Described as an “intoxicating cross-cultural bouquet”(description remarkable for its mixture of habitual perfume-related vocabulary and sociological lingo),Chinatown has the notes of peach blossom, bergamot, gardenia, tuberose, peony, orange blossom, patchouli, cedar, vanilla, sandalwood, cardamom and Guaiac wood. In reality, it is neither particularly “intoxicating” nor a “bouquet”, to my nose (I am not paying much attention the “cross-cultural”, simply because all perfumes can be labeled with this term, if only for the fact that their ingredients usually originate from rather diverse places). Chinatown is a soft gourmand scent, smooth and comforting. It reminds me of Laura Tonatto’s Plaisir in a sense that both these perfumes have the same creamy, gentle feel to them, with the notes merging in perfect harmony, without a single note being particularly identifiable at any given stage of the fragrance development.I like to think that I am able to smell peach blossom in the beginning, but perhaps I am just imagining it. Gardenia and tuberose are very discrete, if not non-existent, to my nose, as are peony and patchouli. Cardamom is just about discernible, vanilla is very low-key and only bergamot is easy to pin point when it shows up here and there adding some liveliness and sparkle to the composition. Chinatown is a comfortably linear scent in a sense that all the notes appear simultaneously and stay together till the very drydown.
