Nuit Andalouse

If an Italian man ever asks me out on a date - this is what I will wear. Silk and this perfume. And yes, I know, Andalusia is in Spain :-) but I can't help it, this perfume is extremely nostalgic for me. I was actually shocked when I first smelled it. It brought me back through decades and continents to a small Italian village in the South and the boy with the most charming smile I have ever seen. That's how that hot Mediterrenean night smelled. Intoxicating like a promise of a different life, the life that never happened but I miss it. I don't own this perfume because I'm afraid that it will make me question my life choices and I may end up buying a one way ticket to Italy... Cécile Zarokian is a genius.

This perfume is an ode to beauty and blossoming femininity. It is simply so enchanting! Like a milky mousse with tropical fruits on a warm terrace in the evening, where the fabulous flowers are wafting around. Happiness, summer, beauty, sweetness - it's all there in this perfume. Sillage is small to medium but longevity especially on hair or fabric - 12 hours and more.

Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful! I cannot praise this divine creation enough. Its sweet warm Gardenia and yellow flowers sweetly perfuming the warm air and sun kissed skin. I must have a full bottle asap, i love this more than Isabey.... Yeah I know!!!

Nuit Andalouse is a tropical floral scent, not typically my thing, but it is a high-quality, nicely-composed example of its genre. I am very impressed with the quality of this house, and while NA is not a standout from MDCI, it is an elevated take on a tired trope. NA can be summed up as a bouquet of honeyed white and yellow florals with a powdery drydown. Notably, NA features an excellent rendering of gardenia - a note that is notoriously difficult to replicate in perfume (the natural oil cannot be harvested, so in the manner of muguet, it must be synthesised in a lab). NA opens with fresh citrus, followed closely by muted, green violet. The sweet, tropical florals unfold quite quickly, led by unmistakeable heady gardenia. Ylang ylang, sweet and creamy, brings things firmly to tropical territory, but is uncharacteristically muted, playing second fiddle to the gardenia and enhancing it beautifully. Much as I like ylang ylang, it can often become cloying in perfume. Some orange blossom emerges after a while as the aforementioned florals subside somewhat, again, more muted than it typically appears in perfume. There is a honey-like sweetness to the florals, natural-smelling and nectar-like. I get a prominent banana note as it progresses, adding to the tropical accord nicely. The florals become increasingly powdery as NA dries down, with a soft woodiness creeping in during the later stages. It becomes softly musky as it fades, remaining a sweet, tropical scent until final fade. Sillage is moderate and longevity is long-lasting. It is a feminine spring/summer scent. An elegant, elevated take on a scent category that can be cloying and juvenile, NA is beautiful, nuanced and masterfully put-together. While it is less of a showstopper than other MDCIs, NA is a worthy inclusion, in keeping with the high quality of this house. One of the best tropical florals I've tried. 4/5.

The first top spray was quite memorizing as the gardenia and ylang combination shines with the help of slight niroli note. As it calms down, the orange rises and it unbalances the juice a bit and shows up the vanilla in a kind of cloying way. Then the juice goes distracting, cloying, and unbalanced although it starts quite superb but turns into chaos after few minutes till it settles down into an acceptable essence, creamy, vanillic, white floral. Not amazing unique and superbly divine, but something i've sensed before