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extremale – :
When I first tested this I thought I was smelling laundry detergent; now, I realize, more specifically, this is fabric softener. A heavily scented one, like Suavitel, maybe the one in the yellow bottle.
It’s a nice smell (personally, I love fabric softener) and I can’t imagine a less offensive scent for work than fabric softener. Still, I wouldn’t drop a bunch of coin on this, because Suavitel is two dollars at the grocery.
wkost – :
Smooth, mild, soft, slightly characterless, yet very classy, upscale hand-lotion-y sort of thing. Fluffy white clouds of girliness with no sharp corners whatsoever. Absolutely not my area, but miles better than I expected looking at the pyramid – as I’m not a fan of big fruit salads and have a particular phobia about pear. Yet somehow, as often happens with Micallef, this has been mixed with a careful enough hand to not get overwhelmingly sweet, or to smell nauseatingly fake-fruit-bubblegummy. Instead it all just merges into a light, gentle, clean-yet-feminine aura that’s just all-around pleasant. All the listed notes make sense, but it’s so carefully blended together that to be honest I couldn’t sense any of them or pick them out specifically … which might be the height of perfumer’s sophistication, or a bit of a lost opportunity, depending on your tastes. (For instance: if like me you love realistic white flowers, there are other options which can get you far, far closer to nature than this.)
Infinitely better than its peach-nightmare flanker Ananda Dolce, but I was more attracted to the spicier, warmer inflection given by the tea and spice version Ananda Tchai. This one is I guess the original, but somehow the most anonymous of all.
However, for the money, you might want a bit more than pleasant and inoffensive … and I kept getting distracted by trying to remember the exact sort of hand-cream it was reminding me of (Dove? some sort of Nivea?) – and those are pretty cheap associations to get evoked by a high-priced niche perfume. Didn’t seem to evolve or change on me much, either. Longevity and sillage both pretty middle-of-the-road, not poor, but no surprises.
In short: never not nice, but never very exciting either.
lead1 – :
This is so incredibly soft, so very light….fairly inoffensive. I keep sniffing my wrists, trying to discern the notes or pick up accords, and if anything, I pick up a slight very light pear note, with a white floral coming out on the dry-down. I am surprised to see ‘sweet’ as the first accord listed, as this is not really sweet to my nose, at all.
I guess if I were pressed to describe this, I would say for about the first hour, this is a soft floral/pear smell, light and inoffensive. Then as this dries down, a soft soapy laundry detergent/fabric softener scent comes out, still very soft; more of a skin scent.
Will make a lovely, soft Spring and even Summer skin-scent.This is nice enough, I will happily wear it, as it is an easy fragrance to wear, but it does not stand out nor is anything particularly memorable. Add in the short longevity, and, well, I feel this one is perhaps overpriced for what it is. The house of Micallef does make stunning looking bottles, but to me, it is more about the juice inside, and this one just does not impress me very much. This is nice enough, I could see this as sort of as some would describe as a ‘mom’ perfume (not old lady, though!!), but all in all, just nothing memorable. And again, for me, at this price point, I want to be wowed….and not just by the pretty bottle. “Nice enough”….just not impressed.
css-sg-pro – :
It is amazing how it works differently on every skin according the reviews! On me it is mostly sweet pear with florals, sweeter than I expected, the sweetness comes from the ylang and vanila I guess, no sour notes here unfortunetely. I like blackcurrant and plum in perfumes. Easily overdose, so only need one spray. Overall a very beautiful fruity-floral fragrance from spring to autumn for almost every age.
feniks19 – :
a pleasant clean day scent, like really amazing laundry freshener, I would buy a bottle if it were priced about £20 max, certainly not worth a high price over £25 max.
victory_1989 – :
With all respect to the Micallef house… I think this is what a cheaper J’Adore would smell like if it was made by Avon. Perhaps it is just my own chemistry, but really, this isn’t even close to what I thought it should be.
VadimT – :
I think this is the most beautiful Micallef parfume.
It smells so womanly, smooth, yet characteristic. Oohh I love this kind of sour fresh fruit accord laying on the creamy background.
Heaven should smell like this. Beautiful fruit trees floating on clouds and little blond angels flying and smelling like vanilla. Although I have to state that this is not an innocent, but a grown up scent. But in a good way, nothing like old ladish. Very stylish and inspiring, I can imagine wearing it on a wedding day.
Sillage is moderate
Longivity is good
wheelycle – :
I wasn’t expecting to find this fragrance to be to my liking!
This is a really pretty white floral fragrance.
This lasts and lasts, a beautiful blend. I am planning on buying this at my first opportunity. If you are into pretty, fruity, white florals, you wont be disappointed. Concept-wise, think Champs Elysees meets J’Adore EDP (the top notes) but just the right amount of everything. Clean, fruity, floral, so easy to wear.
M Micallef offer sample packs through their website which is another great way to try their fragrances.
Edit: I can see how it is comparable to EDT of Champs Elysees but I prefer Ananda far more and will hold out for Ananda. I feel CE is a bit more animalic in it’s base.
kuzmich77 – :
Opens very lush and sultry with flower and fruit notes. Jasmine is noticeable from the start. Violet and musk notes show up soon and add a mysterious aroma to the fruity floral mix. The mimosa is also clearly there, and I also smell hints of pear. The drydown is a musky vanilla with fruit notes and jasmine & ylang.
Sillage and longevity are moderate.
Very feminine smell. I don’t get any rose out of this, just white flowers and a vanilla musky fruit drydown. I like this scent, very fresh and sultry at the same time. It has a bit of a creamy feel to it. Lovely.
cthjnf – :
I think its one the most sensual ,intimate and romantic perfume i tried so far.The benefits is its all natural …so its not living this sour smell on the skin like almost all synthetic perfumes do.(on my skin that absorbs all the smells).I almost can’t smell it on me.But people around me doing compliments.They saying its hard to describe but its like a gentle kiss.Also i love the pear note!Very unusual .
glk215bedyWelty – :
Yes i tried ananda,to me it smells like one of those Impulse deo spray’s, it was also in a white bottle, i forgot the name..Anyway it was not as special as i though it would smell 🙁 kinda boring
mssyailo – :
My sample vial is labeled Micallef Black Ananda, but I believe that the perfume inside is Ananda, looking at the notes and people’s reactions to it.
This composition is indeed very fruity–reminiscent of Lancôme Trésor or something from the 1980s created by Sophia Grojsman. Some combination of peach, plum, and pear, some vanilla, and then a lot of flowers. So here we have another example of Micallef taking a designer-type scent and rebranding it as haute niche. I’m not saying that this is plagiarism, but it’s definitely an old idea.
Perhaps this would be exciting to people who never experienced the great designer perfumes of the twentieth century, but I have old bottles of Trésor and Estée Lauder Tuscany per Donna, so for me this is highly redundant. It’s also not as good…
Kajfat – :
I find this to be a very synthetic smell. It smells cheap to me and I cannot smell the above notes in this. It reminds me of something but can’t bring to mind what it is at present. Will update when I remember. Nothing creamy, sweet or fruity about this.
kissvad – :
Ananda (means bliss/joy) is so delicate and feminine.
The prominent notes (pear, mimosa, plum, jasmine) feel chilled, deliberately subdued and understated… muted, if you will. Ananda presents to me as such a cool fragrance, almost as if the notes were poured over ice before they reached my skin. I’ve often wondered if they were left near an open window on a clean, clear snowy morning, just waiting for me to discover them.
To be near me while I’m wearing Ananda means you will be hugged. It’s a feeling to be shared.
The lovely Ananda promises a peaceful, joy filled day…and it delivers.
KaperMen – :
When I first met Micaleff, I could not even read the name on the bottle – Picaleff or so. I never got to be a friend with this strange company. They sell lousy juices for expensive IMO. For what you pay are maybe the bottles.
Ananda – well, if you love Champs Elysees, you will appreciate this as well, but in this case I prefer Guerlain, which is established, old perfume house with beautiful name giving, lot of masterpieces and beautiful bottles.
HoneyCake – :
very similar to Liz Clairborne Bora Bora Exotic. Only thing is that would come at the fraction of the price of this 🙂 Micallef fan by the way, it’s just this one not full bottle worthy being so generic.
bonussthe – :
For some reason, I expected something mysterious and sexy, but this is quite the opposite. I was pleasantly surprised by the sweet and creamy freshness of this scent. It smells like a body wash or body cream (maybe shampoo?) that I had in the past. Strangely also reminds me of Tresor. Very lovely and inoffensive. It would smell wonderful wafting behind a pretty woman.
Headshoter – :
Ananda was a monk, friend of Sidharta Gautama. Ananda`s grail was full of true Joy for him-Self and for others to share. Always seeking the Truth and most of all living the truth on his every living second. This scent named by Him is true Joy as Ananda was, yes this is innocent also, but isn`t there innocence in every person inside of them if we look deep enough, yes it is, like lightfull energy. I think Micallef have done really wonderfull work with Ananda *Smiles* and “captured” the spirit of Ananda to this bottle representing enlightenment. No one could have done better.
Xeroxrdmuj – :
Incredibly soapy, soft floral scent. It smells like a white soap or cream. It disturbs me to smell like that, like a good little girl.. On my skin it’s basically a soapy musk mixed with mimose and a hint of lemon. I can imagine it suits a blonde schoolgirl that wears no make-up and irons her t-shirts. Ananda is so not me that it’s not even funny. It’s not a bad scent, it’s clean, fresh laundry kind of thing a bit too soapy for June.
MISTER.BUGROV – :
Ananda begins with the soft perfumed fruit scent of a babysitter’s hair.
It is an inoffensive though synthetic impression of pear and it is soft, very delicate, and feminine. It is sugary sweet, powdery and tart with citrus and currant. There is nothing remotely visceral about it as with other pears that have a pulpy, over-ripe pungency to them. This is a young innocent woman wearing pear in a gently lit children’s room.
The rose makes this fragrance slightly green, but as the fragrance wears on, the vanilla musk/mimosa in the base takes a gentle powdery control over the tart green notes, and only the synthetic silhouette of the pear lingers. Despite the sweetness, the soft delicacy of the dry down ensures that this fragrance never becomes cloying, if applied with reasonable discrimination.
Though it eventually turns into quite an easy and soothing skin scent, there is nothing overtly memorable in the conclusion to Ananda. The babysitter is warm, pleasant, and comforting, but in a few years you will forget her name, her face, and even the scent of her hair.
imisha33 – :
It has no similarity with Champs Elysees from Guerlain. I can smell tuberose in it and after every 10 minutes changes Ananda in unexpected directions being worser and worser. I do not like fragrances, which changes character so much. For me a sign for cheap stuff, even if this is horrible expensive.
timson_rootina – :
I’m amazed I’m the first one to write a review, because I think this perfume is quite inspirational really. It is floral, but a sweet one! The plums and blackcurrants on the background make it quite syrupy, still the florals make it easier to handle. It is quite loud and I predict the staying power will be great (I only have sprayed it an hour ago on a piece of paper, but it is still very much there). Now this also reminds me a bit of Lollia’s Wish, they both have this quite unique smell. Though the difference is, that Wish could become quite cloying and overly sweet, it’s more gourmand. Ananda has much more ‘spring’ in it, that’s why I like it more than Wish. I really recommend trying this one if you like something sweet and uplifting!
PS: The bottle looks totally different now by the way, I suppose it’s modernised. It is a half circle with see through glass with litte strass-stones located on the cap and a circle on the bottle itself: it’s just like the bottle of rose aoud only ananda’s fluid and stones are white while rose aoud is pink. Really looks pretty…