18 - 12 (2023) • ORMAIE‎🔺 • ScentAdvice

ORMAIE
18 – 12

2023

PERFUMER
Serge de Oliveira

FRESH ROSE
LYCHEE
BERGAMOT
MANDARIN

ROSE
CHERRY
ALMOND
HELIOTROPE
VIOLET

SAGE
SUGAR
SANDALWOOD
VANILLA

’18-12 reads 18th of December.
18-12 is an elegant, joyful fragrance in which a rose top note is enhanced by cherries and almonds.
The ORMAIE fragrances are made of exceptional raw materials. 18-12 is composed of 95% natural ingredients.’ – Ormaie

18-12 is a mix of youthful and classy, but ultimately leans too far to the former to feel like it’s something that I would wear myself. It’s a familiar smelling blend of bright fruity rose and a caramelized cherry almond taking it over. I tend to enjoy rose and I tend to enjoy vanillic, but this candy-like combination of the two isn’t my favorite. This will be a review that may come across more negative than the experience is, but pricing and perception take away from the enjoyment.

Now when I say classy, I mean that it’s not cloying, it’s well executed. But the floral mix in this does feel a bit too nondescript and ‘Sephora’ for my liking and the sweetness takes away from the drydown for me. Within the hour a soft, chewy caramel-drenched almond takes over. The type of cherry that lacks a natural acidity and wears like a vanillic, marshmallowy gourmand with a tart edge.

Frankly, as much as this is a pleasant wearing experience, I’ve seen some high praise for this release that I don’t feel aligned with; it is just not a scent profile that I would look for in a bottle of Ormaie. At its price point, you can get fruity, feminine-leaning roses like Atelier des Ors Pink Me Up or Argos Pallas Athene for less and those are already hard sells. For a lot less money, I think Carner Marbella is a more mature take or you can look at scents from the La Petite Robe (Noir) collection. That being said; none of those offer the caramel-esque sweetness like 18-12, but I’m sure there are even more options in that realm that I haven’t paid as much attention to.