Costamor Tabacca

Until I ordered a sample of Tabacca from Luckyscent a few months ago, I had very little concept of this fragrance line. Indeed I still don't that much about Costamor, but it is on my radar now. What I can say though, is that I have quickly grown to love this gem of a tobacco fragrance. Actually, grow is not quite correct; I literally fell in love with this at first sniff.

I should say that tobacco and I have a slightly rocky relationship. I do like the smell of tobacco, and enjoy it in various incarnations in a number of fragrances, whether it be the fragrant pipe tobacco accords in Chergui or Back to Black for example, or the cigarette types like Tabac Blonde. But depending on mood or season, even my aforementioned favourites can be cloying or hit-and-miss. Then there are the weirdos - I include Versace Dreamer in this category, with its curious mixture of sweet pipe tobacco and lily. Another fragrance that strikes me as challenging is Tabac Aurea by Sonomo Scent Studio, which on paper should have enraptured me, but with its immortelle note left me feeling a bit unsure.

Anyway, back to Tabacca. The notes from Luckyscent include aromatic spices, apple peel, jasmine, rose tea, raw and dried tobacco leaves, rare woods and amber. Before I read these notes I am not sure I could have identified everything listed. Spices, yes definitely, soft and mildly aromatic. Tobacco, again, is a focus of the fragrance. I'm not sure even now I know the distinction between raw and cured tobacco, but even so, the tobacco note is distinctive, but at the same time wonderfully mellow. The use of tobacco here is not unlike that in Back to Black, but perhaps less intense. The other note that is obvious to me is amber, a lovely sweet yet not cloying amber, with just a hint of smokiness. The smokiness is evident the longer I wear this, and might be coming from the tobacco accord as well. However I should stress that Tabacca is relatively understated, without being weak by any means. But the smoke for example is not the pungent campfire type, but rather a subtle backdrop, offsetting nicely the sweeter aspects of this fragrance. As for the jasmine and rose tea, there is something slightly floral, but I wouldn't have identified these notes. Present as they are, they probably augment what is already there, adding a mellow roundedness to the more forceful tobacco and amber notes. Apple peel, for what it's worth, is lost on me.

Luckyscent categorise Tabacca as marginally on the feminine side, but I have to disagree and state that it is possibly the most perfect unisex tobacco fragrance I have encountered. I've also read it being described elsewhere as a perfectly decent, but simple fragrance. Again, I disagree. Tabacca is deceptively simple and therein lies its beauty for me. It is uncluttered, with a focus on friendly, warm and mellow tobacco and amber, but the harmony and balance of its notes are perfect, at least for me. If you are someone who likes the idea of trying a tobacco fragrance, but in the past have been a bit put off by some of the more overtly masculine or showy ones, give Tabacca a try. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Image credit - luckyscent.com