Wulóng Chá

Look, all I've ever aspired to is to carry myself like an extremely rich Shanghainese woman and this helps me smell like her. My hair is in a chignon, I might have an ascot around my neck, and I kinda look like a flight attendant even though I bought my entire wardrobe from Louis Vuitton and all of my jewelry from Tiffany because I don't actually have individualistic taste. I'm just loaded, the money gives me peace and confidence, and I'll therefore never have any desire to make a real statement. Plus making a statement would be very inconvenient for my family business; I don't need to be drawing the PRC's attention to how we got rich. Filthy rich, but understated. So tasteful in my lifestyle choices that there's almost no distinguishable taste at all. I definitely wear silk to bed. Stereotype-laden fantasies aside, I spent all of my childhood summers in China pounding lychee and never would have told you it had a distinct fragrance, beyond maybe its greeny, earthy rinds. Now that this fragrance reminds me to search for the scent of the lychee fruit, I think I get some of that green, but it's also in what I would have told you (sin notes) was pear. Wait, oops, Fragrantica is wrong actually; the bottle says "litsea" which is definitely not lychee. Well then, I was right about lychee not being there, but WuLong Cha is gently fruity enough that if you make an effort you can easily convince yourself that it's in there somewhere. The citrus isn't sharp but it's big and present and round; the tea fully smooths out its edges. The sillage has a bit of a squeaky playful traction that I wish I had better words to describe; the fragrance doesn't hesitate to take over your vibe and you can tangibly feel it transforming you into someone chiller than you as it envelops and moves through you. There's a very gentle but determined grippiness to it, kind of like how your fingers have a bit of sticky chalky traction when you rub them together after peeling yourself some lychee. I do kind of get what one poster meant when they said it smells like the cheap tea you can get in bubble tea shops but as long as I don't think about that too hard, my rich lady fantasy might remain intact. It's kinda like how if you go too far left or right on the political spectrum you basically wind up in the same spot. The bubble tea shop simply got too good at mimicking expensive tea with artificial ingredients, OK? Anyway, every time I spray this on I experience a renewed fleeting worry that it's too sweet and that it's going to knock me out if it carries on the way it began. But it always reliably smooths out into a soothing, sophisticated, confidence and inner peace (all based in reality avoidance) that only unspeakably rich Shanghainese ladies should be able to buy.

The opening is all about citrus, a very good and fresh one, leaning to the green side but with some hint of sweetness. I like it very much, is one of my favourite "happy, fresh, invogorating" openings, just perfect for sunny days. When the citrus slowly tones down the tea accord starts to pop out, but what this accord smells of exactly? I'm a big tea drinker, tryed hundreds of different teas and blends, all levels of oxidation, from super fresh white tea to the fermented puer chinese black tea, and low oolong is my favourite level of oxidation (15-25%), I import my daily tea from China ecc... yes I'm that kind of guy, so it's quite natural for me having a "tea fragrance". When I smell the tea accord in this I perceive the smell of oolong tea leaves (when they are handfolded to get the oxidation), very green, herbacious, it does not smell as the infused juice of tea, so if you are looking for the smell of the infused, prepared tea, you won't find it here. Forget also the western tea blends, if you think this would smell as a cup of earl grey or something among those lines you will be disappointed. The accord is very fresh, with an hint of sweetness (maybe the remains of citrus or the nutmeg note listed that I cannot pinpoint individually at all) and I must say that is very, very similiar to the tea leaves that i use everyday (I have taiwanese Longfenxia and Dayuling tea leaves and confronted their smell live while writing this), just a little sweeter, but without going in the flavour of the infused oolong (that have floreal and sweet fruits notes). So, to come back to the initial question, does this smell like tea? Yes! But tea leaves (with low oxidation), not tea juice. If this is what you are looking for, you will be as happy as me to try this fragrance. The tea accord remains (subtle) for the long drydown (this is increadibly long lasting for a freshy, like 10-12 hours on my skin) that is all about a clean lactonic musk, very fresh, polished. I cannot get any "fig" specifically, but I suspect that the fig accord is the responsable of the lactonic feeling of the musk. About the use: it is totally unisex at my nose, night and day from spring to autumn, and even in winter if you are tired of woods and resins and you want a "fresh break" for a day or two. Longevity is very good and projection is ok, it is suitable for overspray if you like that way. Price is not low for a freshy, but if you can get a good deal (it is a 2014 fragrance so available at discounters and on gray market) it is absolutely worth.

Bottle just came in (blind buy). Here’s my initial impression on tester strip: soooo very green. Photorealistic grass with dew in the summer, insanely realistic tea note, a tart and very lightly sweet mandarin to balance out the bitterness from the greens. This reminds me of the last days of school when I was in elementary... those “field days” where you were given hours to run around in the damp field as the summer was finally rolling in. It’s nostalgic. So very nostalgic. But at the same time, it smells like a luxurious vacation. Like a 5 star hotel in Miami. This is a lot better than I expected, especially because I am not the biggest fan of green frags (I can’t stand philosykos and stuff like that). I need to try this on skin, but initial impression is an 8.9/10. Edit: I wore this once since the previous initial reaction, and wulong cha opened my eyes to green fragrances. I have always picked heavy fragrances with vanilla and spices and leather, oud and animalics, smoke and earthiness. I have smelled thousands of fragrances. So many are good, so many are well done, but 10 times out of 10, your favorite ones will be the ones that speak to you–whether that’s through an old memory or something that just fits your style in every way shape and form. Wulong cha is so nostalgic to me that I can’t stop wearing it. It’s winter where I live, and it gets pretty cold here, and even still, I just want to reach for wulong cha. It reminds me of my childhood. The sun warming up the grass during summer camp, the sounds of kids running around and screaming with joy. Wulong also reminds me of every time that school ended for the year and those initial summer days brought nothing but joy and a sense of freedom. I won’t lie, wulong cha isn’t even in my top 25 in terms of the actual smell, but the nostalgia factor is already making this perfume fly up on my list of favorites. Scents really do hold memories, and when you finally find a scent that brings you back to the simpler times in your lives, you won’t be able to put it down either. Smell-9.0 Longevity-8 hours (5 hours working, 3 hours skin scent) Sillage/projection- not strong, but not weak either. About 3 feet projection for the first hour, then tapers off to about a foot of radiating. Nostalgia factor (for me)-10 Overall-9.8/10.

If you are new to the fragrance world, it's incredibly important that you try Wulong Cha. It has become a staple in the fragrance community. I believe it was released in 2015, and since then, it has become a prerequisite in understanding citrus tea perfumery. Is it a masterpiece? Perhaps. A lot of you would say no, but that is what it takes to be considered a masterpiece. There has to be controversy and there has to be a dispute. Otherwise, the lack of dialogue simply creates another mass appealing fragrance that all in all is very boring. A masterpiece is anything but boring. I'm not going to go over any fragrance notes etc. Because that has been beaten into the ground. This is a citrus fragrance. You can dissect this any way you want, but at the end of the day, it is a citrus! Natural or synthetic is up to you. The biggest debate comes from whether or not this is a tea fragrance. My position on this is that I don't care! It's not supposed to be strong in composition, so therefore I don't care if I can't smell it. I love citrus fragrances. They might be my favorite overall, if I had to choose. Don't hold me to that though! So I might be bias when it comes to whether or not this is a great fragrance. I think it is for multiple reasons. It's incredibly balanced and has been constructed in a way where it can hold itself four hours. I don't get sick of it like I do with many others. So that's a plus. Lasting impression on me. It's been many years since I smelled it the first time, and I still remember it to this day. That's extremely rare for how many fragrances I have smelled throughout the years. Aside from PROFU ROMA, my favorite brand of all time, NISHANE has one of the best citrus fragrances out there. And I will end my review with that.

Wulong Cha is a joyful, clean and uplifting summer citrus fragrance in the "fresh out of the shower" genre. Another one of Jorge Lee's skillful creations for Nishane - Zenne, Ambra Calabria, Fan Your Flames, Hacivat, Sultan Vetiver. Wulong Cha opens with a blast of sweet lemon and bergamot, listed as mandarin but is sweet lemon notes that dominate (litsea cubeba) my nose. It is linear, softening into a musky drydown with citrus notes lingering. Long-lasting for a citrus fragrance, six hours plus in heat. I think I get a little nose blind to it after a couple of hours but it was still there on my wrist the next morning after one spray. Big projection at first, then softening to become fairly subtle. Five sprays never feel too much. Not much sillage. Perfect for sporty daytime summery events, summer lunch dates. Think more riviera than beach. The clean, shower-fresh profile, longevity, and low projection/sillage also make it an interesting office choice. Wulong Cha is unisex but I think men and women of different ages will interpret it differently and have different uses for it. As a 50 year old man, I am a bit old fashioned and I could be wrong, but my take is that on men, it leans clean and uplifting, not seductive (skip for evening dates). I wear it to evening dance classes but not to dance clubs, if that makes sense. However, I think it would be alluring on a women for an evening date. I wouldn't wear it to the office but I would have in my 20s or 30s. It's not very professional, more fun. Men might think at first spray, “a touch feminine for me,” (I did at first). Women might think, “a touch masculine”. It's different, hard to put your finger on it. Just wear it. it's magic!