Escale à Pondichéry, Dior's newest cologne created by François Demachy, is an elegant combination of ingredients designed to take you away to an exotic location in India. The name translates as Pondichéry Port of Call. A fresh, sensual scent, Escale à Pondichéry has sophisticated top notes of cardamom essence and jasmine sambac, warm middle notes of black tea extract, and base notes of sandalwood essence. A kind beauty rep at Nordstrom made me a generous sample of this fragrance months ago, but the Thanksgiving to Christmas season kept me from giving it a serious test drive. In the store, it was more interesting to me than Escale à Portofino, its cruise collection "sister fragrance," which really should be my favorite of the two, with its orange blossom middle notes. Escale à Portofino is too spicy for my tastes.
The minute Escale à Pondichéry hits my skin, I smell tea and flowers, with a touch of citrus. It's a light, pleasant, and warm fragrance (and who wouldn't like warm this time of year?). The tea gives it depth - it hangs on longer than the jasmine. This cologne is not long-lasting, though. It's detectable for about four hours on me.
This fragrance has a gender-neutral appeal; it's worn by men and women. It arrived at Nordstrom for a summer-fall splash, a great time of year for a light fragrance. Despite its spicy description, it doesn't offend my nose with spice at any time during its dry-down. I have sprayed it on others who like "easy" fragrances, and their reactions have been similar to mine - nice! That may read like faint praise, but I really like it. I'm going to keep my spray sample with me for after-lunch touch-ups.
Escale à Pondichéry is available at Nordstrom in two sizes: 2.5 oz for $65. amd 4.25 oz for $85.
Photo courtesy of Nordstrom
tea and flowers- sounds like a great summery scent. I once had an obsession with tea-fragranced perfumes and Bvlgari has an extensive line of those (Black, White, Red, Green, Extreme Green). I would say that White was the most wearable for me! Those scents are also unisex.
ReplyDeleteAnna, the Dior fragrance is actually a nice summery fragrance. It does remind me of the Bvlgari ones! Good connection! I think Green is the one I have - love it!
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