Oha

Oha (Parfum Extract) from Teo Cabanel is a thick and beautiful rose fragrance with, among other things, wood, tea, cardamom and iris in the background. It definetly is the roses that has the biggest part in this fragrance. The lovely thick roses that feels like they would be a jam. The other notes are mostly in the background. The tea note is quite prominent in the beginning and is a very nice partner to the roses before it goes more towards the background joining the other notes. Then when it has been on the skin for a while it gets warmer and softer when the roses starts to share their place in the spotlight with tonka beans, musk and wood. Oha is a very beautiful fragrance!

This is a scent that needs time to get comfortable, at least on my skin. At first, it's stuffy and formal, with loud rose that comes out of the gate way too strong. But oh, give it 30 minutes and the gorgeous citrus and tea notes comes through, and everything melds together in this lovely way. Vanilla appears a few hours in, softening everything into a lovely silky rose skin scent that lasts for hours on me. I adore this, just not the first half hour!

rose with tea and cardamom and some other floral notes lifting the rose; lovely, rich and deep; almost a soapy vintage as it dries down

A more rosy and bright version of Aromatics Elixir- love!

There's something in Oha that evokes fancy hotels to me. There are definitely occasions as a kid lounging around in random hotel lobbies, especially ones in China while visiting family, where my smell memory matches up with Oha pretty well—this sort of classic and elegant scent designed to evoke the idea of premium hospitality. Crisp green-smelling rose bouquets in the opening (backed by the tea, bergamot and a particularly green jasmine) with the smell of what reminds me of old Chinese lacquered furniture in the most pleasant way (which I guess is the combination of the spicy resinous cardamom and the woods). The spice is quite prominent although I get a weird olfactory illusion at the beginning where the green aspects and spicy aspects mingle with each other since they're tied together by a fresh and cool feeling. There's also something here that very cryptically smells exactly like elderflower cordial so take that as you will. My description makes it sound a lot more aggressive than it actually is and I think a lot of that elegant hotel feeling does also come from the fact that the whole thing is softened with sweet tonka bean and a clean powdery musk (I'd say sophisticated rather than old-fashioned). A really beautiful evening scent in my opinion.