Manoumalia (2009)
by LesNez

Manoumalia is every bit a steamy, humid floral that intoxicates the senses and evokes faraway locals in a most vivid and genuine manner. It opens with what smells exactly like the houseplant in my lobby that was haunting me last August. It has the same kewda-like sharpness and headiness to it, initially also underlined with some juicy orange blossom and and humid tuberose notes. For some 30 minutes or so, it feels as if tropical flowers' nectar and jungle-leaf sap is mingled with salty sweat; the kind of feeling you get when you work in a hothouse. The initial Dracena fragrans note fades out after the initial blast of tropical steam and turns into a soft, creamy tuberose and ylag ylang that remains subtle and subdued for the remaining of its life on my skin - with soft woody murmurs like the hushing leaves in the jungle at night.

Holy moly. All I can think is, this stuff smells like Las Vegas! Bright, hot, colorful, loud, luscious. The ylang ylang and tiare (a Tahitian gardenia, I just learned) are ass-kickers, but there is a balance; it's not all flower with no back-up. I think it must be the vetiver rounding out those big hot notes and keeping the scent modern and grounded rather than screechy.

Beautiful scent but definitely not for me.

Manoumalia starts out as the closest thing to an ylang-ylang soliflore that I’ve encountered. The dense, sweet, banana-vanilla character of the ylang blossom brooks no competition from another note for nearly an hour after Manoumalia leaves the bottle. Only then do spicy accents of cinnamon and pepper emerge to punctuate the big, bold tropical flower accord. Manoumalia’s heart remains thick and sweet, but is also heavily indolic, with all of indole’s fleshy decadence on full display. Sultry, sensuous, languorous and licentious – the adjectives of indulgence roll out like waves in front of this heady composition.

It’s hours more before Manoumalia’s sweet steam clears enough to admit anything remotely dry. What emerges toward the end is a velvet smooth, nutty sandalwood and clean white musk accord that offers some welcome relief after all the heat and humidity. As you might guess from the description so far, Manoumalia is a hefty scent, that wafts off the body and fills the room for hours after it’s applied. (Honestly, this stuff might make even Fracas appear shy!) I’m slightly puzzled as to when and how to wear a scent like this: it’s character is so absolutely tropical that it calls for palm trees and a beach – or at least sun and heat. Yet it’s so heavy and potent that I’d find it utterly oppressive in warm weather. Beautiful to smell, I have to say, but hard to wear, and hence perhaps a better room scent for a tropical resort than a perfume.

I enjoy this. It is a comforting, lush -almost buttery scent and I am always noticing a different side of it on my skin. White flowers sometimes reminding me of clean bathrooms and old ladies. Always on the fence between funk and beauty. This blend is more beauty than funk .

Smells somewhat "dirty" to me. Like dust on a flower. Seeing the notes, that makes sense to me; sandalwood sawdust. It's not a dominant note but it mingles with the ylang ylang a lot. I love ylang ylang and it's well played here. Goes along well with a grassy note but overall it's the sweet ylang yalng that makes the scent. A well crafted and more artisan scent.

at the very first, there's a wave of cool sharpness, not quite citric (Tom on perfumesmellinthings says it’s vetiver but it has nooo sparkle) and then immediately a swirl of kerosene and almonds, saffron, semolina, which soon turns waxy, wax of the tropical flower variety. It is a tuberose-like presence but not so near the edge of the offensive, and it’s listed by LesNez as fagraea, though the fatty backing of tiare is also noticeable. For a while, it dallies backwards and forwards between menthol/rancid (spent safety matches) and a great cushion of ethereal cream (fumes of Strega on the pillow). Eventually it relapses into amber with a backbone, a pleasingly odd leather sundae (the perfumer notes that a leathery drydown is highly thought of by the natives whose culture of scent inspired her). “notes of fagraea, tiare, ylang ylang, sandalwood dust, vetiver and amber”.