Best Arashi Reef by Michael Malul London Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

A dream of childhood summer days. You’re in a garden, familiar and unfamiliar, looking into the kitchen of a house where your mother makes jam with fresh-picked berries. There’s a rose bush with a magical cat underneath, its dense fur filled with your favourite toys. A sublime aroma of tart blackcurrant and rhubarb, sweet lychee and magnolia, along with woody amber ferries you off to a dreamlike world, brimming with enchantment at every corner. You don’t want to wake up.

Perfumer: Julia Rodriguez Pastor

In the muggy shade of a tropical rainforest, an orchid sways seductively. Its glistening petals tremble in anticipation, inviting a passing butterfly to consummate the intimate act of pollination. Succumbing to the allure of the silken flower, the butterfly eagerly flits forward. But as it prepares to alight, the exotic bloom abruptly transforms. Delicate leaves contort into dagger-like forelegs, seizing the bug’s fragile wings. Before the butterfly can comprehend its fate, its head is devoured, crushed between the powerful jaws of the stealthy orchid mantis.

Orchid Mantis lures you into a fragrant illusion. Juicy pear, rich rose and heady jasmine entwine with basil and ylang to suggest the intense scent of orchids. This vintage style is set against the backdrop of a humid rainforest evoked by patchouli, moss, sandalwood and vetiver. An enduring musk serves as a reminder that beauty can also be beastly.

Matilde Bonaparte, niece of Napoleon I, was known for her breasts (“le plus beau décolleté”) and her talent as a painter. She also hosted a celebrated 19th-century Parisian salon attended by the greatest artists and writers of her time. This namesake perfume is an olfactory salon of provocative white florals (ylang-ylang, narcissus, jasmine) given tropical succulence with passion fruit and papaya. Mathilde’s heady brightness is softened by iris and sandalwood.

Refocus and reconnect with yourself with joy. With its deliciously fruity aromas, this fragrance brings us a feeling of warmth and fullness.

Perfumer:  Serge de Oliveira

"For Davana & Vanille Bourbon, I wanted a gourmet Vanilla reminiscent of Pasteis de nata, a famous Portuguese pastry whose traditional recipe can be found in Lisbon. Its sweet scent takes me back to my childhood in the streets of the capital during peaceful days with my family. These precious and happy moments were an unprecedented inspiration for this fragrance. The fruity and herbaceous facet of Davana essential oil is then softened by a warm and appetizing Vanilla to reveal a modern and striking chypre."

A game that begins without warning. The urge to break the rules. A gaze that holds. Azureblush bursts with the tangy brightness of rhubarb with the juicy sweetness of lychee. Peony then softens and rounds the composition with a sunny floral facet, giving the fragrance its luminous and addictive dimension.

Try to resist a rose macaron: that delicately crunchy shell relenting under the force of greedy teeth to reveal a melting heart of foamy sweetness. There’s the interplay of almond, rose and syrupy lychee, triggering an eyes-rolling-back-in-the-head situation. Crush invites you to lose yourself in the sensory pleasure of this fancy French treat, sniff by intoxicating sniff.

A vivid burst of green/fruity rhubarb and watery/rosy lychee sets the weekend mood. It’s pink sweatshirt day, and the scent matches the vibe. Witty, not cute — we’re not trying too hard, here. Sour cranberry cuts strawberry’s sweetness, and Champagne crispness is offset by white musk. You catch yourself in the mirror: “I’m good like this.”

A sudsy bubble bath of radiant rose and lychee, sheer yet ebullient. As the veil descends, the effect darkens, with leather and moss toughening up the suds into a floral amber.

Its name gives the clue. Orange tree in Spanish Arabic. There you are, standing on a Moroccan roof. An exquisite coolness wafts up, chasing the clinging heat of the day. The curtains move lazily in the breeze. Shadows of orange trees stretch in the setting sun.