Citta di Kyoto - Santa Maria Novella

Ok, wow, I guess I got your attention today!
Now, I naively thought I was going to be the first to review this fragrance since it’s not released here in the states. But, it seems some other savvy Bloggers have beat me to it …Again. :O)

But here goes – My friend’s boyfriend brought this back for her from Madrid, but it seems to be widely available in Paris too. But I understand it is limited edition. I wish I could have taken a picture of the bottle for you. It is a special label, with a Japanese theme. I just got off the phone with Lafco’s LA store, they said it could be in any time, but I couldn’t pin them down further, but they took my number.

Now to the good stuff how it smells – it’s very lovely. It’s a soft, dry, woody incense inspired by Japanese temple incense. There is a very light medicinal opening note that may be camphorwood. I am guessing the other notes to be: sandalwood, cinnamon, cardamom, benzoin and Patchouli. I am taking a leap here and suggesting they may have also included aloeswood (Aquilaria agollocha), a fragrant wood used in Kyoto Incense. However it is on a protected species list and may not be available for harvesting.

This is one you might expect to find in the CdG Incense line, but I didn’t fall for any of those. Something in the drydown also brings to mind Bond’s Chinatown, which when you think about it is not that off-base. The base notes for Chinatown are: Patchouli, Cedarwood, Vanilla, Sandalwood, Cardamom and Guaiac Wood.

If you wanted to love L'air du désert marocain, but found it too dry, you will be happy with this one, a little sweeter, more feminine, more wearable. And it does seem to be longer lasting than other SMN scents. Now all we have to do is WAIT …Again.