Bond No.9 Chinatown

While most people might think of a fragrance named Chinatown being something like a spicy incense–this is actually a fruity floral. And it’s a beautiful fruity floral at that.

Chinatown

In Bottle: Sweet peach and tuberose with a bit of cardamom spice added in.

Applied: One of the few fragrances, in my books, that does a sweet peach note well. It’s sweet but not to the point of candy. It settles the peach in fruity territory and dishes into the mid-stage rather quickly. There’s supposed to be bergamot up top but I got very little of it in the opening. Maybe a dash, a couple of dewy drops. Not a whole lot of citrus in this one to go around as there’s more cardamom with its spicy–call me crazy–slightly earthy quality in this fragrance. The mid-stage is marked with my friend tuberose and the lingering cardamom. A bit tame and sweet and heady, the tuberose drowns out whatever other flowers might be in this mid-stage. Lucky for me, I love tuberose and despite her being the dominant floral, she isn’t as loud here as she is in Fracas, for instance. Now my favorite white flower with theĀ  big personality does settle down a bit, letting hints of orange blossom and honeyed vanilla seep through with a rather pleasant drydown of warm spicy cardamom and woods.

Extra: Chinatown was composed by Aurelien Guichard. It’s one of my favorite fruity floral fragrances for its marriage of fruits, florals with an added kick of spice. There’s different versions of it too, including one limited edition bottle that’s $650USD.

Design: Chinatown’s bottle shape is similar to that of other Bond No.9 bottles. The star shape is growing on me, though I still think it looks a little silly. I do love Chinatown’s design of a pink background splashed with a white be-flowered branch.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Bergamot, peach blossom, gardenia, honey, tuberose, peony, orange blossom, patchouli, cedar, vanilla, sandalwood, cardamom, Guiac wood.

I had the same problem opening my sample vial of Chinatown as I did with other Bond No.9 sample vials. They do something amazing to vacuum seal this stuff in or something because I just can’t get a grip. Regardless, Chinatown is a beautiful fruity floral and one of the more lovely renditions of the fragrance genre. If you’re looking high-end and not finding the fruity florals that you love, then give this stuff a whiff–if you can get the sample vial open, that is.

Reviewed in This Post: Chinatown, 2010, Eau de Parfum.


Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Tamora

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s Tamora seems to me like it should smell like a warm fruity floral with a bit of woodsiness. But what I get is an interesting blend of peaches and woods instead. Tamora

In Bottle: Woodsy florals with the heliotrope being a dominant note followed by the dry sandalwood and a touch of flowery peach. There’s a bit of warmth and amber to this too.

Applied: Like with a lot of BPALs I get a collection of scents from the get go that doesn’t follow a traditional fragrance pyramid. So I can tell you there’s strong peach in this and a dominant sandalwood on my skin and to my nose along with a sweet note that hangs out during the entirety of the scent. Heliotrope makes a wavering effort to be noticed here and there but the real stars are the sandalwood and peach team to me. The amber lends a nice warmth to the fragrance that comes in rather quickly and hangs around for a nice while. The vanilla in the fragrance isn’t detectable on me until the sandalwood calms down a bit and once I smell the vanilla, it is an interesting powdery vanilla treatment with a slight hint of dirtiness thrown in there. Very interesting, though not to my tastes, this is a little fun romp through an unconventionally built fruity woodsy scent.

Extra: Tamora is a member of the Illyria line from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. Its name was based on a character of the same name from the Shakespearean play, Titus Andronicus. Tamora was the Queen of the Goths. Which I just find is delightfully hilarious.

Design: Tamora is bottled in much the same shape and style as older style Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab bottles. You’ll note the bottle pictured in this post differs from the usual. This bottling style with the blue glass was abandoned in favor of the newer bottles with the amber glass. I can’t positively date this particular bottle of Tamora but if I were to hazard a guess, it’d be pre-2006 but I can’t be 100% sure. If anyone can positively date the bottle pictured above, I would be grateful.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Woodsy

Notes: Amber, heliotrope, golden sandalwood, peach blossom, vanilla bean.

I’m actually not a big fan of Tamora because I feel the sandalwood was a bit too overpowering. Still Tamora’s a nice peachy scent with an interesting mix of sandalwood thrown in there.

Reviewed in This Post: Tamora, ~2006, 5ml Bottle.