Téo Cabanel Oha: A Review

Because of my immense love for Alahine, which falls easily within my top 10 fragrances of all time, in fact, it’s within my top 5 favorites of all time, I haven’t worn the other Téo Cabanel offerings very much. Lately I’ve been swooning for Amouage Lyric and enjoying other oriental-rose type fragrances so when I went away last weekend I brought one bottle with me and this was: Oha. I wanted to spend some time with Oha and see if I liked it.

To backtrack for a moment, Téo Cabanel is a little gem of a perfume company, with its roots in the late 1800’s. Téo Cabanel reestablished itself in 2005 under the direction of Caroline Moncouqut and the perfumer/nose being Jean-Francois Latty. Jean Francois Latty has also done YSL Jazz and YSL Pour Homme. It was March’s review on Perfume Posse which led me to sample Alahine in the first place, otherwise I had never heard of this small perfume house.

It was just a few months before I launched The Posh Peasant that I sampled Alahine, Oha and Julia. Immediately I knew that I *must* have this perfume line available at The Posh Peasant. Téo Cabanel’s official website states that they use the finest, 100% natural ingredients, and no compromises are made on quality. This certainly seems true as their fragrances do smell very high quality. Téo Cabanel creates perfumes which are modern takes on a decidedly classic French style – which is my personal favorite.

Oha is a beautiful rose oriental and I’m so glad I finally took some time with it. The notes are listed as: roses from Bulgaria and Morocco, jasmine, cardamom, vanilla, iris, tonka bean, woods, and white musk. It’s not listed among the notes but I think there’s an element of patchouli in Oha, which seems to anchor the rose and other florals. There’s a slight similarity with L’Artisan’s Voleur de Roses (though much less patchouli registers in Oha), but I actually think Oha is more complex, interesting and has excellent longevity in comparison. Another comparison would be Juliette Has a Gun's Citizen Queen, which I also love, but Oha is less dark and spicy than Citizen Queen and the rose is more prominent in Oha. Oha begins with slightly hesperidic notes, tea rose and sparkling woods. It definitely starts off more rosy in the beginning than when it dries down. At the start you might think it’s all about rose, but the rose, while present throughout, walks off center stage after about an hour. The majority of time Oha is on my skin I smell a lovely retro oriental aroma, with slight whiffs woody notes, and a teensy bit of powdered vanilla to soften the edges of the rose petals. Oha is refreshingly crisp yet comfortably warm. Oha is classified as a chypre but I think of it as an oriental, however, for either category I find it light as opposed to heavy and very easy to wear. Oha smells elegant and expensive, it’s easily an evening fragrance, but when applied with a light hand it also works beautifully as a day-time fragrance.

Longevity: excellent 4-5 hours
Sillage: nice, individuals close to you will compliment
Rating: 4 stars