Mandorla del Sud by Simone Andreoli

Let me preface by saying that this review won't be fair to Mandorla del Sud. Lately, I've been trying new fragrances that haven't evoked excitement or any major feelings, so I'm getting fairy annoyed.

Now, Mandarlo del Sud isn't a complex fragrance with juxtaposed notes, it is quite simple, to be honest, which might be my fault to reach for it now.

Almonds, vanilla, sugar and amber. Sounds absolutely delicious, but I have to remind myself not to expect the unexpected. What I do hope for, is a good fragrance that at least makes me think "mmm"...

Up in the air, before I even smell the freshly sprayed paper strip, I get an almond food aroma scent. Like the one my mom used to bake with. Smelling the strip, I'm surprised how delicately sweet this fragrance is despite its note composition.

When coming back from Poland, where I bought my sample, the scent wasn't on Fragrantica (I submitted it in the forum), so I wrote down the notes in hand. Now, when researching if this fragrance has more notes than those four, it has been added to the database and Fragrantica seems to have those four notes stated as the only ones too. The one and only review left on the scent is completely right. Is this even a gourmand? I also get a peppery note and Mandorla del Sud is just so underwhelming. Something about it is quite unpleasant. The peppery note is done very wrong and smells like plastic after dry down. I am not looking forward to trying it on skin.

Mandorla del Sud is an explosion of alcohol. Just after spraying, it felt like having vinegar in my nose. After dry down, the scent has the same peppery note, but on skin it smells like plastic right up front. This is absolutely terrible. It doesn't even smell like a perfume, nor a detergent, but something that is utterly bad. It smells like an inedible herb; sour, earthy, aromatic, in a grass-like manner. Mandorla del Sud has absolutely nothing to do with the wonders of vanilla, depth of amber or nuttiness of almonds. It isn't even sweet like sugar, for crying out loud. My mind keeps wandering around dill, and now it struck me, it smells like the root of horseradish! Mandorla del Sud smells like sticking your nose in a jar filled with the herbs you use to pickle salted cucumbers the way my dad has been doing since always. Not a smell I have ever wished to be made into a perfume. It's a hard pass.