Do either Nilmalee or Mongolian Mriga smell animalic in a funky way to you? I'm not that familiar with different varieties of oud and I tend to prefer the more animalic varieties over the woody and floral or sweet types of oud. I know there's always an element of animalics in Prin's work, but where would you put it in his creations or other animalic scents?I’ve stopped by Rebellion Perfume prior to today’s local release for another sampling test drive. As soon as they opened up today, I was in there to buy them both.
According to what I’ve read on FB and a chat with Prin, they’ll be released later this month from other vendors. Prin said that Lee at @Fragnanimous will have them available.
- 150 bottles made of Mongolian Mriga
- 100 bottles made of Nimalee.
Prin said that Nimalee is impossible to reproduce so this will be the only batch.
The Rebellion Perfume Lab in Bangkok said they stocked 10 Mongolian Mriga and 5 Nimalee which was verified by Prin’s FB post.
Mongolian Mriga opens with a beautiful aromatic musk, some pine, a beautiful yuzu, faint sweetness and this lightly dusty texture. There’s some very mild grassy notes in the mix that remind me of papyrus but I’m not sure which ingredient it’s actually coming from. It’s light, aromatic, and in perfect balance. It does not screech off the line like the original Mriga. Absolutely nothing pissy or off-putting here. 40 minutes in and I can more readily pin this musk down to a similarity with Onthamara but make no mistake, this is nowhere near as dense as Onthamara. 2 hours in and it’s turned into a beautiful smooth musky, piney, lightly sweet scent. There’s clearly the influence of supporting notes, I have no idea what they are but they are in perfect harmony with the composition. Problem is, I can only smell it clearly if I rub it off my neck with the back of my hand and smell my hand. I’ve got 2 sprays of it on my neck and can barely smell it around me so either it’s that light (doubtful) or I’ve gone partially anosmic to it. This is pretty unfortunate since I wanted to post a useful first impression for people contemplating blind buying it. Sorry
(I’m completely anosmic to the original EO C&P, and Oqachol, both musk centric but don’t have anosmic issues with most musk frags. It is likely that some level of anosmic is going on)
Nimalee opens with fireworks, a floral concoction, a blast of oud, what I’m perceiving as menthol notes (prob from oud) that subside after the opening. Their balance is in flux for a few minutes and Tuberose pushes its way to the center stage, it steps out to the front of the stage and the other notes take shape around it to support the star of the show. From here on out, Nimalee is a beautiful Tuberose scent with the other notes supporting it around the edges. Its projection is powerful with just one spray, easily detectable within 3 feet at 20min post-spray. At 2 hours in Nimalee becomes a duet of Tuberose and Oud with supporting notes around the edges, Tuberose is still the undeniable star of the show though. I know there’s a lot more going on here, I’m taking it all in and loving it but I just can’t figure out how to break it down in a description. Kind of ironic, it should’ve been a much more capable basenoter writing in an early impression rather than myself!
Anyways, Nimalee is absolutely stunning, the best Tuberose-centric fragrance I’ve ever smelled. I got 4-5 hours of solid projection and continued to leave considerable silage for 8hr+, by which point I sprayed another fragrance but I think it would’ve kept going.
With the understanding that I might not be getting the full Mongolian Mriga experience due to some anosmic….
I’d recommend Nimalee over Mongolian Mriga. If you like Tuberose, not only is it a floral masterpiece (imo) but it’s performance is so damn powerful that you will easily get your money’s worth of enjoyment out of it. If you ‘love’ musk and tuberose and have to choose one, I’d recommend Nimalee. If you ‘love’ musk and ‘like’ tuberose, I’d still recommend the Nimalee as the #1 purchase.
I’ve sampled so many prin’s fragrances over in the Rebellion Perfume Lab and from samples I’ve bought in the past. I found that Prin’s fragrances are very creative and eccentric but it is often these eccentricities that don’t vibe with me so I’d classify most of his fragrances as not safe to blind buy. With that being said, and with the small quantity of Nimalee made, I want to advise that if you like Tuberose then it is 100% blind buy safe, there is nothing off putting here, it’s a masculine leaning floral masterpiece with beast-mode performance.
If we’re going with the assumption that Mriga’s performance issue is just my personal anosmia problem then I’d recommend getting it also; it’s a beautiful, perfectly balanced scent that will surely get even better as it ages and oxidizes.
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Also, thank you for sharing your impressions. It's very helpful. I can only afford decants and samples of these more expensive Prins, so other impressions are very interesting to me.
