SebastianM

Cinema! Popcorn! Sticky rice with beans! Gourmand, quite filling, but not heavy on the stomach. The popcorn impression soon fades, then it no longer smells roasted, after which the sour fruitiness also fades at some point, and a somewhat underlying, warm spiciness emerges after about 4 hours. The vetiver is perceptible, quite green, almost flowery. There is a delicate hint of smoke, like from Lapsang Souchong. The rice and a fine, very pleasant sweetness are always present. Although the rice accord becomes a little woody towards the end, it is still very successful. The longevity on my skin is about 7 hours with 2 (or was it 3?) sprays on the wrist, the last two of which as a skin scent. The projection is just right, you never have the feeling of having to fight your way through a good portion of a rice dish.

Riso smells unusual yet wearable, nowhere near as chaotic as the fragrance notes sound and as the marketing ("busy Chinese street") would suggest. Anyone worried about the soy sauce can rest assured: It's probably just some ingredient to give the fragrance a little more depth and richness. The atmosphere of Riso is like a cozy and humorous get-together with friends.

Jijide is the transcription of the Chinese expression 积极的 (jī jí de) which seems to denote an energetic outlook on life (DeepL translates as "proactive"). The brand's concept is to produce perfumes for the Western market from ingredients found in China. For Riso, perfumer Zimo Luo drew on the Chinese idea of the "seven daily necessities", which consist of rice, firewood, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea. (There was actually once a gift box with these contents on AliExpress.) It's a good idea that has been implemented brilliantly.

There seems to me to be a bit of a rice hype at the moment, certainly triggered by the release of L'Eau Papier in 2023, but most rice fragrances I know are fluffy or stuffy with too much musk, spoiled by pungent, pencil-like amber woods, pale and powdery, too creamy-milky with sandal, very sweet, or the rice note fades very quickly, or I don't smell the rice at all. Riso has none of these weaknesses. It's perfect for people like me who don't normally like gourmands.

I award 8 points for the fragrance itself and 0.5 points for originality. Thanks to @Olivia1985 for the sample.

Taif Imperial is one of the better rose soliflores on wood. It begins with a sour, metallic top note, which is immediately replaced by a bright, fruity rose. This lacks a little freshness, but fortunately it has hardly any sweetness at first. It has a slight soapy quality. In this respect, it is a typical oriental rose fragrance. The wood is neither green, nor dull, nor dry, but beautifully moist and creamy and complements the rose very vividly. The oud is barely perceptible, but the woody notes as a whole are beautifully balanced. So: beautiful rose, beautiful wood, what more could you want? The other notes are only there for decoration and for the most part are indistinguishable to me. The fragrance radiates strongly for the first few hours and the rose clearly dominates.

There is a small deduction for a somewhat pungent fragrance in the background. This may have to do with the cedar and ambergris, to whose synthetic substitutes I sometimes react sensitively. Getting used to it helps: After 4 - 5 hours, I no longer notice this stinging, but still very faintly pencil shavings.

At the same time, the whole fragrance undergoes a change. The rose becomes darker (i.e. loses its fruitiness) and recedes. The wood is now drier, but not dry as dust. The fragrance becomes sweeter, it smells like caramel (not burnt, but toffee) as indicated in the list of notes. In my opinion, this addition of sugar could have been left out, even though it is quite unobtrusive. The fragrance is now pleasantly round and creamy-floral-woody, without any powder. It no longer changes and you can still smell it for quite a long time.

Zibeline has been reformulated many times since it first appeared. I don't know when the incarnation I received as a gift from Symphorosa76 was created. It is a very dark liquid in a bottle with a glass stopper. The most recent version apparently dates back to 2010, when the three perfumes Rêve, Secret and Zibeline were reworked and combined into a collection called "Les Merveilles de Weil" to celebrate the brand's 100th anniversary. However, this new version already appears to be a completely different perfume in which, according to the manufacturer, only "the basic structure" has been retained, whatever that may mean.

My Zibeline begins strongly animalic, but this soon subsides, after which musk and civet are pleasantly present in the background. I don't smell any pronounced citrus in the top note, just a brief hint of it - perhaps my sample is so old that the top note is no longer quite there. Herbs are also hardly noticeable on my skin, but on my clothes they are, where it smells distinctly herbal. (Tarragon may be, but I don't find coriander.) I also smell a lot of things that are not listed in the pyramid on Parfumo, for example something fruity at the beginning (is that due to the aldehydes?), after that I would have guessed orange blossom rather than jasmine, and there are also a few spices, but without a typical floriental spiciness. The floral and balsamic elements are in the foreground. Tonka, ylang and sandalwood create a meltingly soft base. I think it also smells of opoponax (perhaps only because I recently had it pure under my nose) and there is also dry wood. Before the scent disappears, I detect a slightly medicinal, light note. Everything is densely interwoven, nothing is sharply contoured, but is blurred and softly drawn in the manner of very old fragrances, and here without much powder. Perfectly classic, French perfumery.

As a color, Zibeline would be black-brown for me, just like sable fur. It's a soft, indescribably fragrant perfume that I can't get enough of. It smells wonderful on clothes and feels like a warm fur coat that envelops me. When I smell this fragrance, it gives me energy and peace at the same time.

To me, Thirty Three first seems very briefly peppery, then sweet-fruity-rosy, then rosy-mineral-powdery (that's exciting), then earthy and dry-woody, finishing with rosy cinnamon almond soap, very faintly. The whole scent is varied, never heavy, always approachable, and has a distinguished vibe. I would have liked more oud, but unfortunately it can't assert itself against the rose until relatively late, and you don't get much out of it because of that. The oud is also a bit generic. The dryness of the other woody scents doesn't do it any good either. I think this slightly pungent minerality with powder rose on drywood contrasts nicely with the initial rose patchouli jam. The fact that real roses smell like neither doesn't bother me here. The wood has a noble effect on me. But one can also find the mentioned contrast incongruous.

At the price, you can expect real oud of course at most a small addition. Incidentally, the fragrance is called "Thirty Three" after the age of the oud distillate in the year of release. I wonder, of course, where the manufacturer takes the same distillate still 10 years later.

The durability on my skin is 7 hrs with 1 spray from TZ.The perfume has a fairly strong radiation (without being intrusive) until the middle of the course the rose becomes more transparent. It is close to the skin after 4 hours.

The many sweet rose is ultimately not for me to wear. But in its category, I still find Thirty Three one of the most pleasant and original rose oud perfumes I know. It fits summer and winter alike, is absolutely appropriate for evening events, and if worn by the right person, I would find it very appealing. I am glad that I was able to test this very nice perfume. My thanks to Realeperson for the sample.

Note: I had to look up one ingredient. Piperonal is an aromatic with a vanilla and almond scent. Piperonal is also called heliotropin because of its odor reminiscent of heliotrope. [Source: Wikipedia]

Fruity-ambery-spicy, gently wild-leathery, with some balsam and much vanilla. Very sweet! Normally I run away from sweet-fruity, but this one quite elegantly keeps a balance somewhere between heavy and light. It's hard to tell if it's for 17 year olds or 70 year olds. After a while, the scent loses a bit of its jammy charmer vibe and becomes a bit warmer. - I can't imagine liking this perfume on anyone in the morning (too heavy-sweet) or evening (too little mystery). It's the first scent I would classify as a pure afternoon scent, best suited at a coffee gathering or an outdoor standing reception.