Los Angeles-based Costamor (whose perfumes are inspired by Costa Rica) recently released Tabacca: “a sultry, feminine spin on one (of) the prized crops of Costa Rica— tobacco.” Tabacca’s listed notes are spices, apple peel, jasmine, rose tea, raw tobacco leaves, dried tobacco leaves, rare woods, and amber.
Tabacca begins with a fumy mix of citrus, jasmine and rich, sweet (and slightly musky) tobacco; I think I detect a drop of labdanum too. The tobacco notes overtake the jasmine in mid-development and are joined by vanillic amber and a “lush” apple note (this apple is not “fresh” off the tree and crisp, but smells of honeyed cider). There are also a few specks of cumin floating in the fragrance but I don’t think this cumin will bother even certified cumin-haters. As Tabacca wears down it begins to smell like newly rolled, apple-scented cigarettes, and on my skin the base notes are a tad cedar-y and “nutty.”
Tabacca is my favorite Costamor fragrance. What I don’t understand is why this perfectly unisex perfume is being marketed as a “feminine” — but if a perfume house wants to scare away paying customers before they even smell the perfumes it offers, that’s their (bad) business! (And what IS “tabacca”? When I pronounce it “American-style” I think of Pa Kettle shouting out: “Where’s my tabacca pouch, Ma?”)
Tabacca is powerful, long-lasting and sweet but I can imagine wearing this perfume in any season (applied with a light hand in warm weather, of course).
Costamor Tabacca is a bargain at $75 for 50 ml Eau de Parfum, and can be found at Luckyscent.
Note: images via Costamor website.
Sounds great and at a good price. I love tobacco fragrances but they can be harsh in the heat and humidity down here. I’ve been trying some tea and incense fragrances as a summer alternative to some of my heavy, wintery tobacco faves, but maybe this will be better. Thanks for the great review, Kevin.
Julia: I do think this would work in warm weather…it’s not harsh at all.
You’ve made this sound good, Kevin, but when I read that list of notes my mind goes straight to thinking “Potpourri.” I guess apple-scented cigarettes (unsmoked!) or apple pipe tobacco sounds more appealing. I’m also fickle when it comes to tobacco, but love TF Tobacco Vanille & Ava Luxe Kretek (clove/tobacco).
Like you, whenever I see this perfume’s name, I think of someone speaking in the most stereotypical, buffoonish deep Southern accent imaginable (though not necessarily hillbilly).
You’ve been eavesdropping on me, Joe…
Tobacco is sometimes a difficult note for me also Joe.
Joe: NO! Don’t think potpourri…I know it’s the ‘apple peel’ that made you think that!
Maybe aimed at us Orsztralians…?
Heck it sounds nice tho’ – another niche line I was thinking, oh no, I havn’t even caught up with the older ones yet!
Here I tried to sneak a minute at work to read this, and literally lol at the Pa Kettle remark. Of course everyone looked to see what was so funny. Ooops!
Rappleyea: I even started to put a picture of Pa in the post but thought that was going too far…he probably went South but not as far as Costa Rica!
After that wiki article I’m wondering if I should try to get at least one of these from Netflix. I’ve never seen one. This sounds especially promising: “cornball humor arising from preposterous situations, such as Pa being mistaken for a wealthy industrialist (“P.A. Kettle” in ‘Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki,’ 1955).”
Joe, I love Ma and Pa Kettle.
Back in my youth, our local TV station used to show these on Saturday afternoons (along with monster movies and some Hollywood b&w classics). Ma and Pa were favorites – I wonder what I’d think of them now?
Love most tobacco scents (as long as they don’t head into the dreaded dirty ashtray smell), so I’ll have to try this!
Hola Kev. Does this bring anything new to the tobacco table that, TF Tob Van, Chergui, or other’s haven’t?
this seemed a completely unremarkable fragrance to me….a little sweet, and um, well …kind of cheap smelling….sorry.
I didn’t try this one, but the Sugarwood did nothing for me, either. Much as I love the smell of (especially pipe) tobacco, it doesn’t seem to do well on my skin, unless it’s a very minor player.
Boojum: I didn’t like Sugarwood either.
Daisy: goodness, I didn’t get cheap at all…I thought the ingredients were good quality. Some of the other Costamors left me cold…or worse, though.
I was really excited about them when they were first available at luckyscent and sampled the line—I didn’t like any of them –but that’s just me and there’s plenty of things I like that others don’t or make me swoon while everyone else is holding their nose. To me the ultimate “tobacco” scent is SSS Tabac Aurea ….against that , the rest are pallid by comparison (this is where you imagine me with the back of my wrist pressed to my forehead in an expression of the depth of my feelings…)
Tabac Aurea… you have me swooning too.
C: nothing TERRIBLY new, but I love the cidery apple and it smells as high quality as the others you mention.
Rappleyea, you should be glad you weren’t forking something into your mouth when you read Pa Kettle!
I’ve read about the Costamor line, but wasn’t much interested. I think Tabacca sounds very interesting. What pray tell are ‘rare woods’ or should I know that?
Good question, and for that matter: how does the smell of apple peel differ from just plain apple?
Queen Cupcake…perhaps a bit more intense?
Meadowbliss: I smelled cedar…and no doubt cedar is “rare” somewhere on earth? Maybe in Costa Rica.
I too tried to figure out what rare woods are supposed to be. I just hope whatever it is, that it smells great on my skin. I havent ever really taken a look at Costamor, but I think I’ll see about purchasing this one. I love tobacco, pipe tobacco, cigars etc. This sounds right up my alley.
Natural Selektion: buy a sample first!
Thanks for the review! I wanted to try it as soon as I saw it on Luckyscent’s website and now I want to try it even more.
FYI Kevin. Being an authority on the subject since I’m from the South originally, I must correct you. Pa Kettle would say ‘tobacKEE’.
I was mixed up – Ma & Pa Kettle aren’t Southern! Maybe I was confusing them with characters from Tobacco Road. Who knows? Just please ignore my previous post.
Rustic Dove, I was thinking “tabacky” too!
Oh, I definitely like this one and could definitely smell it on a man, no problem. I need to try my sample again (also tried the Sugarwood, which, although sweet, is a nice fragrance), and test-drive it against the TF Tobacco Vanille. Much easier to buy a fb of this one. Thanks for reminding me – and also laughing at the Pa Kettle reference. Truly, I can’t find an exotic way to pronounce this.
Let’s call the whole thing off.
Why now? Ma and Pa will be roaming around in my mind for days….I swear I can just see them–wasn’t it in black and white? yes, there is a part of me that says of course it was you dimwit.
I was thinking more about George Gershwin: “Ta-back-UH, Ta-bahh-KOH”…
yer crackin’ me up! and btw, I LOVE Gershwin.
I think it sounds exotic when IIIIII say it but maybe I’m just gifted with a naturally exotic voice.
If I like Chypre Rouge, would I like it?
Philippe: chances are good…but buy a sample first.
I dont no if i would like it hope fully i like it i must get a sample at nordies! it souds really warm like somthing i would wear in Aspen!
Tabacco is tabaka in Latvian and tupakka in Finnish but I could not find a tabacca.
This sounds kind of nice, i might buy a sample if i wanted to spend money on one.
If I get a FB I will send you some.