When I saw a few weeks ago that soon a new fragrance comes out and this has the theme of vanilla (OH GOD, I LOVE VANILLE!!) I had the fragrance immediately put on the watch list and could hardly wait until this is available so I can get me a bottling.
Well, a few days ago I had then seen that bottlings are offered here and fackelte not long and ordered me immediately one.
Yesterday, the bottling finally arrived, but since it was too warm for me yesterday to test perfume, I waited until today, since today the temperatures were rather pleasant / cool. So I grabbed the bottling today, sprayed on and immediately brought my fat olfactory bulb in position :D
Scent
Immediately after spraying on you can smell the lemon and orange, but only for about 2 minutes, then this scent takes a bit of a back seat and something spicy, warm, vanilla comes out.
I could actually smell out almost all the fragrance notes here ie lemon, orange, pink pepper, cardamom, vanilla, rum, cocoa and sandalwood. How patchouli smells, I still do not know exactly...
This may sound silly, but that's exactly the order in which you can actually smell the scents.
""To put it more precisely"":
Vanilla Diorama starts citrusy and then slowly becomes spicy-warm i.e. the pink pepper and cardamom then take over. After a few more minutes, vanilla, rum and cocoa join in, with the vanilla keeping a low profile at first and only gradually getting stronger. At some point it becomes vanilla-woody-spicy. I strongly suspect that this is an interplay of the rum, vanilla and sandalwood. The rum here doesn't come across as alcoholic at all like in Spiritueuse Doubla Vanille, for example, but somehow comes across as spicy-woody and quite diluted, as if someone diluted the rum with a lot of water to tone it down. I also somehow smell a tiny hint of cinnamon here, though it's not listed anywhere. Either there really is a tiny bit of cinnamon in there, or it's from the rum.
So the scent starts citrusy, then becomes spicy-vanilla-woody, and towards the end the scent becomes sweet and even powdery, reminding me of a whole bunch of other perfumes, hence my headline.
""Scents Vanilla Diorama reminds me of"":
- MFK - Grand Soir (without resin, benzoin and much, much milder)
- XerJoff - Amber Star (just very, very light)
- Guerlain - Cuir Beluga (because of the vanilla and powderiness)
- Guerlain - Spiritueuse Double Vanille (because of spicy-woody, vanilla / rum)
- The Merchant of Venice - La Fenice (also because of the vanilla, powderiness and sweetness)
It actually feels to me like Vanilla Diorama is a blend of all the above fragrances, in that exact order, all gradually making their appearance in altered and toned down form. And I can also very much understand and relate to the comparisons with MFK Grand Soir, since, as mentioned above, it does indeed start out reminiscent of Grand Soir (only without the resin and benzoin and much less aggressive), due to the slight cinnamon smell (which both have, though no cinnamon listed) and the vanilla spiciness.
While I don't find Vanille Diorama to be anything special or anything I haven't smelled before in other fragrances, I still think Vanille Diorama is incredibly great, especially for vanilla fans, it's worth a try!
""Season"":
I would actually argue that you can wear Vanilla Diorama in all seasons, except in summer (if, then only in the evening when it cools down).
""Occasions"":
Vanilla Diorama can be properly dosed easily wear to all conceivable occasions, whether professional or private, whether for dinner or date. I can not imagine with the best will in the world, where Vanilla Diorama is inappropriate, except possibly at a heavy metal concert o. ä.
""Sillage & Durability""
As is known, the durability and sillage on my skin is every time 8+ hours, here also. One smells even hours later still the perfume from a few meters away.
""Flacon"":
Well... plain and simple but still not inferior. It does not always have to be pompous, sometimes it is enough just plain and simple to still look high quality.
""Recommendation"":
Clearly yes! The price is set a little too high, because it is nothing new but still high quality and worth a test or purchase (if you like vanilla and sweetish).
""Words of thanks""
Many thanks to MoeJoe for the bottling :)