Description
Although the word “chai” comes from Mandarin, referring to a spicy variant of tea, the drink is actually known for its Indian recipe – the Masala Chai. Unlike the traditional English version, more familiar to the Western world, this one is prepared with black tea and various spices (there are many possible combinations). Masala Chai is still seen by Indians as a medicinal elixir rather than a simple aromatic beverage. Coffee houses in the US,
particularly Starbucks, popularized the chai, preparing it with milk and/or coffee.
Lavender Chai adopts the oriental fougère genre to maximize the contrast between cold (citruses, minty flowers) and hot (spices, tonka beans) with a sweet touch of honey.
Lavender Chai by Daniel Barros is a Oriental Fougere fragrance for women and men. This is a new fragrance. Lavender Chai was launched in 2016. The nose behind this fragrance is Daniel Barros. Top notes are orange, lemon, cardamom, ginger and black tea; middle notes are lavender, geranium, cinnamon and cloves; base notes are oakmoss, honey, tonka bean and musk.
demonneo – :
I love chai (I actually have my own home brewed recipe!) and lavender (the flowery aspects, not the herbal ones), so it’s obvious that Lavender Chai was the first of Daniel’s creations that caught my attention. I’m not very fond of the whole alcoholic beverage theme for perfumes, but I really love tea and was eager to try it..
Lavender Chai is a good and literal mix of the two main ingredients, emanating a cozy and comforting aura with a very clean and peaceful scent. The herbal accent dominates the initial burst, powered by the high dose of clove, and in the first 15-30 minutes I get a very soapy aroma. It seems like the combination of lavender and the camphorous aspect of clove creates a sort of functional scent that diverts the experience from the intended gourmand/flowery idea to something more akin to a high end bar soap.
This phase, thankfully, ends in a gentle spicy breeze. See, this chai is not a heavy one, full of ginger and black pepper, but a subtle concotion that resembles more the diffusive smoke than the smell one gets straight from the cup. This second phase brings the cinnamon (not the sweet aspect, a plus!), the dry cumarinic gourmandisse of tonka, the soft musk and a well placed moss rounding everything in a nice blanket. I don’t get much honey, lemon, geranium or cardamom, but they keep things a bit sweet, zesty and interesting in the background.
Performance wise, this is a subtle, yet not weak, scent. People seemed pleased when they came to hug me, taking a little longer to leave even though they rarely realized what the scent meant or could be. I had one compliment in the vein of “you smell nice, what’s this?”, but no tea, flower or chai association.
All in all, a solid offer with a subdued and relaxed approach. I like it, maybe it’s bottle worthy for me.
sergeyqsz – :
I had an idea that Chai was a typical Indian tea and while researching to write about this Daniel Barros ceration I realized that the existence of Chai is practically walking together with the tea itself, deriving from a word in Mandarin. The Chai we know is a composition that mixes honey, spices, milk and black tea.But there isn’t, as I understaood, a fixed Chai formula and it can habe variations according the culture, such as in Indian culture where the chai can incorporate herbs known Ayurvedic medicine.
The Choice of lavender to follow a creative blend around the Chai is perfect for me and Lavender Chai is one of my favorite perfumes in Barista collection, transmitting on the right measure comfort, exoticism and richness. Many people have a certain prejudice with lavender scents, but the fact is that a well-fitted lavender in a perfume not only lends its soothing and invigorating properties but also harmonizes, gives body and raises the composition. This is the case here.
Lavender Chai opens with a wonderful and warm output, a mixture of honey aroma, fruit and a certain amount of cloves and cinnamon to give the spicy tone without stealing the scene. The Green tea accord that soon arises then is soft, herbal, welcoming and mix well with the aromatic properties of lavender, which gives both its herbal side as its sweeter and the powdery nuances to the composition. This appears more in the end, mingling with soft musks and tonka nuances that linger on the skin.
One thing I learned along my journey is that it is possible to like perfume that you do not like at first, but it does not change what speaks directly to your heart. This is one of them. The warm, engaging and soft concept of tea in Lavender Chai reaches my rawest emotions and makes me feel happy, even for no apparent reason.