Tobacco Mandarin by Byredo 2020

Hey Posse. Do you ever read reviews on here and think, “Shit! I need to try that ASAP!”? Well that’s exactly what happened with Patty’s Tobacco Mandarin review. Patty seemed overcome with the joy of discovery, pretty good considering how much she has sniffed. It sounded so freaking amazing I jumped online to Surrender To Chance and bought a decant (along with some other stuff). Now it’s from the Byredo exclusive Night Veils series and he is charging like a wounded bull for them so the decant was not cheap. It’s the same bottle and cap as the regular range, by the look of the pictures, I really am wondering what cost so much to fill the bottles up with?

Amazing is an understatement.. The cumin phase lasts so deliciously long, but other notes show up and kind of corral the cumin a bit so it doesn’t get too wild and feral… The long drydown – and this thing last forever – loses the skanky cuminy stuff and is soft and snuggly with an echo of smut lingering… I’m in love. I’m not sure I can wear it out of the house until about 2 hours after it goes on… Patty’s Tobacco Mandarin review

So let’s find out, eh?

Tobacco Mandarin by Byredo 2020

Tobacco Mandarin by Byredo 2020

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin orange, Coriander, Cumin
Heart: Tobacco, Leather, Labdanum
Base: Frankincense, Oud, Sandalwood

WOW! I get quite a different ride to patty. The mandarin is front and centre at the beginning and the whole fragrance as it opens reminds me a little of Tauer’s early work. This is a much more refined, less of an attack and infinitely smoother. My skin seems to go straight from this orange/resinous opening to tobacco and leather. It is underpinned softly by that opening accord.

Maybe I’m used to smelling like a dudes sweaty armpit and the analogy escapes me. It does smell like warm skin. You know that lovely scent of clean body as it warms up during exercise? Just before it starts to sweat. Sometimes if I’m out for a dog walk or doing my first set at the gym and I’m clean there is a smell that is not sweat but is hot body.

As a super strange aside Jin smells candy bar and powder!

Tobacco Mandarin by Byredo

OK, I’m about 40 minutes in and suddenly I can smell a pack of gay muscle men on the dance floor. The connection is made. Here’s the difference though. To me it’s the smell of expensive perfume, healthy sweat, pheromones and fun.

Dry down gets so beautifully cozy. Incense, a very smooth, clean, oudishness and powdery sandalwood. We have a sandalwood company here in Australia doing some beautiful sandalwood fragrances. As an aside, I bought their 200ml Calming Cream. The sandalwood heavy dry down of Tobacco Mandarin smells a lot like it. Beautiful, rich and plush.

Deep in dry down we get a revisitation of the opening mandarin accord! Full of surprises to the very end.

OK, so Tobacco Mandarin is still bloody expensive. FiF has 50ml for €245. It’s probably not worth that but if I’m honest and won the lottery there would be a bottle winging its way to me right now. Until then, my decant will have to do.

Sound good to you?
Portia xx

  • Ingrid says:

    This sounds right up my alley. Need to try it ASAP!

  • Filomena says:

    I have several Byredos, most of which I rarely wear. I have yet to find one that lasts, but perhaps this is the one. I do agree that they are ridiculously priced and always have been.

    • Portia says:

      Hey Filomena,
      Interesting about the longevity issues. I have the exact opposite problem with mine. They last so well that I have to make a conscious acknowledgement that this is how I’m going to smell all day and into the night.
      Portia xx

  • Tara C says:

    I love this one, the cumin is extremely mild on me and not bothersome. I did buy it because I had a gift card, the price is totally ridiculous though. Byredo needs to get over themselves.

    • Portia says:

      OOOOH! Lucky you TaraC, best ways to get the super pricey stuff: Gift Card or Testers Sale.
      HA! They seriously do.
      Portia xx

  • VerbenaLuvvr says:

    Seven Veils is in my top five and I’ll be heartbroken soon as the bottle is down to the last few mils and Byredo inexplicably discontinued. I’ve tried nothing else from this house that interests me and tobacco and cumin notes are hard passes.

  • Musette says:

    The men do (though I’ll take mine straight because huevos are SCREAMING!!! and I ain’t about Just Looking, thanks! 😉 ) but the perfume, not so much. Cumin, which I love in food, is all too often a deal-breaker in perfume for me.
    But omg, yes!YES! on that clean man-body warming up. Yes!

    xoxo

    • Portia says:

      HA! MUsette, sometimes looking and dreaming is INFINITELY more fun that having to deal with a man. Yeah, party sweat at the start of the night is a heavenly ambrosia.
      Yeah, I know your cumin aversion and think this might well make you heave.
      Portia xx

      • Musette says:

        oh, honey, You ain’t nebber lied! LOL! Don’t think I want anything super-perm … but, much like cheap and cheerful Chinese food on a Friday night, men are yummy! so … maybe?… some takeaway?
        xoxo

  • Kathleen says:

    This sounds interesting, I enjoy big perfumes and skank. The Byredos that I have sampled were not for me, too faint. I may need to sample the Night Veils, but the price!

    • Portia says:

      Hi Kathleen, the Byredos for me are all either a whisper or a shout. This one hits the latter category hard,
      Portia xx

  • Cinnamon says:

    Oh, my, it sounds wonderful to smell of ‘fun’ (the other things sound good too, but just the idea of unfettered fun…). I haven’t smelled any Byredos for a while. I do own a small Bibliotheque candle which doesn’t smell like a bibliotheque but does smell good. This does sound a bit pricey — but we seem to be getting a lot more pricey stuff these days …

    • Portia says:

      Cinnamon,
      Considering how curtailed our lives have been over the last year a scent that evokes fun and partying is probably a perfect panacea.
      Portia xx