Issara

Looking at the perfume profiles of the Dusita trio, my attention and interest was naturally drawn to the opulent Oudh Infini with its Laotian oud and Mysore sandalwood, and to Melodie de L'Amour with its lush Gardenia. When I got my samples from Ms Umavijani however, it is Issara that became my favourite. Though the other two is pretty stunning! Issara is purity and happiness. Open grassy fields, sea breezes, vast expanse, sweet-smelling air, wind going through your hair, wholesome feeling of being close to nature. These are some of the mental impressions I got. It also evokes aloneness. This is an introspective scent. If there is ever a fragrance equivalent of meditation, Issara will be it. This is YOU under a tree far from the madding crowd, yourself in the whole wide world, when you just want to be left the f**k alone. Elysian Fields, paradise, Pure Land, whatever name one wants to call it, Issara comes pretty close to smelling like it. On me, I get herbaceous sweet smelling clary sage and the coumarin, oh my goodness, the COUMARIN. If you like coumarin or tonka, do yourself a favour and try this. Someone mentioned that it's a reinvention of the fougere, hell yes and what a reinvention. This is not another stiff gentlemanly cologney type perfume that typifies so many unremarkable fougeres out there. This is an unapologetic paean to coumarin and its sweet hay-like accord. Tobacco and Amber puts in a modest appearance to tame the sweetness a little. I'm not familiar with vetiver though I'm sure it's there. And as someone who is Super wary of musk, the musk here is so subdued and subtle, you don't have to worry about it overwhelming the entire composition. I catch whiffs of a certain 'muskiness' rather than musk at times. And my skin amplifies musk, so to me there's a delicate touch here that deserves applause. Definitely full bottle worthy for me. Even Oudh Infini and Melodi, if only I've the money to buy all 3 :)))

I really don’t know if there is even one perfume which I don’t like from Parfums Dusita. I haven’t tried all of them but almost and I have 8 beautiful Pissara’s creations for now. Many of Dusitas open up in a little bit pungent way which doesn’t last long before changing into something amazing. That you have to know if just testing quickly and it’s good to bear in mind as well that these perfumes need a warm skin to perform perfectly so don’t judge based on test strip. Issara opens up with a hazy and soft, sweet aromatic and a little bit greenish scent. It’s very pleasant, fluffy and surprisingly subtle considering that it’s a parfum concentration. This is so calming and indulgent that I like to wear this if I feel stressed or I have had somehow uncomfortable day. Sometimes I wish that it would be stronger but if that would be the case I think the desirable smooth “zen feeling” would be ruined. It’s really hard to think that this scent would bother someone near you: this is definitely office safe but not energising, this is rather something you could wear if having a speech for a big audience. Issara is in the same kind of unisex than all other Dusitas: on my skin it performs brighter and sweeter and on my husband’s skin it’s darker and more woody. In the dry down this is really soft musky, not mossy, earthy and dry like Oakmoss mostly performs. Beautiful scent! I really don’t know from where those notes has came into fragrantica but correct notes are: - Pine needles, herbal notes - Tonka Bean absolute, Clary Sage, Vertiver Bourbon, Sylvester Pine Leaf - Musk, rich Ambergris, a woody Oakmoss It’s really sad that you can’t trust the notes here. Thank you for reading, I hope my review was helpful. I would appreciate a lot if you want to follow me on IG and/or YouTube (English subtitles): @ninamariahperfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more. 🤗

I really don’t know if there is even one perfume which I don’t like from Parfums Dusita. I haven’t tried all of them but almost and I have 8 beautiful Pissara’s creations for now. Many of Dusitas open up in a little bit pungent way which doesn’t last long before changing into something amazing. That you have to know if just testing quickly and it’s good to bear in mind as well that these perfumes need a warm skin to perform perfectly so don’t judge based on test strip. Issara opens up with a hazy and soft, sweet aromatic and a little bit greenish scent. It’s very pleasant, fluffy and surprisingly subtle considering that it’s a parfum concentration. This is so calming and indulgent that I like to wear this if I feel stressed or I have had somehow uncomfortable day. Sometimes I wish that it would be stronger but if that would be the case I think the desirable smooth “zen feeling” would be ruined. It’s really hard to think that this scent would bother someone near you: this is definitely office safe but not energising, this is rather something you could wear if having a speech for a big audience. Issara is in the same kind of unisex than all other Dusitas: on my skin it performs brighter and sweeter and on my husband’s skin it’s darker and more woody. In the dry down this is really soft musky, not mossy, earthy and dry like Oakmoss mostly performs. I really don’t know from where those notes has came into fragrantica but correct notes are: - Pine needles, herbal notes - Tonka Bean absolute, Clary Sage, Vertiver Bourbon, Sylvester Pine Leaf - Musk, rich Ambergris, a woody Oakmoss It’s really sad that you can’t trust the notes here. Thank you for reading, I hope my review was helpful. I would appreciate a lot if you want to follow me on IG and/or YouTube (English subtitles): @ninamariahperfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more. 🤗

Issara is the most discussed of the relatively new house of Dusita. Described as a fougere, but notably missing the signature note of lavender, Issara is mainly woody, with spicy and resinous elements in the background. I unfortunately don't detect much of the sage or pine that might otherwise give Issara some interesting nuances from the onset. The oakmoss (synthetic of course) and musk could surely be part of the drydown, as the opening is ever so slightly sharper than the bottom, but I can't get a lot of the neat stuff in between like coumarin. Vetiver is ever so slightly part of the mix, providing the dirtiness that I might be mistaking for a smoky sort of incense. The fragrance I easily liken Issara to is Eau Des Baux by L'Occitane, a relatively straightforward blend of vanilla, cedar, and incense that is nonetheless superbly blended to be an infinitely wearable option in cold weather. Issara is certainly a bit more complex but its nuances are not overt enough to distinguish sufficently from Eau Des Baux, at least upon first wearing with a modest application from a sample vial. Still, at $295 for 50ml extrait, it's discouraging that I might need to apply quite a bit of perfume in order to enjoy its full character. Extraits are often said to project more modestly than EDPs, though my experience with this variance is inconsistent, but I can at least argue that for that pricing, irrespective of concentration, I'd expect more than the modest projection I've observed with Issara. Its longevity seems above average, though, as it's remained consistent for the hours I've worn it. A very nice fragrance, but not one I can fathom spending hundreds. 8 out of 10

This is a masterpiece. True artistry at work here. It's hard to explain how breathtakingly good this is. *Boy howdy* is it expensive, though. I got lucky and found it at a discount, but I think I would budget and save up if I ever ran out. Even though it's an extrait, this is not a heavy perfume. It's airy, light, and outdoorsy. It's breezy, sweet tobacco. (No smoke, though - this is more like fresh pipe tobacco.) This is sunshine after a long winter - opening the windows and taking a breath of crisp, spring air (or alternatively, that first evening in fall when there's a bracing wind that makes you wish you'd brought a scarf). The pine and sage add a refreshing herbal quality without being bitter, and the vetiver occasionally pokes through for a touch of dry hay. It's blended so well, but I think the focus is that smooth, light tobacco note. There's a sweetness, a slight vanilla that keeps it from being too masculine, but the pine and sage keep it from being cloying or too feminine. It's unisex and unique. Seems like tobacco is usually paired with a heavy, syrupy vanilla, or a masculine, room-filling smokiness, so this light, fresh take on it feels original. Look, I don't want to encourage consumerism and splurging, so I'd recommend a sample first. I kept the dabber at my desk and found myself opening it every day for a sniff. I carefully rationed my drop of this magic potion for two months, and that's how I knew it was time. Well done, Pissara.

Pissara Umavijani describes Issara as the older brother of Erawan, both being fougeres built around clarysage, which is oddly not a part of the note pyramid here (it is on the official website) although I can clearly smell it. In fact Issara was a serendipitous discovery that came from the discovery that tonka extract and clarysage essential oil create a wonderful combination. So clarysage, a note many people will be familiar with because of Chanel Platinum Egoiste works really well in sweet formulations, as it creates a pristine clean masculine sweet herbal almost green tea-like vibe. In Erawan, Pissara takes that pristine herbal clarysage and turns it into a creamy warm banana leaf vanilla matcha latte concoction. In Issara she combines it with the warmth of pine and sweet, yet tobacco leathery tonka bean to create indeed the older, more serious, masculine, and bold older brother of Erawan. If Erawan is the sweeter more playful (and somewhat gender fluid) younger brother, Issara is a more traditional, heartier, more confident brother, firm in his masculinity, more stark and focused. I started off preferring Erawan slightly, but wearing this side to side the more intense piney tea cleanliness of Issara slowly won me over. There is however a big price difference so keep that in mind. Performance is optimal on my skin, not too beastly, not too quiet.

A totally lovely coumarin heart sculpted by a defined clary sage note and some other, more piney aromatics, and a light, transparent musky vanillic drydown. It does kind of disappear in the end and, structurally, collapse on itself. Instead of fading into sweet woods like many other fougeres, it sort of poops out with white musk. Opening and heart are lovely, and, if those moments lasted longer, this would be a quick purchase. As is, if I was gifted this, I would love it and use it and respritz. Edited to add: I've ended up purchasing a small atomizer of this, which helped with the longevity and allowed me to spritz with more abandon! Because of that, I've given it more full wearings, and seen how the lovely, green, aromatic whisper lingers longer than I initially thought it did. Also, I just wanted to lift up that this scent does something magic with coumarin. That note can feel dense and doughy. Issara manages to be coumarin-heavy enough to never lose that sweetgrass scent, while modifying the coumarin with tea, sage, tobacco, and hay-like notes that somehow make it transparent and slightly honeyed. Props to the skill involved in that transformation! I now covet a full bottle...though still feel it's a bit too expensive to justify, since it doesn't necessarily seem like it's packed full of the most exclusive and unobtainable ingredients.

Fantastic aromatic fragrance, at a quality I haven't experienced before. This might be my favorite fragrance I have sampled. It smells like an empty pasture at the end of summer with a cool breeze filtering through the surrounding pine forest. You can smell the golden wild grass. You can smell the nearby pine trees and sage. You can smell the dust in the air. You can smell the relief of a cool breeze cutting through the heat. It smells like my childhood, exploring the surroundings of a campground my family just arrived at. It's refreshing, but also dry and comforting. Truly special. What makes this stand out to me most is the balance and quality of all the notes. Nothing is cloying, nothing is synthetic, nothing is rich. The notes aren't "photorealistic", more like the stars in a movie -- they are realistic and natural in all the pleasing ways. I think this is really easy to like too, that's the best part. It's unique and sophisticated without smelling too mature or pretentiously niche / headache inducing. Good performance and projection, not great, but good enough. Signature scent worthy no doubt. I love this. TL;DR - Natural, unsweetened, refreshing, dry, aromatic, masc leaning, unique but unchallenging and SUPER high quality. My new favorite.

I purchased a sample of Issara in a quest to find the perfect tobacco scent for me, and Issara seemed fitting, especially with respect to my Thai heritage and the origins of this particular perfumer. The scent starts out with beautiful tobacco and delicate herbs, then starts to project a little green, dirty vibe I attribute to the coumarin. Beautiful, hay-like and fresh. Then musk envelopes the whole composition and what's left is beautiful clean laundry washed in dreamy commercial soap and left outside to hang on the line, out in an open field in the sunshine under a tree filtering the light, with glints of sweet tobacco peeking through as the clean laundry snaps in the sweet, shaded breeze. And yes, as gregk points out, Issara bears an uncanny resemblance to Dreamer halfway through its evolution which is where I wish it stayed with more pronounced tobacco and herbal notes. For the price, sillage, and sweet tobacco and clean laundry drydown, I prefer Dreamer. But if you're seeking a warm, soft, sun-dappled outdoorsy musk, do give Issara a try -- it's a quiet beauty!

Finishing the sample I got for this, I admit it's not what I expected looking at the notes...I thought it would be thicker and heavier. It's not. It's airy and light...doesn't have monster performance...moreso a very intimate sillage around your body. The simplest way I can describe how this smells like is by calling this scent Versace Dreamer with quality upgraded by 10 times. To be more descriptive: it's a sweet but very airy, breezy light tobacco aroma mixed with a milkiness (maybe from the coumarin) and some greenness. What this scent lacks in development or complexity, is made up for with it's unquestionable quality. Very pleasing and natural smelling...very approachable to the nose which is not what you would expect looking at these notes. This can be worn year-round but don't expect monster sillage...I'd say it lasts a good 6 hours at least. It's a scent for the wearer, not the audience. I think it's overpriced for what it is though. So get a sample only and then wait and analyze for yourself if you really love this.

I have been able to try this perfume in a sample. It is a perfume extract with a duration that exceeds 12 hours. With a high intensity. We can all read the perfume notes but ... what does it smell like? The first feeling I had when trying it was to enter a large forest, here the part of pine needles and wood is very important, little by little the spice and herbal notes are joined. In this way it becomes an aroma of exotic forest. On the other hand and with all sincerity, I did not feel comfortable with aroma, it was not a perfume for me, however when I tried it on my husband I felt it was perfect. I tend that niches perfumes are for both men and women, but in this case I perceive this perfume more on the masculine side. My conclusion is of an exotic male perfume with a very high quality, since being a perfume extract its duration is fantastic, especially for those who always complain that perfumes do not last long.

To begin with, Issara to me is a luxury scent. It has an opulent sense to my nose and my skin which indicates and describes a perfume of great quality!. Not being an expert at all in recognizing but the most basic notes, I will say what Issara is not since I cannot detect any familiar notes. It is neither herbal nor smoky. Neither airy nor floral in its original sense. The truth is it doesn’t remind me of anything I have smelled before and that’s what I adore about it. I find it very intriguing, sweet and sexy but in a subtle seducing way. I must say,though, somewhere in the dry down I could smell an aged bark being soaked with rain lying on the ground for days covered by the dry pedals of an exotic flower. If that description had a smell that would be Issara. It’s definitely worth the try for those looking for sth unique in a scent. Hands up to the perfumer for her mystique creation.

Smelling so nonchalant actually requires hidden careful and expensive effort! This absolutely smells wonderful, and has just about the lightest and best tobacco note I've ever come across in a fragrance--it adds without overwhelming. Dusita does not list the citrus in the top notes, but it is absolutely here: there's juicy bergamot and I also think some refreshing grapefruit (if that's not just a pleasant effect of the coumarin combining with the bergamot). And it has a particularly fine drydown, which really somehow conveys the idea of openness and airiness. This is the rare fougére that comes across as unisex and so could easily be worn by a woman. This would go best on someone who wants to convey (at a considerable price tag) a sense of elegant ease with the world. Basically, this is like the Renaissance ideal of sprezzatura captured in a fragrance.

I’m struggling to put this perfume into words. I like it. I mean, I really like it. But I so want to love it, and I keep waiting for that moment when it sweeps me off my feet and makes me go all giddy. It’s trying to dazzle me as it blossoms with its minty sweetness, filling my nostrils with notes of hay and dry tobacco. They’re totally realistic and incredibly well executed, and they’re classy and subtle, and all the things I look for in this style of perfume. Perhaps that’s where I’m struggling, and maybe that’s the challenge. Its elegance feels almost too polite, its refinement so delicate that it never quite shouts for attention. Yet as I write I keep catching wafts of coumarin, and it draws me back in again. God it’s good... and suddenly I’m left wondering - do I love it after all? Maybe.

This is really elegant and different, a very smooth dry tobacco, with some sweetness from the tonka. It opens herbal with a tame and sweet sage, with the pine. After a few minutes the tobacco makes it's appearance. And from that moment on I get alternative whiffs of either minty pine, or sweet smooth tobacco. Underneath it all, I can smell the faintest reminder of a classical fugere. The more it sits on the skin, the sweeter it gets. I got it for my husband, but I am a woman and I think it is perfectly unisex and I can hardly wait to wear it in autumn. And as for sillage, it is a strange one, I can't smell it up close anymore after a few minutes, but I can smell it 1-2 meters away, it comes and it goes. It smells (like almost all the Dusitas) very natural and very well blended, no sharp edges.

Issara is a light breeze, free the spirit and open the heart ... ♥. I really like the opening with the fresh pine and sage, it is truly spectacular gives me a feeling of peace and tranquility... the tobacco feels but almost "balsamic" and the note of coumarin is enchanting here, pine and vetyver leaves overlook during the evolution but without over-invading. This was a surprise for me, it's like a fusion between a "classic" and a "modern".. really very nice, among my favorites of Dusita.! Unfortunately, the sillage is soft, and this is strange since it is an extrait de parfum, but in any case the longevity is quite good. A beautiful fragrance that I can not wait to wear! Sillage: 5.5/10 Longevity: 7.5/10 Scent: 8.5/10 Overall: 9./10

I love this!! I'm a big fan of tobacco fragrances, and this one is sooooo good!! To me, this is largely cherry tobacco. I know it doesn't list cherry in the breakdown, but Issara comes across to me as a slightly sweet cherry tobacco. I'm not the biggest fan of the opening- I get some indolic florals and something a bit mentholated, but neither last for more than 10 minutes; after that, it's cherry tobacco and woods. In the far drydown it becomes a bit more aromatic, but this is still all about tobacco. Leans masculine IMO. Performance is really great on me, a little goes a long way and this lasts most of the day. If you are a fan of tobacco fragrances then this is definitely one to try.

This is just incredible. To my (very unrefined) nose it smells like hay and herbs with a spicy note and lots of warmth. It smells very expensive. I imagine a man like Idris Elba or Daniel Craig (so James Bond basically) wearing this on a blustery cold fall day, dressed in an expertly tailored tweed suit with a wool coat and scarf on, on their way to have coffee with a gorgeous classy woman. That being said it is definitely a unisex fragrance and still smells lovely enough for me as a woman to wear. Those who don't like musk might not like this one as much though. I can't wait to smell this on my husband!

I love Issara but she is a timid lady. I’m enjoying my sample, with a fresh pine, sage and tonka opening. Smooth and very easy to wear, Issara is the definition of a languid life. Offering my unbiased, untrained opinion, I would say that the tonka note needs to be turned down as it surpasses tobacco as being the dominant note to my nose. After an hour, vetiver and woody molecules help make the drydown transition, a long lasting phase but still too quiet for my usual taste. I feel the need to bathe in Issara in order to soak up my fill of this gorgeous scent. Happy to play with my sample.

I named my daughter Issaree, free spirit, after her Thai grandmother, my mother. When I saw Dusita release Issara, I had to try it. It's more masculine than I normally wear but I adore it. Every time I wear it, I'm transported to a humid morning in Kanchanaburi. Tobacco is the leading note on my skin, fresh and fragrant with sweetness and depth from the Tonka bean. Something green and grassy too, that lifts the whole fragrance into something lighter and suitable for year round wear. I get moderate sillage and huge longevity from it too. I bought a FB before I even finished the sample.