ScentedSalon

Rare teas are well and good but when the notes don't list tea at all, I have to wonder how the accord was made. According to the official notes, hay and tobacco make this scent smell like a white tea infused with fruit. Where is the cocoa, the tonka?

Eventually a delicious bergamoty note emerges that makes this perfume smell like real tea. The smoothness and finesse of the whole tea collection is definitely exquisite. I would not say this is groundbreaking but it is addictive.

Tea perfumes are some of my favorites. I drink tea as well so it is no wonder that the rare teas collection captured my imagination. Jo Malone has provided some beautiful moments with their scents over the years so I had moderate to high hopes for this collection. While the first three scents with the lighter colored juice were never going to impress me (I don't like green or white tea much), the last three did the trick.

Midnight Tea is not much of a tea scent at all, and I have not seen any tea mentioned in any of the notes. This is the illusion of tea. Don't expect a big black tea scent. This is a smooth vanilla composition with honey/fruity notes. It is captivating for sure. However, the price is prohibitive despite the large bottles. If they had done a bottle half the size and charged half the price this would already be in my collection. The sillage and lasting power is better than the typical JM cologne.

This Rumi-inspired concoction has turned out to be a beautiful blind buy. I haven't tried any of the Nishane perfumes but am very impressed by the quality so far. The perfume is multi-faceted, long lasting and powerful. It starts off very tropical with pineapple and coconut. I wish there was more rum: here it is more like restrained sweet liquor whereas I would have liked more punch, like a rum raisin. The tang of cedarwood makes the intense sweetness bearable but you have to like super sweet perfumes in the style of Tabacca, Or du Serail and Sacre Tabac Sucree. For those that like hookah/shisha perfumes, you will love this.

There are perfumes you love on first application and those that take time to show their beauty. Architects Club is the latter. Don't go for this if you want a vanilla scent like I did: the vanilla is very much an abstract idea in this perfume. It is slight, smoky and as the description implies, very white.

The fresh opening reminiscent of gin is very much the star here: fresh, uplifting, revitalizing. I love to spray this all over when I feel tired (and you can overspray since this is an ethereal scent). I don't know if its the ad copy that makes me think of British gentlemen or all the British shows I'm always watching, but this would be perfect on a suit-wearing, just scrubbed clean Brit who just put on a crisp white shirt.

Soon the woody vanilla juniper cocktail arrives and captivates. I find the juniper the most interesting moment of the composition. A true perfume, with nuances and completely unrelated and juxtaposed notes, is what we have here. A master perfumer achieves something surprising and here that is on show. If this perfume is what it takes to join the Architects Club, sign me up.

Guerlain composes a fruity treasure. The notes are listed but to my nose, I only smell a few: a very juicy plum/rose compote and a drydown of the same fruitiness with a bit of a darker edge. I'm doubtful it is the patchouli, or perhaps it is but mixed with other spices like cinnamon. A really lovely perfume.

The sillage is incredible. It does remind me a lot of the Guerlain Oriental collection in terms of the power and profile of this scent. If you spray it on clothes, be prepared to be bathed in the scent for several days to come. There is a jammy, syrupy quality to this. The best part is that right under the juiciness, which lasts throughout the development of the perfume, there is a bright balsamic note that keeps things interesting. The quality and nuance of Guerlain is why these perfumes are world famous.

Fortunately, I am left satisfied with a similar perfume that hits all the same marks as NMOP: Plum Japonais. It also opens with a juicy plum note, though PJ is much sweeter while NMOP is sour. There are spices and woods that come out in both. PJ is much darker and broodier while NMOP is on the feminine side. Luckily, I prefer the widely available and fairly-affordable Plum Japonais. I love the NMOP bottle and the perfume is divine but PJ has a skankier/sweeter vibe.

P.S. I also detect a faint similarity between NMOP and Guerlain's latest Ambre Eternel.