Mandarava
Parfum Prissana (2019)

Utterly gorgeous stuff. Flits from a beautifully balanced exotic floral to a much more human side. Constantly moves and morphs as I wear it. Masterpiece

This is a beautiful fragrance which can probably be characterized as a combination of white flowers - musk - resins. It is natural smelling, rich and dense and long lasting. Champaca is listed as a main note, though I get more the impression of a white flower bouquet where it is hard to distinguish the individual flowers. There is a mild incense component and a prominent musk note that becomes powdery in the dry down.

If you are looking for a natural smelling bouquet of tropical flowers, this is it. It leans rather heavily on the feminine side, especially with the combination of white flowers and musky powder...so it will probably prove more of a hit with the feminine crowd.

I think Mandarava (Prissana) is utterly horrific but many people whose opinion I respect think it's a masterpiece. While clearly well made, its dense cloud of indeterminable flowers, incense, and musk is unbearable to me, because note for note, it smells like someone emptied an entire aerosol of nag champa-scented room deodorizer into a small room and closed all the windows. It has the same overwhelming stuffiness and cheap, greasy-powdery musk overload as Koh-I-Noor by Areej Le Doré but lacks that scent's more fine-tuned sense of balance that somehow keeps everything in check; Mandarava is unhinged in a way that sets my teeth on edge. But, you know, people other than me love it.

I don't normally review so negatively, so you have to know there's a redeeming angle here. And here it is – the drydown is weirdly good. I've worn this three times in the name of science, and each time the drydown takes me by surprise in a good way. Unfortunately, I never quite managed to make it to my notepad in time to write down what it is that I think almost redeems Mandarava, so you'll have to believe me that the texture of the scent changes about six hours in, emerging from the cardboardy fug of nag champa to become sharper, woodier – more interesting somehow. If I ever subject myself to Mandarava again – which, to be honest, is unlikely – I'll come back and update this review.

Feminine surely. It opens much like modern Fems with a sweet blast of Floral with a centrepoint of Tuberose.
That has my defenses up at first until a Stinky animalic sneaks in to offer a background that mimics classic 80's Fem bluster. It is overstuffed with a rather large number of ingredients which can overwhelm the senses. There is a cloy that is just ameliorated by Vetiver, Patch and Myrrh.
It almost reaches the Cherry candy floss of Angel, however an undercurrent of Contempory mustiness that has me finding it more wearable.
Very pretty thing that has me wanting to lick my arm or better, my partner's.

Mandarava is a beautiful exotic floral but it does cross my too feminine line in the sand. It has a big dose of tuberose which I don't get on with. This note is mixed in with champa and jasmine and I'm sure other notes. It smells like a deeply feminine rosey cherry like scent. It's captivating and bewitching but I just could not pull this one off or feel comfortable wearing it. Though on a lady this would be stunning.

A gorgeous floral incense made of excellent ingredients, with luscious champaca and jasmine notes cutting through the dry ash of burning incense beautifully. The inspiration was clearly one borne of the perfumer's own Buddhist faith for the scent is nothing if not evocative of a grand temple's inner sanctum, at least for the first hour. Such associations cannot help but give pause to Mandarava's wearability as a personal fragrance. Thankfully its remaining lifespan leans more towards classical florals /incense orientals.

I've been looking for great incense compositions for a long time and I think I've finally found the perfumer who can weave magic with this material. Next to MA NISHTANA, MANDARAVA is yet another impressive incense masterpiece Prin Lomros' late grandmother would have been proud of.