Guerlain - Tonka Imperiale

Yes, my other Guerlian-decant was the new Tonka Imperiale. When my decants arrived i was so curious of both of them that I decided to try them both at the same time. Cuir Beluga on one arm and Tonka Imperiale on the other. And you know what, Cuir Beluga was the one getting most of my attention! Even though I had belive that I would like Tonka Imperiale most of the two.


But, maybe I do? I have really hard time deciding in this case. When wearing Tonka Imperiale I´m convinced that I prefer it, but the same goes for Cuir Beluga, and I can´t really figure out why I prefer Cuir Beluga when I wear them simultanously. Cuir Beluga isn´t the stronger of the two either.


Tonka beans are a common ingredient in perfume, apperantly good for prolonging and deepening the scent of other notes. But it´s not that usual that the tonka bean have the main role. Which is abit strange, since it has a lot of different nuances.


At first I smell a lovely almond note when trying Tonka Imperiale, but that soon dissapears and are followed by a note of licorice or anise, I suspect it can be rosmary, even though the scent on my skin aren´t at all herby, but more like soft sweet licorice candy. The licorice note soon gets company by notes of coffee turning to tobacco to hay to honey and back to the licorice again!


Tonka Imperiale is a changing scent and I can smell the canges from a distant, not only when I´ve got my nose attached to my vrist as with Cuir Beluga. Tonka Imperiale smells happy and easier accessible than Cuir Beluga, but still with a rich and luxurious aura.


Tonka Imperiale reminds me of other perfumes, like L de Lolita, M.Micallef´s Gaiac, Korres Jasmine Pepper Gaiac Wood Passion Fruit and even a little of L'Artisans Bois Farine. Still it stand nicely by it´s own, if a relative to L de Lolita Lempicka, it´s a far away relative like a rich second cousin. Thierry Wasser is the one that has created Tonka Imperiale.


Yes, Tonka Imperiale is sweet and with gourmand character, but not too sweet. Really not at all as sweet as L de Lolita for instant. Tonka Imperiale captures me with it´s swirly character, in one second powder and there after sweet and then something burnt and smokey and something cold and distant. Yes, there is a strange cold note in Tonka Imperiale, something like coconut, but actually it makes me think about coconut fat, and that don´t even have much of a smell. Still it makes candy likes ice confect kind of cool. So if you can imagine the smell of ice konfekt without any chocolate, that is what I mean.


Tonka Imperiale has as well as Cuir Beluga a good lasting power and nice sillage. I think I will use my decants quite often, and maybe Tonka Imperiale will be the one I empty first. Even though I really love Cuir Beluga, Tonka Imperiale is more my kind of scent.




Pic: Internet stones