Jabu
Mona di Orio (2009)

I unexpectedly like this one! The opening is a bright orange blossom with a hint of zesty lemon, which is quickly followed by a transition to a heart of honey; consisting of a sweet, non-pissy, pollen laden honey note supported by ylang and orange blossom. The base turns powdery, but remains interesting due to juxtaposition of citric acidity and dusty sweetness. It's simple but effective, and the result is a sunny, easy to wear sweety.

Really a bad experiment guys. Mona di Orio Jabu is an ylang-ylang-orange blossoms centered soapy bomb with a touch of dissonant "petroleous-mineral" saltiness and a synthetic vanilla-tonka dry down. There is some initial pleasant dustiness (or spicy floral articulation) around at the beginning (the only part that could be defined at least decent) probably aroused by spicy ylang-ylang which lasts just a couple of minutes before to unfortunately "collapse" towards a general destructured soapiness counteracted by a weird salty-plastic (xerox-toner like) undertone. The rose jumps up in a while enhancing the general soapy-neutral (detergent-like) undertone (despite ylang-ylang preserves its "leading" role) while the final consistency is resinous, vaguely talky and "rice cream/barm" smelling. Basically the aroma (over the central increasing mess) holds on somewhat linear, powdery-"chyprey", organic-resinous and mediocrely soapy as a whichever milky-floral bath foam. " Neither flesh nor fowl". Thumbs down.

A sprinkle of citrus, creamy ylang, tonka/vanillin, a heavy dose of aldehydes which give a salty/metallic feeling. I get the concept, which as for another couple of Orio scents, kind of works for ten minutes, then it all collapses completely and you get a weird and total random evolution – bit of a sweet bread, then sweet hot soup. I guess it is some weird result of citrus, warm flowers, ginger. When it all ends, the drydown is decent – resinous floral vanillin, but it's obviously not worth the waiting.

4/10

I've been wanting to try this since its press release, giving myself plenty of time to build up a high expectation. Note to self: its best to not do this.To me this opens with a strong tobacco blast, confusing because the note is not listed. After 10 minutes this does fade, leading into a flat, yeasty phase that reminds me of a half-baked loaf of bread. Again, not sure where this is coming from given the notes listed.Two hours later the honey note finally soars, and this is when I appreciate this scent the most. It is long lasting and high quality, and does develop in different directions. But in general, I was expecting something with more **sparkle**, I wanted the orange flower and plum notes to really bubble up in a joyful way, as this fragrance led me to believe. I'd like to see what this smells like with petit grain swapped out for Bergamot, and the coconut replaced with another floral. This is by no means a stinker, but if I were the marketing agent I would have called it 'bread' instead of 'joy'.

Chewy citrus opening followed by a rounded, mellow, softly resinous pillow of a fragrance. Heavily orientalized though it is, it still manages to stay soft and homely throughout its development. Lasts a full day on one or two sprays, but I keep spraying it again and again just for that initial rush of candied citrus. Tolerably sweet. Nothing cloying, but I wouldn't want to wear it in the heat of summer. I'm having a hard time pinpointing notes in this one, as it seems to skip the rational part of my brain and skips straight to the "I need this" part of it.