Lamar
Kajal Perfumes (2020)

The famous Lamar, with all its charge of breezy fruity-floral orientalism and the raised luxuriant sunny arabesque "atmosphere", is definitely one of the top sellers and most renowned "pieces" from the "western-arabesque" niche perfume brand Kajal Perfumes Paris. Lamar, performed by the top perfumer Mark Buxton (Mark Buxton perfumes, Comme des Garcons, Le Labo, Givenchy, Six Scent etc) is a "golden" seducing radiant fruity-floral semi oriental, kind of "intensely yellow" in its luminous ambience and the freshly fruity aroma (slightly becoming warmer along the way). You can definitely image a golden sunset along the mediterranean sea's coast with all this fruity-floral (rose/jasmine) aroma (that rises from the seaside/villas-gardens) waving in the cool breeze. Yellow (alias a sort of fruity green cool widespread around radiancy) is a colour ideally expressed by various Mark Buxton's creations (Mark Buxton Black Angel, Lancetti Pour Homme, Le Labo Vetiver 46). The first blast in juicy, aromatic cool and vaguely acid with its combination of dominant pineapple (the fruity star), red fruits-berries, bergamot, bitter orange, fresh spices and apple. I suppose hints of further "tropicals" could have been secretly included in the mix since in this stage is like smelling around a yellow tropical cocktail of papaja, mango, pineapple and juicy redberries. Cardamom (joined to coriander) provides a sort of fresh and radiant fluidy effect while florals are smooth, delicate and soothed up by musks, green boisè patterns and balsams. The musky oriental elements are never overbearing or oversized, just smelling mild, fresh and complementary to the fruity floral ingredients. Vanille and musks are actually soft while amber and cashmere woods provide that sort of powdery chypré elegant luxury which is a Lamar's characteristic trait. In particular the floral elements (opulent bulgarian rose, turkish rose, magnolia-flower and nectarining jasmine) smell kind of soft, airy and delicate in the air, smelling properly silky-floral without any kind of rougher leafy, lymphatic or green botanical vibe. All the general vibe is opulent but in a sunny breezy light way. I smell this fragrance unisex but more oriented towards the feminine side of the olfactory spectrum (despite a daring dandy white-linen suited man could definitely wear it with exotic style). A spring-summer fragrance arousing a sort of marina yachting posh kind of atmosphere with all its repertory of Panama hats, lush boats, fruity cocktails, white linen clothes and amazing sunsets.

That pineapple put this cornucopia of exquisite notes right on top where I love it! The smell is mouth watering delicious and when I smelled these aromas OUTSIDE the sample pack, I knew I had a live one here and ordered my bottle right away! My nose rarely betrays me and this is indeed a happy acquisition!

This is a funky strange one to me. I really like the masculine leaning unisex vibe that it has. But the pineapple… it just keeps smacking me in the face with syrupy sweetness that I don’t think belongs in the composition. It’s like this is a group of singers with one person out of tune. I even feel like I understand that maybe they were going for something to contrast the main composition a bit, but this is just so out of place that it just feels wrong. And it’s frustrating because I like where the rest of it was going, but the pineapple ruined it for me. I don’t know enough to suggest a note that I feel would serve it better, all I know is that I’d be enjoying the woody cedar and spices, then boom, pineapple comes back and slaps the enjoyment right out of me. It’s just weird. And I feel bad giving it a bad review because it feels like it was really close to being one I’d like a lot.