Manakara (2006)
by Indult

If Manakara the fragrance was a single fruit, I imagine it would be thin skinned and a rich royal purple, with a fragrant vanilla custard pulp and tiny orange seeds. It would grow on an aromatic blonde-wooded tree or bush and have thick, dark green and waxy leaves that had only a hint of fragrance. And this plant would preferentially grown near rose bushes. This mythical vegetation persists in my imagination whenever I wear Manakara. It's sweet, wet, and luscious one minute, and soft, velvety and dry the next. A beautiful and unusual fragrance, with moderate longevity and sillage. Yes, it is quite spendy but to me it's worth the cost.

Mankara’s lychee top note nails the fruit’s tart/floral essence perfectly, and if it persisted I might actually be tempted to spend $250 on 50 ml. of the stuff. Luckily for my wallet, the lychee doesn’t last more than sixty seconds, and the powdery rose and woody amber accord left in its wake is far less interesting. Once the rose accord establishes itself it runs a linear course, not altering so much as fading out into a base of powdery amber and dry cedar. This base smells to me like many a woody amber men’s scent, which is to say, surprisingly generic in character for so costly a fragrance.

It’s all nice enough, I suppose, but there are certainly more exciting fruity-woody rose scents out there, not the least of which is Guerlain’s Nahema. In Manakara’s “super premium” price range, I find both Lyric for Men and Lyric for Women from Amouage more complex and compelling in their use of fruity rose with frankincense accents and rich spices. Both show far more character and individuality in their drydowns, to boot.