Mandarine Mandarin

Well well what a surprise. I--like Ms Rochambeau below me--tried and pretty much succeeded in collecting SL perfumes (I'm a junkie/fan). But this one didn't grab me--at first. While I LOVE orange flower blossom scents (I can appreciate Elie Saab), I'm not a fan of citrusy anything. So, for YEARS I didn't even try this--I don't think I even was tempted by the wax sample. Just "knew" it wasn't my thing. Well, PoshP supplied me with a good sized decant, and I tried it today! Oh my goodness! It was spicy, yes--totally "discordant" as one person put--orange, nutmeg and also tonka--but humming along was oddly, JASMINE. So I looked up the notes, and I see "tea." Hmmm...Jasmine tea??? I have decided that is the "tea" note! The discordant aspect slips away and blends and mellows and even the "five-spice" quality merges beautifully together. However, I LIKE the discordant upfront aspect initially. This is an odd, utterly beautiful fragrance. I have been sniffing my wrists like a maniac. At first, I had to grudgingly admit that I liked it and had overlooked it, and then thought about when/where I would wear this (it's not exactly sexy, certainly not "every day," and for me, not cuddle up with a pillow go-to-bed kind of scent). Finally, I conceded, this is an elegant perfume. There is nothing quite like it out there with which I'm familiar. I'd wear it to an afternoon, evening wedding, maybe an opera. The dry down is still spicy, mellowed with nutmeg and tonka, food-like, but not the usual "fruitylicious" noxious stuff we're all tired of, and also elegant. It does remind me of a Chinese herbalist (without the dry root/mushroom smell) or an elegant tea, the Jasmine wafting up blending with the citrus, so citrus and Jasmine. Now, to segue. I'm a lover of heavy-hitting perfumes, and this one is NOT at ALL like Kenzo Jungle--repeat, not similar in any respect, save one: they are both spicy/food scents, or they pick up with food elements and then go off into different directions. If you are the type to like Kenzo Jungle (and it's ilk), you may appreciate how these qualities (food, oranges, peel, nutmeg) for Mandarine combine into a stellar scent whose sum is so much greater than its parts. The kicker is that I'm not a Jasmine fan (no one can avoid it, and I have many scents with it but it's not "my thing" and I'm not into Citrus--but these two together, wow). I don't know if I'd spring for a bell jar, and there are other SLs that I just love all the time, but once more I'm in awe of SL. His direction lately of going "paille" led me over to other designers, but I'm glad I have tried this classic. Silage is good--to the point that I would consider using a light hand--a heavy one might lead to sort of an over-kill of the joy and then onto nausea. The longevity is moderate though it quickly softens after an hour. To the reviewer who got the half-empty bell, "Good on you" as my dad would say. Off to ebay...

"To hold the garden’s fragrance in one vase, and see all autumn in a single spray?" Cao Xueqin, Dream of the Red Chamber Mandarine Mandarin is an under the radar, intriguing, mysterious, dark and shapeshifting Far Eastern influenced oriental. There is a peculiar textural feel of something that constantly teases and desires to be ingested, a forbidden fruit of sorts, yet it curiously offers itself only in hybrid shape: half solid quasi-gourmand, half aromatic infusion. In a way Mandarine Mandarin can be described as a dark chutney of nutmeg-spiced oriental oranges, with pulp and peel, perfumed by vinegary pine-smoked Lapsang Souchong. A modicum of intermittent tart freshness combines momentarily with silky green herbal aromatics whilst the darker and warm spices flavour the musky ambery sea around it, complement and complete it whilst remaining in harmonious motion much like a pomandrous yin and yang. The development, once again, is congruent with a Chinese belief, namely that "by detours one is to reach the secrets". Mandarine Mandarin vexes, zigs and zags carefree from spicy citrus via honey-ambered black tea to its last incarnation as a gentle musky-green bouquet of assorted fleurs d'oranger. Ji Cheng, in Yuanye, had a point when he described perfection (of Chinese Gardens) as "the work of man that must appear to have been created by heaven". He could as well have been talking about this highly unusual creation.

One of Lutens' absolute best and is criminally underrated. For real, I do not understand how this does not have a cult following like some of his other old perfumes do (Tubereuse Criminelle, Fille en Aiguilles, Feminite). Such a magnificent symphony of scents from the first spray until the end with insanely photorealistic spiced tangerine peels as the main star throughout. To me this is a gourmand. Magnificent and succulent. I definitely smell nutmeg and cardamom. Even something minty in the dry down. Tragically, this is discontinued and is impossible to find anywhere. Like, actually discontinued. People say that a lot online about some Serge Lutens fragrances, but vast majority of them are still available in bell jars, but this one is truly gone, and has been for a while. What a shame. This is one of the very few perfumes I would gladly pay hundreds of dollars over its retail price, if only it popped up somewhere. But I have been monitoring the internets for a very long time to no avail. Please message me if you are willing to sell. EDIT: bottle found and acquired! I'm in olfactory heaven.

Mandarine Mandarin is a spiced candied orange scent, and I find it delightful. The spice isn’t the usual Christmas-pomander clove note that so often goes with orange, but something funkier, smokier, and almost curry-ish. It’s warming and adds a nice layer of complexity to the sweet orange. An hour in, the orange is even sweeter and more ambered, one of the classic Serge Lutens stained-glass syrupy potions, here in a context where that makes perfect sense. I *want* my spiced candied orange to be sweet, dense, and straightforward; it’s a good smell, and it should be played mostly straight, with just enough quirky darkness to be interesting. The inspiration is pretty clear here — dreams of Imperial China, childhood memories of rainy or snowy days, Constant Comment orange-spice tea, and putting orange peels on the radiator to dry. I don’t get the offputting boiled-celery note that some reviewers mention. For me, Mandarine Mandarin is just lovely, cozy, slightly smoky spiced sweet orange, all day long. Straightforwardly unisex, smells like what it is.

Gorgeous fragrance and criminally underrated. This fragrance is as the name suggests all about mandarin orange. It showcases many aspects of the fruit, opening on a lighter fresher type of mandarin smell (I get a feeling of orange blossom but it is not listed as a note, though) settling down to a warmer, ambery, spicy candied mandarin type of smell. It's wonderful, very throwback (I love the vintage muskiness in the drydown). I don't know if the name is influencing my interpretation, but this scent is very evocative of ancient China to me. I can smell the hot boiling tea, the Chen Pi (Chinese mandarin peel), the Chinese lacquered furniture, etc. Maybe this is just a little cliché, but I don't care I just adore it. One of Lutens's hidden gems IMO.