Tonkalicious by DUA

Today I review a fragrance from the house of DUA, but first, a little explanation about this house. In the fragrance world there a lot of "houses", there are (1) Designers (Calvin Klein, Armani, etc) that do fragrances as part of their extensive portfolio of products, (2) Non-Designers (Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Ferrari) that are brands that also go into fragrances to extend their lifestyle brand, (3) Niche (Mancera, Roja, Creed, etc) who only do fragrances and then there are the (4) Clones, often seen as a bad word because they try to recreate the fragrances from the groups above with less-than-stelar ingredients that can create a cheaper version of the fragrance (Armaf, etc). However, a "new" group has emerged, a group of oil-based fragrances that seek inspiration on the fragrances of the other groups but then add their flair to the equation, they take what they like about the fragrance and expand it to create their own version with perhaps a stronger base, or a different opening, this is where DUA lives and shines. Founded by Mahsam Raza, DUA creates both inspirations and original creations, all at a Extract de Parfum concentration meaning they are usually very strong and long-lasting, they also rely on high quality ingredients instead of cheaper alternatives. DUA is very polarizing in the fragrance community, some people hate them because they "copy", others adore and desperately wait for their next release with Mahsam being a folklore hero on their Facebook group. Mahsam, a charismatic guy, subscribes to the idea that everyone has an art, and his is the art of bringing beautiful fragrances to people who would never even try them in the first place... because he often seeks hard to find bottles, country specific releases or extremely expensive ones, and creates an inspired expression from them, meaning you get the same DNA from the fragrance, even if at the end they are not exactly alike. I can get behind that and at the time of this write-up have a total of 13 of their fragrances! Today, I concentrate on one, Tonkalicious, an inspired expression of Tonka Imperiale by Guerlain.

Through my journey in fragrances, I've realized and accepted that Guerlain is a brand I adore above them all, they have a dirty DNA to them that I just can't find on other brands. I own many of their fragrances, sometimes even the same fragrance in EDT and EDP versions just because I can detect the subtle differences in them. Fragrances, like many other sensory experiences, are very biased by definition, so, what I find amazing, others might not, and that is why I love them so much, they force us to make a decision...to like it or not, there's no friend zone in fragrances, there's committed or not, and I , for one, am a fan of that. Tonka, a wrinkled legume from South America that is often described as smelling like vanilla, cherry, almond, cloves... or even cinnamon! (some people swear unicorn horn dust is a main ingredient) tonka beans are actually illegal in the US since 1954 (for consumption) so I've never tried them in my granola, but oh...I love their smell. They bring this gourmand aroma to fragrances (gourmand means that is a perfume consisting primarily of "edible" ingredients), this does not mean all the ingredients fall in that category, it just means thats the impression it gives you, like its edible. I tend to navigate towards gourmand smells and Tonka is one of my favorite scents (Pure Tonka by Mugler comes to mind) so I decided to give this one a shot. For the record, I don't own or have ever smelled Guerlain's Tonka Imperiale, the price point to get it on my front door is beyond what I can stomach, so this review is based on Tonkalicious as a stand-alone product.

Tonkalicious starts....well....with TONKA! Now, this might sound obvious, but, that's not the case on all fragrances, the opening can go in a completely different direction from expected, not this, Tonkalicious makes your mouth water almost immediately, you can almost taste the flavor of Tonka.... but it's dirty, and this where I love this fragrance, it has that Guerlain DNA of avoiding sweet and instead going for dirty. When I say dirty, I don't mean dusty.... those are 2 different things, rose is dusty and feels dry to your nose, Guerlain is dirty.... meaning (for me) that it has that wood base always, that earthy undertone that never goes away. I detect Vanilla and almond almost immediately, what is that...cloves? I think so, but then it's cut with something, something makes it bright and pop...perhaps bergamot? It's hard for me to detect because my mind is all happy in tonka land but that could be it, again, Im in tonka land here. The drydown remains heavy on tonka but opening itself off for Cedar, the performance is above 8-9 hours on my skin and it projects very well for at least 2 hours. A common comment was "I can taste your fragrance in the air", Now, I never thought I would say this, but I will, this is better than Pure Tonka by Mugler and that's crazy because Mugler is my signature fragrance house and that was my go-to tonka-based fragrance. I can't attest of how close it is to Guerlain, only thing I can say is... if you gave me this scent on a bottle with no sticker and told me to guess the house, my mind would go for Guerlain. One common question on fragrances is: Did you get a lot of compliments? I wear fragrances because they complement me, because I love wearing them, because smelling them during the day brings me peace and transports me, having said that, my wife said "yummy" if that helps..

Conclusion: my take on this: This is a 9 out of 10 for the fragrance itself, if you like gourmands, you will not go wrong. The performance is crazy good, the sillage and projection are also crazy, notice: sillage is the scent trail, projection is what people around you get. So that's it, a great fragrance that will become a staple of my collection. If you think houses that seek inspiration on other scents are wrong for the world, dear reader of my review, I can't criticize that, but, I think you are missing out on some beautiful fragrances out there.

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