WHAT I SMELL: At first application, I get some sweet wood, a few aldehydes and then in fast succession an incredibly light rose and some incense which starts to dry out the scent rather quickly. Funny, the fragrance almost retreats after putting it on and you’re left wondering if it’s going to just quickly fade away. After 10 minutes, all I get from China White is lightly sweet and sharp woody incense. After 20 minutes, thankfully, the floral aspects start to come back making this more palatable in my book by giving it more dimension. Oh wait, they just went away again…or are they back again?? China White can’t seem to make up its mind. After about 30 minutes, add something that smells a bit like hair spray. I’m not quite sure if that’s really necessary!
China White Notes – The Nasamatto website doesn’t list the fragrance’s notes. Fragrantica doesn’t list the notes as well, but provided the following: Nasomatto China White was presented in 2008 as a floral-woody fragrance for women, composed of powdery notes of fresh flowers and woody accords.
WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: Comme des Garcon Avignon’s little cousin who is a bit more shy and just a tad sweeter.
THREE ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE CHINA WHITE: quiet, restrained, light
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT CHINA WHITE: Eiderdown Press, Worse Than Weeds, Nathan Branch
BOTTOM LINE: I like it and I don’t like it. China White makes me feel a bit schizophrenic. Every time I sniff my wrist it’s either all incense (I don’t just like incense) or its a combination of floral and incense (I like it like this)… but enough already, make up your mind so I can love it or leave it.
- Bone Rating: 3.5 out of 5 possible bones
- Scent: Floral Woody Musk
- Nose: Alessandro Gualtieri
- Classification: Unisex
- Expense: $165 for 30ml Parfum Extrait
The Scented Hound 
August 4, 2013 at 5:46 pm
Not my favorite from the line (that would be Nuda or Black Afgano), but I very much enjoyed reading the review!
Any idea where the name comes from? Besides referencing drugs?
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August 4, 2013 at 5:59 pm
LOL… the drug thing – all the other reviews referenced it. Being a nice Midwestern boy I would not have thought of the connection unless I read about it. Actually, as time goes on, this becomes less of a “little cousin of Avignon” scent and instead becomes more of a putty scent. Strange, the incense has retreated and there is a sense that this has been “cut” to make it more powdery.
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August 5, 2013 at 5:21 am
I could be totally wrong but I seem to think that China White is a name of a paint color in artist type paints like oils or acrylics.
I don’t like perfumes that perform disappearing acts so I can cross this off my list.
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August 5, 2013 at 5:28 am
I have the feeling that most people are indifferent to this in terms of really loving it. It just doesn’t allow you to love it. There are plenty of other loves out there.
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August 5, 2013 at 2:03 pm
I think I was too influenced by the hashish note in Black Afgano 🙂 My mind went immediately to drugs 🙂
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August 5, 2013 at 3:48 pm
I thought of the drug thing too but I hope that wasn’t their inspiration.
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August 6, 2013 at 4:00 am
I guess inspiration can come from anywhere!
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August 9, 2013 at 2:17 pm
Me neither. What a horrible thing to be inspired by!
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August 6, 2013 at 4:00 am
There seems to be a consistency towards drugs in their perfumes. hmmmm?
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August 9, 2013 at 2:26 pm
Seems like it!
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August 4, 2013 at 7:58 pm
It sounds terrible to me. Hairspray + powdery putty + ghostly, vanishing perfumes + schizophrenia when it does appear = ugh. No, thank you. I actually have samples of 2 other fragrances from the line to test, but somehow, China White never tempted me. Honestly, given your description, I’m surprised it got even 3.5 stars!
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August 4, 2013 at 8:31 pm
K – The 3.5 is because I kind of love it and I kind of hate it. LOL… when you’re schizoid, does anything make sense??? 🙂
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August 4, 2013 at 9:30 pm
Hi Steve. Enjoyed your review and thank you for the link! China White really is a tricky little perfume to figure out … and I haven’t had a sample of it in a long time, but if it’s still the same, all I can say is mmmm, kind of love it! (Would really, really love it if it wasn’t so damn expensive.) 🙂 I did have a chance in Paris to smell a number of perfumes in the Nasomatto line and was highly impressed by all of them. Especially Nuda, which is now discontinued. Have you tried it?
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August 5, 2013 at 5:26 am
Suzanne – the only other Nasomatto that I had sampled was Pardon and I gave it a 1 bone (extremely rare). It just went completely metal on me and I felt like I had a mouthful of tinfoil that I was chewing on. Horrible. So I was a bit shy to try another from the line. I really wanted to like this, but it never gave the love back.
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August 5, 2013 at 6:14 am
Dearest Hound
It sounds a little like a game of hide and seek when you’re unsure if it’s worth actually finding the person who’s hidden.
I think I might have tried this, but actually can’t remember, which I suppose is rather telling in itself.
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
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August 6, 2013 at 3:58 am
Tres’ telling my dear Dandy. I’m having a hard time seeing you with this. Next!
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August 5, 2013 at 9:19 am
I don’t remember trying this one but I certainly remember Black Afghano and Duro were monsters on me.
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August 6, 2013 at 3:59 am
I have yet to try those. I have heard a lot of people rave about Black Afgano, but do I really want to smell like Hash? Do the perfumers have a drug habit?
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August 6, 2013 at 5:36 am
Some find that smelling like Hash is exciting. It definitely is something unusual to smell like that.
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August 5, 2013 at 10:13 pm
I haven’t tried a single perfume from the line yet. I don’t know why, to tell you the truth: I even saw them at a store (so I wouldn’t have to pay to test them) but for some reason they didn’t appeal to me. I might have smelled them from the bottle – but I have no recollection at all. And though I liked reading your review it doesn’t make me want to test China White.
In general, I think companies should try to bribe you not to write reviews for the perfumes you didn’t like (I still can’t shake off your “bathtastic” and now this “little cousin” 😉 ).
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August 6, 2013 at 4:04 am
In my perfect world my job would be to create names for housing subdivisions. Keep in mind that everything sounds better with an English “e” in the. So for instance, Grand Point subdivision would instead be Grande Pointe. See, making up words is fun 🙂 As for the Nasomatto, I’ll give them one more try. If the next one doesn’t take me away, then nothing will.
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