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plzDontFucKMe – :
Clean and crisp. It smells much like D&G Light Blue but I like this better. For some reason light blue gives me a headache but this has a similar lovely smell without the headache. I bought the body cream to go with it and helps with longevity. Lovely and classy and unisex.
utnastya – :
White tee fresh! I’m actually surprised by how beautiful it is even in cold weather. Wearing this with a crisp white t-shirt is perfection! Absolutely worth the price and certainly blind buy safe.
qmh954speagoessenda – :
I think that some of the previous reviewers are being unfair with this one.
Pepper is a hard note to do well. But I adore it when done right. Some of the epic fragrances in fragrance history have loads of pepper in them even when used as a background note. I think a lot of the popularity of Chanels Bleu de Chanel, Chanel Allure Homme Sport, Viktor and Rolfes Spicebomb, and Yves Saint Laurents L’homme is due to their supporting pepper notes.
Fragrances that feature pepper as the main hero note are rare and mind you they are very hard to do. The favorites from my own collection include Creed Royal Oud and a fabulous clone of it called Lomani Intense Black. Note fragrances White Pepper and Mandarin would certainly be in my top five and in my opinion the best I have ever smelled and the king of the hill is probably Acca Kappa Black Pepper and Sandalwood. Acca Kappa is almost impossible to find in America and Creed Royal Oud is quite expensive. Lomani intense Black is good but its getting harder to find and as a clone the quality is a step down from the other 3.
White Pepper and Mandarin in my opinion is the best of the fragrances from Note that I have smelled and worn though I dont own them all. And it competes nicely with rare fragrances many times its price.
The thing about a Pepper based fragrance is that its hard to do well and very easy to do badly. These pepper guys have to hit it just right because even though they are fragrances they can also easily get sneezy. And if done badly, or worn too heavily they will clear your sinuses and people around you will get upset. I once wore a Pepper guy and everyone around me was sneezing. And it was my fault and I knew it though most were too polite to say anything. Its very easy to not like a pepper fragrance but its lovely when you do.
Sure this is going to be light on performance sillage and longevity. But guess what, so is Creed Royal Oud. Usually, clones are cheaper and give you less performance than the main fragrances and one of the reasons I think Lomani Intense Black works better than most clones is because it is a fragrance with a dominant pepper note and in its case having weaker juice is a good thing.
Considering that White Pepper and Mandarin like all Note fragrances is built around a hero note and in this case its pepper, I think people should expect lower tier performance and sillage. Its pepper and pepper comes with challenges and one of them is that it can get too strong and obnoxious and sneezy. Danielle Fleming toned it down, smoothed it out, and frankly she got it right. If you buy a pepper based fragrance then buy a decant if you want it to last all day. You actually dont want it to be too powerful or too strong because sooner or later you will either have too much on or if not you will need to reapply. Pepper fragrances need to be applied with a light hand on the trigger and if they are treated differently then frankly I doubt many will enjoy them … especially the owner and wearer of them.
It should be noted that White Pepper Mandarin has a backing dna feel to it that is very similar to the old vintage Salvadore Dali fragrances. The house seems to have lost its way and starting with the Kiss line and perhaps some reformulations its no longer a house worth buying or collecting. Still, fans of the old line of Dali which included Dalissime, Laguna, and the lips line might want to consider this one.
I think that all of the great pepper hero fragrances should be considered spring and summer. For the life of me, I dont know why Creed Royal Oud is advertised as an Oud or considered to be an Oud. Its a pink pepper fragrance. I dont get much if any Oud in it and I think its a spring and summer fragrance. AK Black Pepper and Sandalwood, is often rated as a fall fragrance by its devotees. And while Sandalwood, is “usually” considered a fall fragrance, I think it is a fragrance for spring and summer.
I like that Danielle Fleming has targeted summer for her pepper fragrance. It has Verbena in it which is lovely and also some grapefruit and oranges. Its sweetened a good bit and has a hint of woods deep down in the drydown and base. This is how a pepper scent should be done.
It is my opinion that a lot of opinion about this fragrance might well revolve around which kind of pepper you might like the best. If you want pink pepper then please go for the Creed Royal Oud. If you like Black Pepper then AK Black Pepper and Sandalwood is going to be your winner. And of course if you think White Pepper is up your alley then Note White Pepper and Mandarin might be your winner. I would recommend all 3 of these over the Lomani but the Lomani is very good and a better buy based on price. The very fact that I mention this fragrance as being able to stand toe to toe with Creed Royal Oud and AK Black Pepper and Sandalwood is in my opinion noteworthy and well worth notice. I like the AK the best but the Creed is wonderful and so is this guy. The easiest to buy wear and by far the best value in the Pepper category comes from Note fragrances.
Still there was a flaw, and a glaring flaw it was indeed. Note fragrances uses these little screw on bottles and when mine arrived vibration or something had caused the cap to loosen and half the fragrance had leaked out. Fleming runs this fabulous little niche house that hardly anybody notices and she is generous with samples and coupons and other goodies and I just didnt want to be gripy and make an issue of it. So I didnt complain, or return the bottle or make demands. Still, I usually start wearing a fragrance less when the bottle hits half empty and this one started out for me that way. Im sure Ive punted wearings because I only have an ounce or so of the fragrance and this disappoints me greatly.
In all fairness, I do love the bottles from note. And here is why. They are classy and elegant and have nice labels. They have a very small footprint and dont take up much space on the shelf. Also, I like the fact that I can unscrew the bottles and resuse them. I buy a fair share of flacons and Im always looking for bottles where I can pour out the fragrance and use it in a spray bottle. These are actually perfect for reuse and as such I feel they give added value to the consumer beyond the time when the bottles are empty. And I like that they are eco friendly and reusable and wont end up as landfill clutter like some of my other empties.
Still, while knowing these are screw on lids, I cant help but wonder why it would have been so hard not to buy a little bit of tape and to tape up the bottles for shipping. A pennys worth of tape would have saved me $40 of fragrance. And Id be much happier with it.
Honestly, I have to review a fragrance based on what I bought and what I received. And receiving a bottle that was half full is a big turnoff for me. Hopefully if you buy it this wouldnt happen but sometimes you take your chances with these little indie niche houses and attention to detail gets overlooked and you get burned. You take what you get so buyer beware. I seriously doubt that Danielle Fleming meant it to happen and I dont blame her but its still disappointing. Most likely none of you would ever suffer this problem. The label to this day is still oily. I was sad that it was ruined but it perfectly showcases the quality and merit of the juice of the fragrance. Its a high quality fragrance. Im sure of it. The label never has dried down to a paper feel.
Overall, Im going to grade this one out at a 70. Which sadly is a C-. I probably would give the scent itself a rare for me rating of an A. I think its Note fragrances best scent and a fine effort for Danielle Fleming. In my opinion it smells great and it goes toe to toe with some of the finest pepper based fragrances in the world and does it at a fraction of the cost. It hurts me to give this fragrance a C- and it almost seems like the student with potential for a college scholarship that turns in a lazy effort for their term paper.
Like her other products, White Pepper and Mandarin is extremely sensible and wearable. And this is a strong suit of the house. If I were to give this a single word review, Id say surprising because its smell far exceeds what you would expect from a fragrance in this price range.
Sillage and Performance are light. But being a pepper scent, Im ok with it and I cant dock it very much. You dont want a pepper scent thats too loud or has too much sillage. Trust me you dont. And as such you can get away with using fewer sprays. Im a bit of an over sprayer but this isnt something I do with pepper scents. Last time, I wore this one, I used one and it was enough. It lasted 4 hours and I was ok with it even though I hope for 10 from niche. I find its light nature best suited for summer and hot days. And its the rare pepper fragrance that really shines as a summer scent. While I like the other two better for fall and winter its nice to have a fragrance from the house that holds up nicely in warmer weather.
Would I purchase this again ? I dont know … arriving with a half full bottle is very disappointing especially with a fragrance that may need to be decanted and reapplied 2-4 times a day. If I felt confident that it would arrive safely then probably so. At $37 an ounce this is a steal. Sometimes, you can find a coupon and I think she gives one these days on your first order or maybe at Christmas. With half full bottles and paying $75 or more an ounce, I would look elsewhere. And that was my experience here. Its a great fragrance and Im not unhappy with it. Ive spent more for fragrances that I like less and dont wear often. And mind you this fragrance like the others in her line is imminently wearable.
To me this is the most surprising fragrance from Note. I certainly did not expect it to go toe to toe with Royal Oud or Black Pepper Sandalwood and it does. Its lighter and fresher and has a fresh creamy sweet Verbena backing.
But seriously guys, how many people really love Jo Malone colognes. You look at weak Jo Malone fragrances that sell for 2X the cost with half the quality and performance and this one just seems like a steal in the light elegant summer fragrance category and with such a unique take on pepper. Its not your typical citrus bomb summer scent.
If only my bottle arrived in full new condition Id simply say…. Fabulous.
awactpaisee – :
This is not grapefruit like Guerlain’s Pamplelune, which I love. This is a sweet citrus. Very sweet and round and fruity, not sharp. I don’t know how people are saying this is bitter and dry. It is sickening sweet and syrupy. No herbs in this. It calms down as it dries to be less sweet as it was in the top but still a sweet, fruity citrus. It almost reminds me of peach or apricot.
VeronNaf – :
I got this fragrance as a tester from scent trunk and what can I say… Don’t like this fragrance at all, it opened up with a very strong grapefruit smell, a very bitter one. It does have a D&G Light Blue vibe, yet the smell fades away in a less than a minute, and as said earlier – is way more bitter than D&G. To sum up, longevity and sillage are rubbish. If you want a similar smell and for it to last for a moderate amount of time rather than a minture, go for D&G Light Blue, don’t waste your money on this.
Gregory-krut123 – :
I can smell it for all of 1 minute. Its a pleasant citrus and then its gone.
moultyfloopay – :
At first sniff this reads as a dead ringer for D&G Light Blue–so good news/fair warning, depending on how you feel about that fragrance. When worn, you realize it’s drier (less sweet) than Light Blue, and therefore may have a more “grown-up” vibe to it. Sillage is soft and longevity is moderate. Definitely worth trying. My husband’s concise review: “Smells like the skin of an apricot/peach” 😛
x7 – :
I’ll be honest, I like this one on my girlfriend much more than I like it on me. It leans towards the feminine side, but it can definitely be worn by a man. Opening is a olibanum/lemon verbena blast. It dries down to a woody, peppery citrus (mandarin) scent that’s quite pleasant. I don’t get much rosemary from this at all. All-in-all, it was a pretty good scent. A perfect fragrance for a day on the beach listening to waves crash on the white sands.