Chai
Baruti (2015)

Tea for Two, Dzing! and Jungle Elephant orgy. If you like those scents you have to check this out. The opening is spicy, and with a sharp black tea note as well as hay. Then it settles down a bit more, as if you added a ton of cream to it all. It smoothes out quite nicely.

Baruti Chai impresses me. Considering it has so many things in it that have the potential to overwhelm (e.g. cinnamon, pepper, leather), it never does. It could be a study on the subtle use of spice in perfumery. If Opium, Cinnabar and Jungle l'Elephant are rough, Chai is smooth and polished.

Chai is more like a suggestion of the beverage, rather than the literal beverage. This is preferable to me because as much as I adore authentic masala chai, I'd rather not smell like I bathed in it. Instead, what I get smells like strong sandalwood and something wonderfully smoky, like a singed piece of bark. The perfume is marvelously sandalwoody on me, and I am baffled that there is no mention of woods anywhere on the internet because it is perhaps more sandalwood on me than anything else (works for me!).

There is something like mint in it, but it blends beautifully with the other notes, perhaps to imbue the scent of fresh, green cardamom husks. I don't actually detect any cardamom though. I also notice fresh ginger from time to time as well as gentle hand of Saigon cinnamon and a hint of savory black pepper.

Then there is my favorite part--one of the most perfect and gorgeous *non-vanillic* creamy accords I have ever smelled, and I can not get enough of it! It smells like a cup of warm, sweetened milk. It was at the 10-hour mark that I felt there could be any vanilla at all.

It projects well enough for my liking for hours, though never a sillage monster, heavy, or cloying. Longevity is excellent.

I don't take this as the literal scent of chai, nor did I ever expect it to be based on the notes, which list things that I have never seen in any authetic chai recipe, much less drunk: leather, rose, musk, cocoa. It does not even read as gourmand on my skin, rather a floral-woody-musk.

In any case, Chai is a definite winner that makes me curious about the rest of the line.

I enjoyed the experience of wearing Chai. The opening was a bit odd however. It started out with the smell of cinnamon and some clove, which was very nice, then I got a strange smell of baled straw...wet baled straw. It lingered for about 30 minutes, then began to wane. Chai was very enjoyable for me from that point forward. It became more floral on me as it dried down, but it was very nicel. I'm looking forward to trying Chai again!

Baruti Chai is one of the spiciest aristocratic semi-gormands I've experienced in my miser and pretentious carreer of provincial perfumista. A "greedy", lusty, filthy, "gluttonous" fragrance full of debauchery, decadence, deviance and perversion (on this point, if this one was assumedly the scent behind the "catch name" Marquis de Sade, it could perfectly fit/match the baroque-sadist concept. Surely I see in here points in common with the darkest side of my beloved HdP 1740 Marquis de Sade). The Chai's opening is compelling. A conceptually "indie/artisanal" intoxicating (dusty-spicy-earthy) dark exhalation invests all your senses with a concert of joyful shivers and the invigoration of dormant primordial instincts. An orchestra of diverse feelings flow down the river, sketching random as crazy sparks through the sensitive nerve endings. I detect a richly bucolic "Slumberhousesque" atmosphere (in particular Sova, Baque and Ore jump more than vaguely on my moonshiny mind) but at same time I think to Rundholz 03. April 1968, Histoires de Parfums (also something in addition to 1740), Les Liquides Imaginaires Belo Rabello, L'Inferno O' Driu' and something furthermore that is probably hidden somewhere in the recesses of my rusty olfactory database. I get by soon leather (a smooth leather/cocoa caress like a sort of suede-oriented silky-dusty sun ray) but its presence is like something working in the background and almost accessorial to a really boozy/candied/fruity accord of dried-candied fruit (kind of plums, figs and grapes/raisins), nutts, spices (most of all nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon, may be cumin), citrus and dark tea. I'm sure about the dried fruit's presence even if this feeling is probably enhanced by a boisterous honeyed-nutty-liquorous spiciness. Cumin and ginger push upper and upper a cool aromatic vibe. Anyway, I'm almost immediately able to detect a sort of vintage-waxy old/school (powdery ambery) chyprey background (conjuring me the House of Matriarch Bohemian Black's atmosphere but also partially Bogue Maai) which imprints a more classic musky-honeyed stableness in order it to counteract the turbulent jerks of sweet spices and the figgy (burnt sugary/viney-like) dark fruitiness. The olfactive evolution, as understandable with this Indie kind of concept, is not "glittering" or pyrotechnic but the accomplished "cloud" is something rich, warm, powdery, nuanced, carnal and puzzling. The final aroma smells about sweet "vino passito", ambergris, woods, suede and dry fig's pasture (the filling of southern sweet San Martine made of dry figs, walnuts, almonds, liqueur, citrus grated peels and candied fruits). This is a sensual fragrance for a contemporary naughty neo-bohemian fellow with no peace in the heart and beastly instincts, he roams depravedly for the Venice's secret passagges looking for a damosel to taste and finally may be to devour. Wear Chai with abandon for hyper lacherous and perverted rendez-vous inside appalling castles (if you are more fortunate than me that probably in the meanwhile will be in pigiama in front of tv side by side with my dog while following my soccer team going out the Champions League).

This sparked my interest because of the ingredient list and the picture of something tasty and gourmand.
It turns out to be more Impressionistic bordering on abstract.
A start with an explosion of the spices mentioned,
followed by a wide stripe of something waxy and transparent. The spice dissipates quickly, however remains in whispers in the background throughout the journey. Next is the gentle introduction of rose, vague, the concentration upon the lower regions of the pink Alberta Rose scent profile. In the midst of this movement there is a passing note. It is the light and dusty scent of cocoa combined with the glorious fragrance of reduced cream and the caramelized lactose thereof. The picture collapses quite quickly and remains as a light caramel, scented with rose and whisper of tannin on my skin for a couple of hours.
A very enjoyable, textured experience.

A beautifully rich, gently spicy, a touch sweet opening full of cardamom, ginger a touch of dark pepper - hot very hot - that soon develops a noye like a medium strong milky tea. This is not a dark Lapsang-Souchong-style smoky tea; on the contrary more a light Orange Pekoe. The real genius is in the fleeting aroma of warm milk - a difficult aroma to create - that is captured particularly well here.

Later in the drydown a restrained tonka note with whiffs of a fairly nonspecific rose and a touch of oleander soon evolve into a combination of woodsy basenotes, where the tonka and the wood join a very discreet honeyed undercurrent, with the spiciness gradually evaporating.

The performance is outstanding, with strong sillage, excellent projection and an absolutely sensational longevity of fifteen hours on my skin.

An autumnal delight, this is an original take on the tea theme, blended well and with tremendous performance. 3.75/5