Manakara Indult

Desirability: Adoption by a more appreciative nose

Source: Fragrantica

I have long worshiped at the altar of Francis Kurkdjian's creations. So confident am I of my love for his work that I've blind bought many of those I have. I thank heaven that I did not blind buy Mankara as tempting as lychee and roses sound.

For I don't smell lychee or roses and I've been around both long enough to know what they smell like from green to overripe. What I do smell is...over ripe melon that is syrupy sweet and cloying to the point of being nauseating. In the background I get a whiff of something that has been burnt and it's not pleasant either. It's almost like a fragrant plastic doll that's been singed. In the drydown the melon is joined by resins. Manakara is described as a tropical fruity floral with 2 notes of lychee and roses. It smells way more complex than 2 notes (except that I don't even smell the listed 2 notes LOL).

I checked and double-checked both my sample label as well as my sample order. It is Manakara that I'm wearing. Looking at the reviews online, there are others that get melon and the burnt note too except they are polite and call it caramelized. Ditto the resins. 

The projection and longevity are amazing and for those on who this works its magic, lucky you :)

To Twirl All Girly Pilar & Lucy

Desirability: Adoption by a more appreciative nose

Source: Fragrantica

Fruity indeed. 

I feel like I've just stuck my nose into a row of fruit soaps or walked into The Body Shop or Bath and Body Works. Both smell like a mishmash of everything they stock which is fine for a shop but not as a fragrance. The melon note is really strong in To Twirl All Girly and I have to be honest that it smells artificial. More like melon gummies instead of the fruit. With a heavy dose of sweet vanilla. I don't smell flowers but they could be hidden behind the vanilla and melon which is really distracting me. Good sillage and longevity for the EDP, I smelt like a gummy bear all day. 

Source: flickr.com

At heart I'll always be a girly girl who secretly loves pinks and frills, in my teens to early twenties To Twirl All Girly would not have been too much of a frivolous fruity gourmand but now...well I stopped wearing tulle puffball skirts a decade ago. 

Source: pinterest.com

Le Parfum de Therese Frederic Malle

The opening is wet, living and green, incredibly zesty, like being headfirst in a barrel of bitter orange peel. I'm not sure if it's the citrus playing tricks with my nose but it smells peppery too. By the way the opening lasts a long time, enjoyable while it lasts though, the combination of zesty green and peppery made me feel the same as how aldehydes do, all tingly as if electrified.

It stayed this way on me for a good hour and more, bitter and green. I started picking out the rose note and the melon, with a base of dry musty woods, the wetness having slowly evaporated. I find it overall more bitter and tart than fruity floral and I'm not getting the plum note. The leather joins the woods finally and the scent stops evolving further, staying a mixture of mossy green, tangy and woody. 

It's an effervescent semisweet green scent that surprised me as I expected something more fruity leather from the notes. Instead it could be a sparkling, happier relation to Chanel's Cristalle.   

Fracas versus Carnal Flower

There are endless debates on whether Robert Piguet's (Germaine Cellier) Fracas (I bought mine in 2011) and Frederic Malle's (Dominique Ropion) Carnal Flower smell similar and I thought they did but then I never tested them side by side till now. 

Fracas opens with a bigger blast than Carnal Flower but that's definitely not alluding that Carnal Flower is in any way weak, it's not. Fracas is a buttery and creamy big white floral featuring tuberose as the main actress, with supporting roles going to gardenia, orange blossom and jasmine. Carnal Flower is greener and fresher than Fracas by far but strangely I'm only noticing that now when I compare them next to each other. In Carnal Flower I smell the ylang ylang and a just ripe melon as the supporting notes and not so much the gardenia as I do in Fracas.

Although both Fracas and Carnal Flower are laden with tuberose, Profumum Roma's Tuberosa takes the award for the most fulsome tuberose perfume ever, it's tuberose and nothing else for hours on end and at only one volume, super loud. Next to Tuberosa, both Fracas and Carnal Flower are practically tame.

Fracas smells "older" than Carnal Flower due to the dewiness of the tuberose in Carnal Flower.  Both are sexy beasts but Fracas has this heavy on syrup factor that makes her seem like a perennially boozed up lush that has seen too much before her age, whereas Carnal Flower doesn't flaunt her sexuality while remaining alluring. Think of Elizabeth Taylor as Fracas and Greta Garbo as Carnal Flower. 

Both are monsters that project forever, so I won't worry about either under-performing. I think the only tuberose that doesn't stick on me is L'Artisan's La Chasse aux Papillons, most other tuberose-based perfumes that I've tried are tenacious creatures. 

So the verdict is, no they don't smell similar and yes if you adore tuberose, you would want both in your life.