Royal Vanilla

Royal Vanilla by Mancera is a jammy rose wrapped in sweetness. To me, it smells like a fresh, sweet donut glazed with icing and topped with pieces of lemon zest. It is very sugary and fizzy, yet bright citrus notes cut through the sweetness, preventing it from becoming overwhelmingly heavy. I also detect a creamy, slightly greasy note reminiscent of classic Nivea cream, blended with vanilla sugar. The result is soft, comforting, and indulgent. This fragrance strongly emphasizes femininity — it feels flirtatious and playful. Because of that, it is definitely not a work-safe scent. It’s more suited for evenings, dates, or moments when you want to feel alluring rather than professional. It can also be worn during the day — but rather on a day off, filled with pleasure, indulgence, and little luxuries, not responsibilities. This is a distinctly feminine fragrance, best suited for younger women and those up to around 40 years old. The scent is quite piercing to the nose, but never annoying. It doesn’t cause nausea or headaches for me, which is something I truly appreciate with sweet fragrances. This is exactly how I imagined Delina Exclusif would smell. Unfortunately, Delina disappointed me — while Mancera completely captivated me. I also see here comparisons to Mancera Roses Vanille, but to me they are quite different. I owned Roses Vanille, and on my skin it felt dull, heavy, and overwhelming. Royal Vanilla may share a trace of Mancera’s signature rose DNA, but here it comes across much lighter and airier to my nose. Royal Vanilla feels high-quality, long-lasting, and strongly projecting. It is a linear fragrance that doesn’t change much over time, but that actually works perfectly for me. Surprisingly, it performed very well even in the heat of the Maldives, although I prefer to wear this in colder weather, from autumn to spring.

I own Intense Cafe and this does share similarities but IMO this just smells better. Both are unisex with a fem lean, but I think out of the two RV is slightly more unisex and easier to pull off for a male than IC. Rich dense vanilla, that's sweet but not cloying sweet or even gourmand. Even though it's a bit redundant (since I own IC) I was able to purchase this today for black Friday at a discounter for 45 bucks for the 60ml which is perfect since I don't need the big bottle. I will likely sell my IC or give it away to a female friend. I've also sampled roses vanille and again prefer RV as it feels more complex (maybe because the patchouli note) and complete. The opening can be a little rough but only lasts like 5-10 mins before the magic happens. It has good projection but isn't a beast which personally I like since I don't want kill a room with this, but the sillage is great and the scent bubble is perfect. The longevity is great as well, easily 8+ hours on my skin. This is mostly a vanilla rose scent so you have to like those notes but I feel the rose is done in a nice way because usually rose can be hit or miss for males. This one isn't as rose centric as IC or rose vanille but it does add to the character. This is darker and for me personally, more satisfying.

Before biting the bullet with this one, I checked out reviews here & on YT. Let's just say the YT reviews were all over the place...one YTer (not naming any names) said this was a patchouli bomb, another said this was very intriguing. I disagree with both, even though I really love the scent. Tl:Dr - This is sophisticated, but I was expecting something different. A less-soapier and slightly more feminine version of Montale's 'Sensual Instinct'. Ignore the notes listed here. This is a very jam-like rose with a rich, chocolatey drydown. A bit sour, ambery & syrupy. It's not fresh, sweet & sugary like 'Roses Vanille'...neither is it dry, full of coffee like 'Intense Cafe'. Instead in the opening I even get some oud on my skin. Sticky-sweet, no powdery facets. It does have a rose/vanilla/amber DNA (mostly rose), but this scent has no close resemblance to 'Instant Crush'. As someone who owns 'Arabians Tonka', 'Roses Vanille' & 'Ristretto Intense Cafe'... They have the instant WOW factor for me. This also has it, however it's SO CLOSE to Montale's 'Sensual Instinct' that I'm slightly baffled with owning both. Another Tl:Dr: If you're looking for a less soapy and more feminine 'Sensual Instinct', go for 'Royal Vanilla'.

Firstly, forget about the Patchouli in this. There's none of that in here, or if there is; it's highly insignificant to the point that it might as well not be in. This fragance is 40% vanilla, 40% voilet, 20% amber. The violet probably takes priority over the notes chain here as that will most likely be the first thing you'll smell. Vanilla has the standard Mancera DNA and the amber you'll have to hunt out, but it's still there. There's 2 stages to this fragrance. The first is the spritzy, soft-drink esque opening that leans a bit more feminine due to the violet. This is definitely a unisex fragrance though and is borderline gourmand; but not quite. The second stage is the dry down of a fine blend of vanilla-voilet-amber trio that's fairly well blended but takes effort to distinguish one note over the other. It's not unique, but voilet-vanilla combo is interesting. It's heavy but not cloying. Probably a little too heavy for the office environment. Social outings or lazy, comforting afternoons would work. Definitely more Autumn/Winter however the bright voilet opening would work for Spring and Early summer.

My good lord in sweet heaven jesus.. what is this really so damn good. I can’t find the words. This is Montales sensual instinct, but much better This is mancera’s roses vanille, but much better This is mancera’s instant crush, but much better. It’s the much better version of all these three fragrances together! It’s amazing. Performance on my skin 10 hours EASY! I was very lucky yesterday, bought it second hand from someone, because it wasn’t for sale in the Netherlands and is exclusively on Mancera website only. I cannot say a lot about the silage, but I think people could smell it from the distance. I smelled it the whole day on my skin (while normally you get anosmic) 10/10 😳