Mandarine Tout Simplement is this year’s limited edition summer fragrance from L’Artisan Parfumeur, following last year’s Extrait de Songe and 2004’s Ananas Fizz. It was created by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti and the notes are green mandarin, ginger, yellow mandarin, frangipani, red mandarin, and white cedar.
The top notes are just a joy: tart mandarin with lots of peel and a little fizz of ginger underneath, very juicy and summery and bright. Like the most glorious summer day in early June, regrettably, it cannot last, and so goes Mandarine; it fades rapidly into a sheer, blended floral over cedar, pretty, but not nearly so compelling as what came before…