Lattafa Mayar Cherry Intense ($30-$40) is a new fruity cherry chocolate perfume that launched a few short weeks ago for the Holiday season. Lattafa is a “luxury” fragrance house with roots based in Dubai. I use the term luxury very loosely because although, some of their fragrances are incredible and luxury-like the actual prices are super affordable. This makes the term luxury a bit of an oxymoron. Lattafa has taken Tiktok by storm and pretty much the entire fragrance community. I’m not sure if it’s because they drop fragrances as fast as MAC Cosmetics used to drop color stories back in the early 2000s or if it’s because the fragrance world is obsessed with the fact that many Arabic fragrances have easily duplicated popular luxury fragrances like Lost Cherry and Baccarat Rouge for a fraction of the price they sell for at your local upscale department store. Lattafa and many other brands like Aroma Concepts’ house brand, Paris Corner, are really, really having an intense viral moment particularly on Tiktok.
Lattafa Mayar Cherry Intense I believe is the third fragrance in the Mayar Fragrance Family. I’ve tried one of the other Mayar fragrance that went viral a while back ago and I personally didn’t like it. It reminds me of cheap bathroom air freshener you can buy at the dollar store. As I recall everyone was saying what a gorgeous strawberry scent it was but honestly, it didn’t really go that well for me. Currently, I have it stashed away and I’m allowing it to macerate in the hopes I’ll be able to smell what everyone else is so wild about. I’m not sure I will but one can hope!
When Lattafa Mayar Cherry Intense launched everyone lost their minds and it’s now featured in every single perfume Tiktok I see with a heavy push to buy, buy, buy it and it can’t be missed and it’s the absolute perfect chocolate cherry fragrance. It’s not. And I went into my purchase knowing that but I was very tempted to see if Lattafa would redeem themselves after my last Mayar purchase. They didn’t. But it’s ok as I still worship them for bringing me Nebras.
Cherry Intense isn’t a traditional gourmand to me and I’m not sure it should even be called one. Lattafa does call it a fruity gourmand so we’ll let them have their moment. It is unisex fragrance with top notes of Strawberry and Bergamot and middle notes of Cherry Jam and Cacao. Sadly, the base notes do contain patchouli but you’ll get vanilla and amber in the mix as well. As you know I’m not a patchouli fan girl by any means but no worries it is NOT overpowering in this fragrance and honestly, I can’t even smell it.
On first spray I get hit with a warm medicinal cherry and chocolate note. I’m not talking cherry cough syrup when I say medicinal because I could probably deal with that. I just mean it comes across like a bitter cherry chocolate medicine smell. It’s very odd. As it dries down the chocolate becomes more pronounced and you’ll get a cherry cordial note. I do so wish it was a more realistic cherry jam and chocolate scent but it smells more like cheap cherry cordials or dare I say a little tiny bit like a cherry Tootsie Pop! And that’s it…! The other notes never develop for me. I just smell synthetic cherry and chocolate. Nothing more, nothing less. It creates a fairly nice scent bubble but it isn’t beast mode which is common with Arabic perfumes. It does project well and wears for several hours without fading. However, it is a bit of a scrubber as I don’t really want to smell like this for hours on end.
Sadly, it just wasn’t for me. I’m waiting for more fragrance reviewers to get their hands on it because I just know I’m going to start seeing all the Tiktoks that tell me I’ll die a horrible death if I don’t buy a bottle of this stuff because it’s the absolute best cherry chocolate scent in the entire world. It isn’t. Trust me. You have a far better chance of creating your own strawberry chocolate scent by mixing something you already have in your stash. I’m going to tuck it away and let it sit for a while because maybe that will give the chocolate and cherry notes to combine. Sometimes perfume just needs a moment to develop. If things change I’ll update you but as of now well, sorry Lattafa, but I didn’t really like Mayar Cherry Intense.
Tried it? Do share! I’d really like to hear what you think!
Lattafa Mayar Cherry Intense is available now!
