Cháng Chéng Róng 长乘·融

I had a tough time hunting for this brand during my trip to China in January of this year, 2025. When I did manage to find the two scents I was after, they were only available in rollerball format and one was already a few months past its listed expiration date. Over the course of a few months, both perfumes have gone off and crystallized in the bottle. I’m going to format both of my reviews for both of the scents I got (长乘-融 and 穷奇) from this brand together as I hope it will paint a clearer picture of my experience with this house. I would also like to preface that I store all of my fragrances in a cool, dark place, and that none of my other fragrances have run into the issues I outline below (in fact, the dabber of Lancôme Trésor I acquired in 2013 still smells wonderful after almost 13 years.) According to my notes from January: 长乘-融 (expired November 5th 2024, sampled January 24th, 2025), originally listed with notes of mandarin, apricot, osmanthus, coffee, Coca Cola, coffee, cedar, and musk. Immediately blasted me with Coca Cola and photorealistic coffee upon first sniff. As I kept sniffing, some almond notes came out, and it blended quite well with the bitterness of the coffee, creating a sweet, almost fruity type of bitterness akin to a tangerine peel. It was also reminiscent of some kind of tea, maybe herbal or hawthorne, or some kind of fruity traditional Chinese medicine that could be described as a little spicy. The longer it sat on my skin, the more it smelled like grassy traditional Chinese medicine, which I personally enjoyed. It then gradually sweetened down into something more powdery, still grassy/herby, and a little minty. When I tried it again in the 2nd half of the year, it bore no resemblance to its original self. It smelled like a whisper of white florals overpowered by a screech of pure nothingness. 穷奇 (expired April 5th 2025, sampled on the same day as 长乘-融), originally listed with notes of blood, metallic notes, clove, white musk, jasmine, violet, patchouli, cedar, amber. Upon first sniff, it had a kick to it. I could smell the blood accord, but it didn’t really smell like blood to me and leaned more towards whiteboard marker. I could kind of tell it was supposed to be blood by the way it hit the back of my nose, but it missed the mark and could easily be passed off as something less offensive. The metallic component was there, but it was nothing like the rustiness of, say, Inexcusable Evil, and more akin to a freshly opened fountain pen nib. It somehow reminded me of citrus as well, and my mother described it as musky and dull. After some period of time, it smelled like straight citrus to me. When I checked it in the 2nd half of the year, I found the smell had morphed into something that was nothing short of putrid. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the rotten flesh candle I own from Stinky Candle Co (not sponsored) smelled better than this perfume did after less than a year. Absolutely horrendous. Frankly, I’m baffled. I’m still learning about the perfumery process, but I can’t fathom what they have (or haven’t) put in their fragrances for them to age the way they did. I’ve smelled perfumes from broke artists working out of their basement that have aged and performed better than these two. There are many wonderful and marvelous perfume houses from China, some that are not listed on this website, that I would wholeheartedly recommend others experience; this is not one of them. I hope one day they will be gracious enough to share their process so new perfumers may learn from them on what NOT to do.