Sandalia Collection : Karaly
Acqua di Sardegna (2017)

Well, I've smelled this before, and I mean that I've smelled this a lot before smelling it again here. Cheap geraniol rose? Check. Plastic oud accord? Check. Tons of synthetic rounding and thickening agents? Also check. $20 price tag? Nope, try again. $50? Sorry, still too low. Okay, maybe a $100 retail designer rose oud but can be had cheaper from a discounter? Negative Ghost Rider, give it another go. Give up? This is a $250+ "luxury" fragrance from Abaton Bros. Acqua di Sardegna label, under the heading of the Sandalia Collection. I could go over the market copy but I don't think it will help inform your decision because it's the usual inspired-by-something-abstract story of the Island of Sardinia, and how the name Sandalia is based on Latin, all that jazz. Even this particular scent, which is called Sandalia Collection: Karaly (2017), has its own detailed story about what the smell represents, but again it won't help inform you what you're in store for when you smell the stuff. I do find the unique embossed patterns on each bottle in the collection to be a nice touch, and it reminds me of the sigil stones from The Fifth Element, but that's not changing my mind about the perfume here. Some people might find this right up their alley, and I'd rather see them blind buy a bottle of Franck Oliver Oud Touch (2014) than mess with this one, period.

The opening here is ooey gooey davana and mandarin orange with that synthetic rose and a bit of violet to reduce jamminess. This first 5 or 10 minutes is a good as it gets for Karaly, so don't be too excited for what's to come. The huge geraniol blast in the heart seems to come saddled with some kind of slightly fruity osmanthus-type note, going for a "fruitchouli" feel with the lightly-applied pasty davana binding to that and the candy rose. The plasticy oud accord is straight out of the discontinued Jovan Intense Oud (2012), which was once the best bargain for rose oud at $15, and when you move that accord over to here, it still smells like $15 despite being sold for $250. I can't get passed this, but even if I hadn't smelled the Jovan, I'd still be suspect because there is zero woodiness to the oud, just that sort of psuedo-barnyard Firmenich molecule that Le Labo and Dior also used (to better effect) within superior perfumes. I get no sandalwood in this despite being listed, and I don't know what buckskin is, but it smells like cashmeran to me, just renamed. A bit of norlimbanol scratch fills in the listed "incense" roll and we're off to the races. Performance is at least good, with all day wear and projection that remains stable for at least half of that day, and best use if you must use it would be evenings in moderate weather.

In terms of gender with rose ouds, this one is labelled unisex but it is sweet enough that it might veer more towards the feminine side of stereotypical taste for rose oud fans. I think Abaton Bros. were going for something in the vein of By Kilian Musk Oud (2013) or Maison Francis Kurkdjian Oud Satin Mood (2015), which themselves are also rather plasticine, but have a lot better blending and artistry which hide that thanks to Alberto Morillas and Francis Kurkdjian making them, respectively. I don't know who the nose was here, but they basically used a cheat sheet to copy the homework of Morillas and Kurkdjian then didn't take the time to proofread and edit their report before turning it, making Karaly feel as rushed as it smells cheap. The parent Acqua di Sardegna range is one of the lower cost lines from the Abaton Bros. family of brands, and sits about on par with designers in terms of quality and price, being based on the usual light refreshing "Italian cologne" fare that many Italian perfume houses seem to offer globally as a hallmark of their heritage. With this Sandalia Collection, and at least with Karaly in particular, the quality doesn't seem to be upped one bit, but the price tag exponentially jumps with a ton of market copy and promises of exotica broken when what's delivered is really just more of what everyone else has done better or for less. Thumbs down.