Unmasking the Sambasô Dancer

[OctoberGwen]

King mandarin, passionfruit, Moroccan rose absolute, labdanum, and amber musk.

I bought a bottle of this unsniffed because I adore King Mandarin, and generally fruit + musk equals win on me. I am not disappointed!

I would put this in the same family as my beloved Sumai No Sechie. It's fruity, but the musk gives it a beautiful, complex anchor on which to do its thing. I'm not getting rose per se, but I think it's also serving to deepen the fruit notes. The mandarin and passion fruit are really lovely together, and I'm not getting any labdanum now (I did smell a bitter sharpness when this first came out of the mailbox, but it has smoothed out wonderfully.) Sometimes labdanum does unpleasant things on my skin.

This is a very pretty, close-to-the-skin scent that I think would be perfect for everyday wear, especially in warmer weather.

While the King Mandarin is very dominant when wet (which is fine by me), the dry down is far more blended and subtle, slightly musky with just a faint sweetness. Really lovely.

[DovaKitten]

Mmmm. This is what I imagine my skin would smell like if I rubbed the best orange peel over a lovely but faded perfume. There's just enough complexity to keep this from being a one-note scent, and that amber that doesn't turn to powder on my skin (which I've found exists! in the Lupers!) is lovely in the background, but the non-fruity notes very much background scents. I can get a few whiffs of rose every now and again, but if that's the note that's making you iffy about this blend, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I'm going to try this on DovaPuppy. It's surprisingly unisex, and I'd like to see what it does with his chemistry.

[khemistry]

I very much like this citrusy blend.

 

Imp: Oh hello ORANGE

 

Wet: Lovely mandarin, with a little warm kick (amber? Is that you?)

 

Dry: The fruit fades into the background (although I'm happy to say never entirely leaves!) and the light floral/amber hangs out nicely.

 

Overall: As with most bpal, I will try alternate application to hang onto the gorgeous top notes longer (hair usually works best for me). I may need a bottle of this one..

[Astarial]

In the imp this smells of mandarin and passionfruit, with a hint of woodiness.

 

The mandarin really blooms when applied to my skin, and for a few minutes it's a pure, sweet, tart orange, before being joined by the rose and amber. Unfortunately, this doesn't do it any huge favors, and it turns into an odd sort of creamy baby powder combined with amber powder (yes, they're different powders to my nose), with a slighty overlay of orange and rose. The passionfruit never reappears.

 

Not really what I was hoping for.

[zankoku_zen]

Mandarin, rose, and musk.

 

The mandarin is a pretty strong top note, but then you get the rose and musk, particularly in the drydown.

 

It's a warm mandarin-rose blend.

 

Eh, not for me.

[tinyvulture]

Heavily mandarin orange on me. Passionfruit's hanging out in the background. No rose at all. Labdanum and amber musk? Maybe a little. Sweet and warm. Mostly mandarin.

 

I like mandarin all right, but since this is basically mandarin single note on me, I'd pass on a bottle.

[mymymai]

ITI: It's slightly fruity with a soothing undertone from the rose absolute and amber musk. So far, so good.

 

Wet: Ah, there's the passionfruit displayed more clearly against a warm bed of amber musk, flanked by mandarin and a whiff of rose underneath. It's a bit of a darker, more sophisticated scent than yesterday's, but still pleasant.

 

Dry: After a long walk and several hours, the scent is incredibly faint. I am only getting the amber musk with a touch of passionfruit, but nothing I could say was definitively that without knowing the notes.

[cinnamonster]

Not at all what I imagined. It's a war of mandarin and what smells like dark musk. I really don't like it. It doesn't have an instant recoil factor but it gets more cloying with each sniff.

[milo]

Mandarin! King Mandarin I think.. Fresh and musky at the same time. I really like this, and wouldn't turn any more down if it happens to come my way.

[Verios]

I purchased a bottle of this off a fellow forumite, because the notes sound exquisite (I don't think I've ever had passionfruit in a bpal scent before, but I LOVE the scent of the real deal, and I had a bottle of the single note King Mandarin at one time and it was gorgeous), but I also was a little bit concerned that this would be a scent that would fade from me super fast, as the reason I didn't keep my bottle of king mandarin single note was that my skin positively ate it up (it would disappear in under a half hour...)

 

With that said, I tested this a bit last night, and then ended up wearing it today, and so far, maybe because it's got other notes to back it up, I'm still smelling it going strong hours later! On initial application, I got very little of the passionfruit, but I had that lovely king mandarin coming to the forefront, backed up surprisingly nicely by the rose, and something else (maybe the musk and/or labdanum? I'm not overly certain what it is, but something that prevents the initial scent from being straight mandarin + rose).

 

Within a few hours, the mandarin does fade, but it lingered a lot longer than the single note ever did, before settling into a really nice moroccan rose scent. This is one of those that morphs a fair bit on me as the wear goes on, but I like all stages of it (even if I had expected/hoped for some of that passionfruit to come through!), so I'll definitely be keeping this bottle.