After sampling Manakara many times, I didn’t really understand it’s purpose or why it exists at all. It’s a gourmand, candy rose – like a heavily edited Aquolina Pink Sugar. After sampling it many more times, I realize that it doesn’t have to have a purpose. I feel like this was Kurkdjian having some fun. It seems like his attempt at making perfumes for 10 year old girls or for those that are kids at heart.
Manakara is a sticky sweet rose. In fact it reminds me of a rose lychee lollipop. It’s more 90% sugar and 10% lychee-rose. It’s incredibly sweet. If the lollipops and marshmallow wasn’t enough for your sweet tooth, it turns into a red berry-rosewater-vanilla custard. And then it wears as vanilla custard candy floss for hours and hours. And hours.
I don’t dislike sweet scents. I do love a good gourmand. Manakara is sweet. I don’t consider myself sensitive to sweet perfumes but I think Manakara may be “too much” for me. It’s not really the sweetness but the simplicity. On my skin, I prefer some patchouli or something woodsy to round out sweet candy dessert stuff. This one lacks that and that’s why I can’t be friends with Manakara.
Notes listed include rose and lychee. Launched 2006. PERFUMER – Francis Kurkdjian
Try Manakara if you like really sweet candy gourmands. Or if you like perfumes like Aquolina Pink Sugar, Carolina Herrera 212 Sexy, Maison Martin Margiela Funfair Evening, LUSH Snow Fairy, Britney Spears Fantasy and/or quite a few of those Comptoir Sud Pacifiques.
Projection is below average. Longevity is above average.
The 1.7 oz bottle retails for $200 at Luckyscent. Samples are also available for purchase.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – A super, sticky sweet blend of rose-lychee lollipops, cotton candy and vanilla custard. I tried to like it but if I’m going to do the super sweet thing, I’ll wear Pink Sugar (which, by the way, was launched in ’04) because I don’t feel a need to spend $200 to smell like cotton candy. In fact, I refuse to spend $200 to smell like cotton candy. OK, now with that out of my system…Manakara is a nice perfume but it’s not for me. I can wear it for like 30 minutes before I start to get the urge to take a hot shower and then spray on some filthy leather chypre thing.
Want more reviews? Try…
Fragrantica – Member reviews
Yeaahhhh… This is the only one of the Indults I don’t have. I’m okay with that.
I can get why people like it. It’s not for me and I’m okay with that 🙂
[…] Indult Manakara EDP (sample) – This sweet rose perfume has grown on me. At first I didn’t like it that much. But, now I see it as something a little more complex. It almost has a frankincense/incense base that I didn’t notice before. Full review here. […]