Loumari Porthole (1/3) · Brotherhood Of Scent

Loumari Porthole (1/3)

I remember

giving this so much love a while back. I received a complimentary sample with a purchase, so I thought I’d finally give it a proper wear today.

My God, this opens beautifully. Within 10 seconds my mouth started watering. It’s tropical, fresh, juicy, and surprisingly addictive. The opening feels fairly linear on my skin. I get pineapple, sea salt, bergamot, and that distinctive “iodine” note. I assume that’s where the seaweed-like, slightly metallic saltiness comes from. Then the beautiful passionfruit, white florals, and ginger come in and elevate everything. As it dries down, the fruitiness remains while the caramel and woods round things up. On a profile level, it also gives me a custard apple vibe, which probably explains why it feels so nostalgic and rounded to me. After Monkey Special, this is probably my favourite passionfruit and caramel fragrance.

This is a genuinely beautiful scent. Juicy, creamy, smooth, and for the first time, a musky salty fragrance doesn’t smell strange on me.

Performance is unfortunately a bit underwhelming. At almost 6 hours, it’s already on its last legs. Mostly a skin scent at this point, and that was with 5 sprays. It creates a lovely scent bubble but doesn’t leave much of a trail. If the projection and longevity were just a little better, this would have been an instant purchase for me.

I’ve always said fresh niche fragrances are rarely worth the money. This fragrance is making me take those words back. This is worth the money. I still maintain that the LV offerings aren’t.

One thing I’ve found a bit odd is the brand itself. There doesn’t seem to be an official website, much of a brand story, or the sort of presence you’d expect from a luxury house. I genuinely don’t even know where I’d ideally buy a bottle from, so I think the brand could benefit from investing more into its marketing and identity.

I also saw a post recently about Alexandria’s version, along with a comment mentioning the Montagne dupe. I’ll probably try the latter at some point, but my gut feeling tells me I’d still end up choosing the OG.

I’m really enjoying this style of fragrance, so I think my next samples will be Tales of Zanzibar or Limonata. Any other recommendations are welcome.

This is one of those rare occasions where I’m willing to turn a blind eye to performance and put the scent profile first. It gets a 9.5/10 from me and officially becomes my favourite summer fragrance, overtaking Virgin Island Water.

More importantly, it reminded me that no matter how much I think I know about fragrances, there’s still an enormous amount left to discover. That’s been quite eye-opening, to be honest. Also, this one hits differently because I associate that custard apple profile with the idea of eventually creating my own fragrance someday, inspired by one of my favourite fruits growing up.

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