Review by rogalal
Every once in a while, I come across a perfume in my sampling that simply smells like nothing else I've ever smelled. In a world where designers do nothing but copy each other and most niche brands get by simply reinterpreting the same few basic formulas, that's saying a LOT. Thank goodness for true niche perfumers and perfumes like Tango. In short, it's based on smoked seashells. Not some chemical that people have decided smells "marine", but honest-to-goodness essence somehow distilled from actual smoked seashells. Take a moment and let that sink in... So what does it smell like? It's a burnt mineral smell, reminiscent of sweet smoking resins, but also like a rock that's been sitting in an aquarium, soaking up the smell of brine which has, in turn, soaked up the smell of fish and seaweed and algae. Like concrete infused with the smell of a store full of aquariums on which someone has burned something. This is mixed with orange on the top (though it mostly acts as a sweetener - I would never have figured out orange without reading the notes), as well as some smoky pine. Officially, this is mostly sold as a champaca scent, but I can't smell any peachy flowers or figure out how they contribute to the watery fishy mineral smell, so curious champaca lovers may be in for quite a surprise. An hour or so in, a chickory-ish coffee note slips in, a strange partner to the sweet mineral smell that somehow manages to work. In a world of marshmallow fluff perfumes and $250 niche scents that all regurgitate the same formulas, I love that Tango exists. That being said, it's not a comfortable perfume. Any perfume that smells vaguely fishy is never going to appeal to very many people, myself included, as an everyday scent. That being said, if you're on the verge of burning out on sampling perfumes, do yourself a favor and sniff Tango, just for the jolt of something truly different.
