Maya Njie

photo illustration of Minnie Riperton by theminx

I had heard Suzy Nightingale mention Maya Nije's fragrances more than once on the On the Scent podcast, and of course she recommended Vanilj to me in a fragrant prescription. I desperately wanted to try the line but wasn't even sure I'd be able to get hold of samples. Lucky me, the company very recently started shipping to the US--in fact, I received an email saying I was one of their first US customers.

Maya Nije, of Scandinavian and Gambian heritage, started her line in 2016. Fascinated by photographs from the 60s and 70s and their faded color palettes, she wondered what those pictures would smell like. And so she made those photos come to life. 

As a self-taught perfumer, her practice was developed through experimentation; the blending of raw materials with a variety of essential oils, aroma compounds and resins; nature and science combining in autobiographical fragrances. Maya’s olfactory identity draws inspiration from her upbringing, as well as an archive of intimate family photographs from the 1960s; the small Swedish summer house surrounded by mercurial forests, the visits to her grandparents’ sparsely furnished flat on Sunday afternoons, Uncle Lars' and Aunt Erene’s wedding. A bottling of a time, place and spirit.

included in the discovery set were these reproductions of family
 photos with descriptions of each scent on the backs.

A lovely concept, and some lovely scents.

Les Fleurs

Bergamot, Neroli, Pulpy Fig, Citrusy Magnolia, Floral Musk, Unwilted Wood

This scent takes me back nearly 40 years to sleepovers at my then-best friend's house, where I would camp out on the floor in the room she shared with her younger sister. The room smelled of her shampoo and the whole house smelled of her father's cigarettes. I am guessing that the "unwilted" wood note is what might be evoking the nicotine for me. It's not very strong, more of a suggestion lurking beyond the huge floral muskiness of it all. I am also reminded of Faberge Babe, which I wore from time to time in the late 70s--early 80s. Inspired by Minnie Riperton's 1970 song by the same name, Les Fleurs is a well-blended evocation of big hair, lip gloss, fun times, and youth.

Nordic Cedar

Cardamom, Patchouli, Musk, Cedarwood, Ambergris

I've never smelled anything like this before. Nordic Cedar starts out underwater, as if the solid forms of cardamom pods, patchouli leaves, and cedar branches are submerged in a body of fresh water. There's nothing marine about this scent at all, mind you, it's merely watery. After a few moments, the water effect evaporates, so to speak, revealing the scent of fresh lumber dusted with ground cardamom over a lightly musky base. 

Tobak

Tobacco Leaf, Vetiver, Cinnamon, Tonka, Musk, Leather

The first sniff of Tobak took my husband back to barbershops of his youth, with their scents of pomades, hair oils, and that powder they put on and brushed off the back of necks to make sure there weren't any itchy hairs left behind. And cigarette smoke, of course, because everyone smoked back then. The scent was actually inspired by Maya's memories of her grandfather's apartment, which smelled of pipe tobacco and the cinnamon buns her mom would bake to take on visits. And while it leans masculine, I think anyone could wear it. Tobak is pleasantly warm and cozy, yet light, and would be perfect in the cooler months.

Tropica

Citrus, Pineapple, Mediterranean Fig, Iris, Coconut, Ambergris, Sandalwood

I am sunning myself on a lounge chair somewhere on the Mediterranean coast, cold drink in hand, reminiscing about the pina coladas of a long ago Hawaiian vacation. Right now, however, the breeze is wafting the scent of figs my way. Though fig and coconut play quite nicely together, I am immediately snapped out of my tropical reverie. Tropica's juicy pineapple note fades too quickly for my liking and is replaced by fig. While not a favorite note of mine, I appreciate that the fig in Tropica is more creamy than green (or dusty, as I perceive fig in some cases). The sandalwood in the drydown is subtle and really allows the fig to shine. Some might dismiss Tropica as a "beachy" scent, but I'm betting that it is quite cozy in the colder months as well as a great scent for summer.

Vanilj

Vanilla, Cardamom, Patchouli, Musk, Cedarwood, Amber

Vanilj is Nordic Cedar with the added surprise of vanilla. Rather than starting out underwater, the spicy and woody elements of Vanilj are submerged in a bowl of warm milk flavored with vanilla and just the barest hint of sweetness. Though the name of the scent is vanilla in Swedish, the cardamom and cedarwood are nearly as strong. Totally unisex and completely delicious. 

Voyeur Verde

Bergamot, Mandarin, Cypress, Rosewood, Fennel, Iris, Ylang Ylang, Patchouli, Leather, Cedarwood, Frankincense

This opens with a blast of green that is both sharp and dry, almost a bit like turpentine, but not quite. Personally, I love the smell of turpentine, as it takes me back to my art school days. (This turps scent is not as noticeable on my skin, sadly.) I can then smell the iris--but not the ylang ylang--which marries beautifully with the leather. The drydown is rather like a pair of brand new leather gloves that come packaged in a box lined with cedarwood. I can detect a bit of incense as well, but the leather predominates on my skin as well as on paper. I'd say the scent is fairly unisex but that it leans toward masculine. 

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks

Blind Buy: Britney Spears Believe

Adobe Firefly AI's interpretation of my request for still life with a bowl of tangerines
and guavas, with linden blossom and honeysuckle in a vase, and patchouli leaves on the tabletop.
It could be worse.

Britney Spears Believe

Guava, Tangerine, Lime Blossom, Honeysuckle, Patchouli, Praline, Amber

I had heard good things about Britney's fragrances, particularly Curious, but I imagined all of them smelled like a variation on Pink Sugar. I'm not saying that's a bad thing--I wore Pink Sugar for a minute when it came out. Eventually, however, the unrelenting sweetness got to be too much for me. Once I hit my 40s, I didn't really want to smell like cotton candy anymore. Then, while perusing Fragrancenet, I stumbled upon Believe, a lovely chartreuse juice in a somewhat fancy faceted bottle. I'm a sucker for lime green, so I went to Fragrantica to check out the notes and the reviews to make sure my $15 would be well-spent. And when I saw the first review, which is poorly spelled and horribly punctuated, I knew I'd like Believe. 

Its one of the most disapointing perfumes ive ever smelled, theres almost nothing here but strong overpowering patchouli. the notes seem very balanced when you read them off the list and then you smell the fragrance and theres just an overpowering patchouli with very little depth. Maybe its because i had heard good things or maybe because i enjoy every other britney perfume but this is the biggest perfume disappointment for me.

I'm not big on fruitchouli scents, or tropical fruity notes, but I thought I'd take a gamble on this one. Yes, mainly because it disappointed a Fragrantica user whose perfume wardrobe includes 36 fragrances, 21 of which have at least one shade of pink on the bottle and include scents by Avril Lavigne, Paris Hilton, Nicki Minaj, and for heaven's sake, Katie Price aka Jordan. Happily, Believe doesn't give off any kind of girly pink vibes. In fact, I feel it's more closely related to other bright scents with a soapy patchouli note like Dior Gris, which I also own and love. Though I can detect the tiniest bit of praline in the drydown, it doesn't make Believe sweet. Overall it's a citrussy patchouli with a light floralcy and a bit of effervescence that brings to mind one of my favorite candies when I was a kid--Zotz. Zotz were fruity hard candies filled with sherbet--a sweet powder containing baking soda that fizzes when it comes in contact with moisture. Zotz weren't easy to find, and they came in strips of four or five pieces that I had to share with my little brother, so they were a real treat. It's nice being an adult and knowing I can splash out on a big bag of assorted flavors and not have to share (though I will). And now I'm sharing the news of Believe with you. If you like Dior Gris, I think you'll like Believe. And you'll save hundreds. 

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks

Scentcraft - Real or Rip-off, part 2

When last I wrote about Scentcraft, I indicated that I was unhappy with the first batch of the "bespoke" fragrance I had created. My online discussion with Scentcraft's AI, Arty, led me to believe that I would receive a scent or scents with a base of orange blossom, orange oil, and amber, with added notes of vanilla, patchouli, musk, iris, and lactonic notes. A sexy creamsicle is what I was after. What I received were three pleasant scents that were all rather sweet, none of which matched the brief. After an email exchange with one of the humans at Scentcraft, I was told I would receive a do-over, because their credo is "love it or it's free."

Considering the my first batch of "bespoke" fragrances arrived in a little over a week, I was surprised that after 3 weeks I hadn't received my replacements. Could they actually be creating new scents for me? For $39.95? Highly doubtful. They were probably hoping I had forgotten. After a reminder email, they assured me that my new variations were just completed (ha!) and would be shipped out on Friday. They arrived on Saturday. 

This time, the package contained 4 mini roll-on bottles of scent, all with the "Orange You Glad" labeling. Three had QR codes, and one did not. I scanned the codes to reveal the perfumers and the notes:

"DI26" by Anne Flipo

How exciting to see that one of the variants had been created by Anne Flipo, who worked on the Estee Lauder Legacy collection for EL x Frederic Malle and also created Chloe Love Story, Donna Karan Woman, Frederic Malle Synthetic Jungle, and L'Artisan La Chasse aux Papillons, among others. Her scent is the only one that matched the original base chosen during my initial consultation with Arty: orange blossom, orange oil, and amber. I did want something that was extremely orange-y, both in the flowers and in the fruit itself. While two of my original three sample variants contained neroli, none of them had the orange oil. Flipo's scent not only had neroli and oil, but also mandarin, petitgrain, and orange flower. Oddly, however, the scent smells only politely of orange blossom/orange, with a bit of woodiness and a hint of musk. Though it fit the brief, it ended up not being my favorite of the bunch.

notes for "DI81" by Caroline Dumur

I received two scents by perfumer Caroline Dumur (L'Artisan Parfumeur Il Était Un Bois, Chloe Nomade Naturelle EDP). The first one, "DI81," doesn't fit the brief at all. There's no orange blossom, orange oil, or amber. Instead, it's a green tea and light jasmine musk bomb that is quite nice on my skin. I have few, if any, jasmine-heavy scents in my collection; it's just never been a note that has appealed to me. But I must say this fragrance is my favorite of the three, possibly because of the heavy musks.

notes for "DI50" by Caroline Dumur

Dumur's second scent does have orange flower and the vanilla I requested for the first iteration of this scent. Oddly, it also includes an oceanic note that normally would repel me, but in this scent it's fleeting and actually pleasant. Clearly it's not Calone. Otherwise, this scent is a nice summery floral anchored by musk. 

A hallmark of the first batch of fragrances I received was the intense sweetness. This new batch had the sweetness dialed way down, which makes them much more wearable to me. 

There was a fourth scent included in the package, bearing the "orange you glad" labeling, but with no QR code. "DI92" is somewhat sweet, with an opening of black pepper and spices over a woody vanilla base. I wrote to Scentcraft to request the QR code or a list of notes and was sent a code for a scent called "KR92."

"KR92" by Avinash Mali 

The perfumer, Avinash Mali, works for IFF, according to his LinkedIn bio. However, he is not listed on Fragrantica, so I can't say what fragrances he's designed in the past. I believe this one is supposed to be the replacement for the duplicate of "KP60" I received when I "created" a second, incense-based, scent. But I don't know anymore at this point.

Note that the names from this batch of fragrance begin with initials other than KP. Both of my orders, for the orange scent and the incense scent, were labeled with KP names (my initials). These replacement fragrances were given names starting with the letters DI. And when I requested the QR code for "DI92," I was sent the code for "KR92." That tells me my theory--they match pre-made fragrances to the buyers' requests (sorta) and personalize the names to make it seem that they were created especially for that person--is correct. I guess I am just too much of an annoyance to them at this point for them to bother hiding the fact that other people have also received the same samples for their "bespoke" scents. Especially since I did tell them my theory. I may be wrong, of course, but I doubt it.

In any case, my conclusion is the same as it was in my first post. Scentcraft sells pleasant scents made by professional perfumers. They are in no way "bespoke," or "created" through the collaboration with AI. It's just a gimmick. Relatively harmless at this point, but I will be amused when multiples of the dopey influencers who think they're selling their own fragrance that they designed themselves realize they're identical. 

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks

Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with Scentcraft or any other company.

Customer Service Disappointment

Some years ago, I received a generous pack of samples from London-based perfume house Ormonde Jayne. Included were Ta'if, Champaca, Osmanthus, Ormonde Woman, Frangipani, and Tolu; probably others as well. At the time, I must have been writing for Sniffa Mag or at least my own blog, and while I thought several of them were fabulous, I never did write about those fragrances. A few years later, I got my hands on a sample of Ambre Royal, and fell in love. But OJ perfumes weren't widely available here in the US, and they were a little above my budget at the time, so I did without.

Last October, I received a discount code for Ormonde Jayne and vowed to finally add a bottle to my collection. I saw on their website that I could definitely afford a 30ml bottle of Ambre Royal and made my purchase on October 31st. A handful of days later, on November 3rd, I received my purchase...or so I thought. When I opened the signature orange box, I found a bottle of Isfarkand, a woody chypre with a lot of citrus. Pleasant enough, but not what I ordered. There was a card included with the order that read, among other things, "If the products you receive do not match your order, please accept our apologies. Notify customerservices@ormondejayne.com within 14 days of delivery and we will arrange a collection and send the correct order." I sent an email the same day, telling of my dilemma and requesting that they make it right. Five days later, when I saw that my original email had not been read, I sent another. After another 5 days, though that second mail had been read but not responded to, I sent a third email. Finally, on November 13, nine days after receiving the incorrect product, I heard back from Ormonde Jayne.

Dear Kathy, 

We do apologise for the inconvenient occurred,

Our studio already agreed to exchange the product, before to move forward to that we need a picture of the bottle and the related Batch number. 

Thank you so much, in advance, 

Kind regards,

I immediately took a photo that included the bottle and batch number and sent it in my reply. A few days later, Ormonde Jayne's incredible Black Friday sale began and I noticed that 50mls of Ambre Royal cost $90, $30 less than I had paid for the 30ml that I had not yet received. As I hadn't yet heard back from Customer Services, I sent another email on November 22, suggesting that they could send me 50ml of Ambre Royal and 50ml of Ormonde Woman, which together would cost $180 at the Black Friday sale price, and bill me $60, as they already had $120 of my money and had not yet sent me my correct order. And then of course arrange for me to ship back the Isfarkand that I had not ordered and did not want. The next day, I received this message: 

Dear Kathy, 

We agreed with the team to sent you a 50 ml bottle of your choice to compensate the difference.

I felt that was a nice gesture, but not necessary. In any case, I still believed that they would send me my 30ml bottle of Ambre Royal in exchange for the 30ml of Isfarkand, so I emailed back and said I would like a 50ml bottle of Ormonde Woman. The next three emails went like this: 

OJ: Dear Kathy, This is on the way 😊

 

Me: Thank you. Will my Ambre Royal be in the same package?

 

OJ: Dear Kathy, 

Thank you for the below. 

It will be separately. 

We do apologise for the inconvenient.

Ok! Now we're getting somewhere. Or so I thought. I did receive my complimentary bottle of OJ Woman a few days later. Yet, by December 4th, more than a week after the last response from OJ, the matter of the original incorrect Ambre Royal/Isfarkand order had still not been resolved--after 31 days. You know what happens next: I sent another email, detailing the whole matter of my original order, receiving the wrong item, the free bottle, and the promise that my original order would be sent separately from the comped OJ Woman. On December 9th, after another 5 days of silence on the part of Ormonde Jayne, I sent yet another email.

You know, if you were just honest with your customers, you wouldn't make them angry. Like, if you just came out and said, "I'm sorry we sent the wrong item, but since you're in the US, we won't make it right because of postage costs," or whatever the situation actually is. I am really having a hard time understanding why I am still waiting for an explanation and/or my Ambre Royal and a return shipping label for the Isfarkand. if I'm stuck with the Isfarkand for whatever reason, I NEED YOU TO TELL ME THAT. It won't make me feel any better about Ormonde Jayne and its customer service department, but at least I'd know I should stop waiting for something that is never going to happen.

I just read on one of my Facebook perfume forums that someone had ordered Montabaco Cuba which broke in transit. They informed you that they wanted a replacement, and you sent Flor. Then they had to email again to say you sent the wrong thing and could you send Cuba, and you did. See - it's not that hard. 

While I do appreciate that you sent me a big bottle of Ormonde Woman, I only chose that scent because I (possibly erroneously) thought you would still correct my original order. Otherwise I would have asked for Ambre Royal and been somewhat satisfied. But I sent another email asking you to include the Ambre Royal in the shipment of Ormond Woman, and someone from customer services replied to say that it would be shipped separately. Alas, it has not been shipped at all. And I really don't know what to do with the bottle of Isfarkand, which I do not want.

Please tell me what the hell is going on. 

Thank you,

Kathy

Four days later (I know the UK is in a different time zone, but I have to wonder why it takes DAYS to respond to anything), my email had been read over 50 times (I have a mail tracker program) and I received a response worthy of someone who works in "customer services." 

Dear Kathy,

Thank you for your email.

I can only deeply apologise for no one responding to your previous email. It is not one of our values in the customer service department for no one to respond to a complaint like yours.

I have spoken to my senior management and we have come up with a solution that we will send you an Amber Royal 50ml free of charge and you can keep the Isfarkand and do with it as you please.

Once again, please accept my sincerest apologies for the non-communication that you have received and it is appalling from our end. I have raised this with whom needs to be concerned and can assure you this will never happen again.

Kind Regards,

Later that day, I received an email from OJ's US outlet requesting my address to receive a bottle of Ambre Royal "asap." And a couple days after that, I finally received the product that I had ordered nearly a month and a half prior.

I am still confused over the whole issue. Why was customer services so unresponsive? Was it just that particular representative? It's not like she had to reach into her own pocket to pay for shipping the correct item and the return of the incorrect one. I was polite in each of my many correspondences, and made sure to go over all the pertinent details in each one in case a different rep inherited my problem. I may have been a tad testy in my last email, though I think that was understandable. Overall, that message was viewed 71 times, I imagine by everyone who works in Ormonde Jayne customer services, management, and perhaps company owner Linda Pilkington herself. I'm just glad that someone realized that I was unhappy and made things right.

Unfortunately, the whole experience has soured me on both Ambre Royal and Ormonde Woman and I haven't been able to wear either. Hopefully time will change my feelings about both of them.

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks