jasmine ylang – Dominique Dubrana – 4/5
I’m rather tired of shelling out 4 stars for each of Dubrana’s creations. They seem to just, just stop short of masterpieces. Dubrana must also, like me, have a thing for jasmine: this is his third jasmine-centric fragrance (though the official page tells you it is really about ylang ylang). The start is a wonderfully indolic (dry, raspy and all) chambaili (the night blooming jasmine, Jasminum officinale) with a touch of sweetness that grows stronger later on, telling you that the ylang ylang and vanilla are now creeping up on you. Jasmine remains the focus, however, for a good few hours before giving way to the feminine vanillic-floral drydown, where the ylang ylang is actually perceptible. There are nuacnes of spices (canelle, possibly), ambrette, apricot (osmanthus?) and mandarin in the start, but these are minor hints. Tasneem starts like a masculine jasmine (in the manner of Celine Ellena’s much stranger, stronger Jasmin de Nuit) but keeps shifting towards feminine as time goes by. Good work.
notesaromatic 