Vanille Flamboyante de Bourbon

Fairy Tale VANILLA... Imagine you're on a path in Sherwood Forest when you pass Friar Tuck going the opposite way. His pockets are full of brown sugar, plums and roses, and he's swinging an incense burner out of which the sweetest scent of sandalwood chips wafts. Opens with a burst of fruity vanilla and ylang and deepens into a brown sugar-vanilla heart with yellow floral touches resting on a creamy sweet sandalwood base with earthy and root-y touches. A perfect scent to wear when feeling generous, or channelling your inner Robin Hood. Overall: Well above average performance, and a beautiful scent profile, This takes a few months in dark storage after first sprays to develop the true scent and performance. It's a love for me. Enjoy! Contrast to Amarige Mariage Givenchy: These are different, but there are some similarities with a sweeter sandalwood in the drydowns. Vanille Flamboyante is more vanilla-rose forward with ylang, while Amarige Mariage is woodier overall and more benzoin-jasmine-sandal forward with cinnamon. Roughly equivalent performance. Contrast to Police Dark Women: These are different, but there is a similar vibe with a powdery floral vanilla and the heart has something similar that's hard to pinpoint - near lily-violet, that melts into a rooty-ness. Police Dark Women has woods more forward, while Vanille Flamboyante has rose more forward. Roughly equivalent performance. Vanille Bourbon Laurent Dumont: These are different, but there's something very similar in the drydowns. Vanille Bourbon has the vanilla more forward and richer with near caramel tones. Roughly equivalent performance, or slightly better for Vanille Flamboyante de Bourbon. Contrast to Flower by Kenzo: These are different, but there is a similar vibe with a honeyed-rose, vanilla & near lily/violet tones. Flower by Kenzo is muskier & darker in the base, while Vanille Flamboyante de Bourbon has a more forward vanilla-sandalwood. Roughly equivalent performance. Update 07/16/24: Sprayed this on a forearm yesterday. Really enjoyed the floral-honey tones of this vanilla, and it worked well in warm weather, although the scent profile works year round. After a powdery rose opening that melted into rose-honey, I was struck by the near lily tones at the heart. This time it reminded me most of Flower by Kenzo and Police Dark Women. Still a love. Update 03/28/25: Sprayed this on this morning to see how much rose is in here, and the answer is quite a bit. Still a vanilla first fragrance, but the rose is also prominent, and turns honeyed. Although this isn't a dupe, the combination of vanilla, rose, ylang & sandalwood reminds me of Hanae Mori, however Hanae Mori is more sandalwood forward while Vanille Flamboyante is more vanilla-rose forward. Still a love.

I'm not sure if it's as what the previous commenter said: wet roses or the note of 'night blooming jasmine' as I'm not an expert on florals, but this is unfortunately disgusting to my nose. Based on the name, I got this in a bundle thinking I'd be obsessed but obviously not. Might resell in the future

This one was a let-down for me. I was excited about the "bourbon" part of this perfume, but overall, it reminds me of a more expensive, more smoothly blended version of Monotheme's Vanilla Blossom perfume. Top notes smell like wet roses, base notes are roses and vanilla. This is a very pretty perfume, unfortunately, roses are usually a no-go for me personally. Check out the listed notes between both of these perfumes, and you will see how similar they are. Probably a nice possibility for those who like rose and vanilla notes!