Maai Bogue 2014

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7.8 / 10 245 Ratings

A popular perfume by Bogue for women and men, released in 2014. The scent is animal-floral. Projection and longevity are above-average. It is still in production.

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Main accords

Animal

Floral

Chypre

Spicy

Resinous

Fragrance Notes

Oakmoss

Aldehydes

Eucalyptus

Jasmine

Musk

Tuberose absolute

Ylang-ylang

Bergamot

Cedar

Patchouli

Rose

Sandalwood

Perfumer

Antonio Gardoni

Ratings

Scent

7.8245 Ratings

Longevity

8.6206 Ratings

Sillage

8.1208 Ratings

Bottle

7.4164 Ratings

Value for money

7.148 Ratings

Submitted by Colognissimo, last update on 07.04.2024.

Reviews

15 in-depth fragrance descriptions

02/26/2021

10
Scent

Susan
59 Reviews

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Susan

Top Review 48

I am MAAI.....

.....auch

Rarely have I wrestled with a fragrance as much as I have with MAAI......

Not because I didn't like individual aspects....on the contrary.....I think everything about MAAI is just great.....

The wrestling took place on a much deeper level. A darker one. MAAI is the mirror of my libidinal, animalistic and uninhibited personality parts.

I am MAAI.....when I fight...

I am MAAI.....when I give myself sweatily and lustfully to love....

I am MAAI.....when I am belligerent....

I am MAAI.....when I go beyond my limits.....

I am MAAI.....in all those moments when I break free of rules, expectations and limitations......be they self-imposed or socially enforced......

MAAI is the primordial woman....the "woman" par excellence.....

MAAI is Lilith....not Eve

MAAI is naked, fierce, warlike....and at the same time gentle and vulnerable.....

Choosing MAAI requires the unreserved acknowledgement of one's own urges.......it is reminiscent of C. G. Jung's "Night Sea Journeys"....an "Anima" and "Shadow".....an symbols and archetypes.....

But now enough of the psycho-philosophical considerations ;-)..... we come...

....zum scent

MAAI is first and foremost a chypre....and an animalic one at that.......opening with an almost explosive intensity of animalic notes and dark green succulent moss.......especially at this point in the fragrance's development, a wonderful oldschool vibe dominates.......letzter being flanked by abstract florals and pearly bubbling aldehydes......

As the fragrance progresses, it becomes butterier, softer and more cuddly......without sacrificing density and depth......the sharp animalism of the opening has clearly receded, but remains ever present......thick musk and a fine leather note finally form the foundation.......

MAAI is for me an absolutely timeless fragrance of outstanding quality......a fragrance that stands out in the jungle of wildly proliferating new releases like a single rose from a sea of goutweed......

07/09/2019

8
Bottle 8
Sillage 10
Longevity 9
Scent

Profumo
59 Reviews

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Profumo

Top Review 38

From butch to girlie and back.

In a very interesting interview with Antonio Gardoni by Youtubers Sebastian of 'Smelling great fragrance reviews', he talks in detail about his fragrances 'Maai', 'O/E' and 'Mem'.
"Maai" refers to Gardoni as "actually a battle between me and an idea I used to have about tuberose. The scent of tuberose fascinated him early on, but also disturbed him.
I can absolutely understand that, I feel the same way about tuberose.
The perfumer evaluates the finished fragrance, which was initially conceived as an incense fragrance, but after Gardoni discovered a special green tuberose extract, which mutated into a tuberose fragrance (with some incense in the background), as follows: "...I don't find it easy, still now, and still for me, I find it a bit of a conflictual one."
I can understand that, too.

Yes, 'Maai' is really not 'easy' and is indeed full of conflicts, inner tensions and dramatic contrasts.
But above all, 'Maai' is a pretty daring ride across all gender boundaries: from 'butch' to 'girlie' and back again.

The prelude unfolds a tuberose chord that hardly seems more masculine: many green and mossy, but also smoky and almost camphor-like facets support the dominant and currently trumpet-like piercing white bloomer.
This first phase of the fragrance is my favourite. Here this flower, which is so narcotically good but also smells so feminine, gets exactly the masculine frame I always wanted. But unfortunately Gordoni makes a drastic change of scene and in the second phase of the fragrance turns towards a very girlish tuberose, accompanied by some hairspray and bubblegum nuances that remind me of Dior's infamous 'Poison' on the one hand, but also of Duchaufour's 'Nuit de Tubereuse' on the other. Probably it is the interplay with other flowers like ylang-ylang, jasmine and rose, as well as sweet fruit chords that suddenly make 'Maai' look so very feminine here.

But Gordoni soon prepares the next, almost more drastic change of scene: from girlie tuberose to macho leather chypre.
Yeah, it's hard to believe, but he can do it!
First, the hairspray and bubblegum sprinklers fade away and the fruits become riper and riper. The candyfloss sweetness becomes the heavy, complex sweetness of dried fruits, while in the stock a hearty castoreum base begins to take command, becoming increasingly clearer.
This Castoreum base, with all its animal and leathery nuances, is the longest lasting phase. If the first, the clearly masculine, is already over after about one hour, the second, the girlie phase after about one and a half hours, the last phase of the fragrance remains present for many hours.
Castoreum, Castoreum and again Castoreum, a hint of civet, light woody aspects and a good amount of oakmoss form the never ending finale.
Now 'Maai' reminds me especially of another scent, also dominated by Castoreum in the background: Van Cleef & Arpel's 'Pour Homme' - a leather chypre par excellence.

The many comparisons with 'Kouros', on the other hand, I cannot understand at all. Kouros' is an animal-aromatic fougère characterised by sage, honey and civet - a completely different direction from the one taken by 'Maai'. Only the animal presence in the base refers to 'Kouros' in a certain way, but only to the extent that both fragrances clearly display their animal nuances instead of shamefacingly integrating them. But Kouros' Animalik is clearly dominated by Zibet or a perfume base called 'Animalis' (which is clearly also found in Dior's 'Leather Oud'), while the animal component of 'Maai' is no less clearly denied by Castoreum (Bibergeil). Bibergeil is now often part of many leather chypres from the 70/80s, and so 'Maai' quotes much more fragrances like the already mentioned VC&A pour Homme, Jil Sanders 'Man Pure' or Chanels Antaeus, which had at least in its vintage version an equally clear Castoreum-dominated base (today unfortunately hardly recognizable...).

Because of these unexpected and at times abrupt scene changes, 'Maai' remains for me an exciting, but also rather disparate scent, which I can only enjoy partially.
The first phase I find, as I said, great, while the second I feel rather uncomfortable, olfactory put into a girl costume. The third phase, on the other hand, is for me a kind of throwback into my youth, when I couldn't get enough of Castoreum scents and bathed in them myself. Today that's a bit too much of a good thing for me, but I can live with it.

What I find wonderful, however, is the seemingly unlimited use of oak moss - I haven't smelled that much in a long time. Great Apparently Gordoni uses here in addition to the limited usable oak moss a fully valid oak moss replacement, or the new oak moss freed from allergens, with which Thierry Wasser and others have been working for some time and the fragrances like 'Mitsouko' after a long time again wonderfully (oak) mossy smell let.
Anyway, this aspect of the fragrance is fantastic!

What I also like about 'Maai' is that, unlike 'Mem', the fragrance is not so over-instrumented. The variety of notes is reasonably manageable, the fragrance is not excessively laden and has a pleasant, non overwhelming texture (mem).

Whether Gordoni, however, with his much-praised fragrances can succeed the unfortunately deceased Vero Kern, as was to be read many times, I dare to doubt.
As interesting and as fragrant as his creations may sometimes be, I don't think he can achieve the artistry of the Swiss woman.
Maybe not yet, let's see...

01/11/2019

8
Bottle 10
Sillage 10
Longevity 9
Scent

Anarlan
21 Reviews

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Anarlan

Top Review 34

The stranger in my bed

MAAI robs me of sleep.
This would be a sufficient reason for me to write this commentary, since I like to fall asleep with a scent, sparingly spotted to the night auf´s wrist, preferably if it contains lavender. All fervent admirers of lavender scents may forgive me at this point, and no, I am of course not of the opinion that Caron p. u. H. et al. are sleeping pills, quite the contrary.
Scene change.
I had saved the test of MAAI especially für´s rare evening solitude, splendid isolation, splendid, the best moments to concentrate completely on a new fragrance. Knowing that a particularly intense fragrance experience might await me here. Which then had corresponding consequences. See above.
Surprisingly, there are only a few comments here about this fragrance, which may be due to its peculiarities and the small distribution among users on Parfumo, but these few comments speak volumes and suggest that no light food is served here.
The fragrance spreads an outrageous physical, radiant, almost sexual immediacy. Washing up was nevertheless on said evening in seclusion no option for me, demanding the scent, my curiosity and the hunting instinct of wanting to understand too strongly tickled to let it be. I tested it repeatedly afterwards, always very dosed, Sillage and durability are enormous, and slowly I got used to it, as long as you can get used to a wild ocelot marking its territory in the bedroom. The next morning it was still there, this presence of a strange corporeality, a hint of dirty sheets, luxury and vice. Lucky for me, I still had the morning to myself.
MAAI´s Zibet-imbued, at first somewhat exhausting urinary animalism is presented in a way that I imagine it to have been similar and present in echoes, for example, of the original version of some old Guerlain classics at the beginning of the last century. Only that in MAAI there is a modern heiress of thought who is fully conscious of the ancestors on whose shoulders she stands, yet infinitely self-confident, who no longer considers it necessary to cover her sex appeal with olfactory fig or lavender leaves, but is full of relish herself.
From the outset, the fragrance balances its animalism with a mossy, smoky earthiness through oakmoss and radiant, aldehyde-brightly polished, luxurious floral notes, first and foremost plump, sensual, fresh tuberose and glistening bright jasmine. Thus the Pipinote is not only protected from slipping in´s Unappetitliche, but Sophia Loren is loaded up with eroticism and bulging unsweet floral opulence. This strong presence is maintained over a long period of time, whoever does not know how to bear it should stay away from MAAI. Powerful, classically oriented, yet never vulgar, of course, despite all the brimming physicality, that's what you have to be able to portray first.
The base is wonderfully dry, warm, woody, mossy, the animalism sensual, clearly present, but domesticated and far away from the brunkness of a Kouros. If this fragrance were only his beautiful base, he would immediately make it into my collection, there wouldn't be his exorbitant price.
MAAI is an animalistic, radiant floral chypre in a style that immediately makes me think of big cats, pearl necklaces, naked skin from which a fur stole glides, luxurious, yet stylish viciousness. Strong in its expressiveness, of pronounced perfumeiness, a fragrance for modern female or male bombshells and divas committed to their classical ancestors. For me as an avowed chypre fan too feminine to consider him as a user and too exhausting in his animalism, but still wearable by men if they are duly eccentric and eccentric. But then MAAI might, correctly dosed, become a grandiose precision landing.

03/31/2019

8
Sillage 9
Longevity 8
Scent

ClemensJ
4 Reviews

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ClemensJ

Top Review 13

In the field of tension between fascination and dislike

Maai offers semidomestizierte and consequently portable Animalik with suitable dose. Not necessarily repulsive, but certainly more than just a little rude. The wearer should have a certain penchant for fragrances of this kind, because Maai demands and employs. Nothing here is comfortable easy to wear. By the way, Hyraceum is nicely integrated here, unlike Hyrax by Zoologist.

After approx. 2 hours, animal notes volatilize in steps, remaining latent in the background. The fragrance brightens a little, changes and develops. At times it was really soft and great. But as the duration progresses, the base moves a little inversely towards the head. Somehow it smells like a horse, i.e. after this smell, which is stuck after a ride in riding clothes.

In spite of everything, he lacks variety and coherent and equal counterparts. Other animal classics offer balance and variety. In this respect I agree with FabianO regarding the monothematic.

In my opinion it is not a chypre, because the building blocks - hesperide, rose/jasmine and oakmoss - remain inconspicuous in relation to animal notes and do not even stay in the second row
Nevertheless, it has become a good to very good one. Regardless of my assessment above, Maai is carefully or skilfully positioned in the field of tension between fascination and dislike, offering depth and structure. Durability and Sillage are at the upper level, in other words above average.

01/06/2017

9
Longevity 10
Scent

ScentFan
332 Reviews

ScentFan

Very helpful Review 5

Mossy Animals

If you like animalics, if you like oakmoss, if you like the bevy of florals usually found in orientals, then Maai is for you. I expected it to leap from the bottle and it did a bit at first. Soon it settled into its glory like a potentate assuming a throne--no intimidation, just majestic. This is a faaaabulous scent. I love its restraint. Animalics fully present but not offending, like tigers on the leash. They purr as they wallow in the flower garden. Maai is either all natural or blended with the highest quality synthetics. My nose gobbles it up. I almost want to eat it. Irrationally I want to shower again then pour it all over me. It's exquisite, a real achievement. Straightforward in its appeal, yet somehow also complex. Where does it rank in comparison to others? Who cares? Come to momma, you lovely thing.

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