for some who are overwhelmed by white flowers, because here everything is so smooth and not at all sharp. The base contains ambergris, as is the case for some of the other Keiko Mecheri floral creations, and it smells wonderful here as well. Is this perfume earthshatteringly original or revolutionary? No, but it is beautiful.

The magnolia is in the forefront here and certainly recognizable to those familiar with their scent. At the same time, I find the tea note incredibly strong and a bit distracting. It's somewhat mentholated, which is interesting, but I'd almost rather it wasn't there. I detect a tiny bit of plum. I seem to be perceiving it as an unripe plum on the sour side. Not a thick, syrupy plum by any means. Overall I like this fragrance because I see it's purpose. Magnolia is often a supporting note and not the star. Camellias that I have encountered don't really have any smell so I can't say for sure if I get any camellia in this. The name may be more about marketing than composition.

I like this parfum! it smells like lilac blossom to me