Malabah is a modern interpretation of the Spice Route. I find it to be like those boring historical dramas where all the actors and actresses have really modern hair and makeup. You can’t really figure out why it is period piece other than some “thy”s and “thither”s are thrown in sometimes.
Malabah opens as a cup of hot green tea with ginger with a squeeze of lemon. And there’s cilantro aldehydes. Unfortunately, the scent is really vapid on me. It’s super sheer and something in the top doesn’t work on my skin. That something smells like plastic. Under the dish soapy citrus I get some spice with a soapy rose and some soapy sandalwood that reminds me of those Chinese Bee & Flower soaps. The base is a sweet vanilla-cardamom-amber cream. I enjoy the base, but does it surprise you that I like a cardamom amber? No. It shouldn’t.
With the note list, one would expect a heavier scent. It is not. Malabah is sheer and comes across as an EDT. It’s so sheer that I would recommend it for warm weather wear.
Notes listed include lemon, Earl Grey tea, cilantro, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, rose, orris, sweet amber, sandalwood, and musk. Launch date 2003.
Give Malabah a try if you are looking for a “spicy lite” fragrance or if you like perfumes like Bvlgari Thé Vert, Bvlgari Omnia, Burberry The Beat for Her EDT, Diptyque Eau Duelle, and/or Penhaligon’s Hammam Bouquet. Malabah is unisex leaning more towards the feminine end because of the sweeter base.
I find that projection and longevity of this fragrance is below average. It wears like an EDT.
The 1.7 oz bottle retails for $95 at Beautyhabit and Brummells of London (UK).
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – A sheer spiced tea with an amber base. It all sounds like it should be something I like, but I don’t. I can’t figure out why it doesn’t work for me, but it doesn’t. Life is too short for me to ponder such things.
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What gets my goat in those historical dramas are the modern teeth!
bloody frida recently posted..Spring scents
haha, so true!!!
For some reason, Penhaligon’s scents don’t work for me at all. A few years ago for Christmas I “suggested” my husband buy me the cutest hatbox with five Penhaligon minis in it, one of which was Malabah. A sampler with maybe eight scents was included and I liked exactly none of them!
Yes, their samplers are adorable. They rock with their packaging. I can see why you wanted that hatbox! I have tried many, many Penahaligon’s and I’d say that like 10% work for me. There is something about them that do not agree with my skin (or something). Oddly, I’m rather enjoying their newest release, Peoneve. Go figure.
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