Chokedee
Strangers Parfumerie × LuckyScent (2021)

ln the vial this smells of fig, but on skin l get the delicious combination of toasted rice, creamy coconut & nutty pandan leaves. There's also a note listed as chommanard, which, l find on looking it up, is derived from a plant called vallaris glabra, also known as bread flower. Apparently "vallaris" is Latin for a garland given to the first soldier to climb over the enemy's rampart. And it has a scent similar to pandan leaves. l love it when a perfume makes me learn something! But l digress. Over the first half hour, l detect a milky white floral element, but this is not prominent, & then a grassy vetiver. From here there's not much change, except for perhaps a little vanilla & sandalwood four hours in, at which point it's quite soft. The projection overall is low to moderate, & it's just hanging on after eight hours.

l was hoping to find a substitute here for Auphorie's Eau de Nyonya, which l sampled & loved, but too late to get a bottle before it was discontinued, even if l could have justified the expense. This is nowhere near as rich or complex, but still an enjoyable experience in my exploration of perfumes with a rice note.

Chok dee, by the way, means "Good Luck" in Thai.

Strangers Parfumerie Chokedee is a powdery white floral mix, mainly, with some sweet hints, consisting of jasmine, frangipani, musk, coconut, neroli, cashew, and sandalwood. Not my typical cup of tea but interesting nonetheless, I could see this doing pretty well with fans of white florals. It remains fairly sharp even in its dry down, though, so one really needs to enjoy the florals in order to enjoy this, I’d say. For me, by far the most interesting aspect is the nutty quality inspired by the sticky rice dish on which the perfume is based.

Chokedee has EDP concentration and is sold via Luckyscent for the brand’s standard pricing of $80 for 30ml.

6 out of 10