À disgraceful hot mess of a perfume, glorious and wrong in equal measures. Very much in the spirit of any Frankie Bianchis, Sadonaso, Salome, etc. Not the most wearable perfume, and pretty pungent, i.e. one spray too many and you'll induce a headache, but I'm glad to have a few mls Update: I like it less every time I wear it. It's too much and doesn't have the balance and warmth provided by natural oakmoss in vintage perfumes of this style. Instead it's just screechy and invasive.
It dries down to Le Participe Passé by Serge Lutens, after two hours of gruelling, laceratingly sharp, cheesey, chemical smelling aldehydes and way too much synthetic civet. It's an ordeal to go through, and I can't understand why it's so popular.
Maai is perhaps the best modern take on a classic floral chypre. This thing is an absolute bomb! It explodes out of the bottle with tonnes of aldehydes and a sucker punch of musk...the two complementing but also kind of fighting each other...wow! I'm finding it hard to believe this wasn't created before the restrictions on raw materials, which will be welcomed with open arms by lovers of classical perfume. The opening is so interesting it's like a mixture between sweet n sour, the power of musk and the warmth of civet, possibly benzoin but with a sharpness too...maybe Labdanum...it's mental. I actually thought the opening 2 mins or so were leaning toward a masculine powder like carnation or a hint of rose, then BANG tuberose. The heart of this scent is a spectacular but crushing, musky tuberose, that renders Maai totally unwearable for me. Tuberose can be really stinky when I'm this kind of quantity but luckily enough some of the other notes stick around to keep it barable. Be warned the deep drydown is all animal stink. I have to say I'm impressed overall but this isn't my cup of tea in the slightest, apart from maybe elements of the opening. Sniff this out I'd recommend fragrance connoisseurs to try this. As you'd expect, projection is insane at first but then settling to very good, so is longevity.
MAAI is the scent of a bygone moment in time, from the golden era of classical French perfumery with its powerful vintage charm. It takes the idea of a traditional Chypre composition, but far dirtier, erotic and outrageously animal. I love it. An intensely sharp and bitter opening of bergamot, with zest and rind at the forefront, paired with a bright aldehydic medley of white florals greet you initially. It’s not long before the filthy side of this scent emerges however, an intoxicatingly brutal cocktail of castoreum, civet, hyraceum and musk burns at your nostrils - giving the scent this overall sharp, unclean and noticeably urinous facet which persists endlessly. A base of smooth oakmoss, woods and warm resins attempt to compete with these stronger materials, but cannot. There’s a lot going on here, it’s incredibly hard to unpack it all. To me, it feels like it’s taken inspiration from the iconic Bal à Versailles with its intensely animalic and resinous rendition of a floral chypre, but remains its own creation entirely. It can smell mind-bogglingly busy and overcrowded at times, and so extreme caution with the sprayer must be advised, but in the right amounts this perfume can be absolutely sublime and tranquil for the right kind of person. I could never wear this out and about, social events and work are a definite no-go; but at home, in the peaceful serenity of solitude, it thrives on my skin.