Love me, or love me not? [reviewing LOVEFEST Burning Cherry | 48 edp, by Kayali]

Luscious, Woody & Mesmerizing.  

 Celebrate your love for life with this luscious, woody gourmand fragrance and awaken the free spirit within you!

The enticing contrast of succulent burning cherries and raspberries accompanied with sweet caramelized praline against the smoky, earthy notes of palo santo, guaiac wood, and patchouli makes this a truly mesmerizing and euphoric fragrance - harmoniously balancing this captivating scent for undeniable seduction...

Kayali has quickly become one of my favourite fragrance brands, with three of their releases being "I must keep on buying this, because I can't be without it" must-haves, and only one of their other releases being something that I consider "meh", rather than "lovely".

Shortly after getting Eden, I was thinking "this is lovely, but a fragrance built around cherries would be fantastic". Then about a week later, LOVEFEST was announced...

Has LOVEFEST been the winner that I'd been expecting?

I was anticipating LOVEFEST to be light, fruity & jammy, but it's smoky and slightly dirty from the start; the palo santo and patchouli develop alongside the cherry, raspberry & bergamot notes, providing a earthy incense/licorice blend to the fruity mix, which tones down the sweetness of the fruits and adds richness immediately.

The fruit & incense combination carries throughout the entire fragrance and becomes sweeter as the praline adds a nutty & creamy vanilla warm undertone to everything. The rose, jasmine, heliotrope and what seems like orange blossom & neroli meld with the spicy fruit & smoke cloud very well.

After roughly 8 or 9 hours, LOVEFEST becomes more woody, and the dirty spicy heat also seems to grow more intense. If you enjoy Invite Only, then you'll most likely love the drydown for LOVEFEST; cherry envoloped in smoky & spicy wood with a sweet hay-like undertone to everything.

Offical key scent notes: bergamot, raspberry, black cherry, rose damascena, jasmine sambac, heliotrope, praline, palo santo, guaiac wood, patchouli, Peru balsam, tonka beans, vetiver essence, and ambrettolide. 

It was love at first spritz for me; I'd best describe LOVEFEST as a traditionally spring/summer sweet & fruity fragrance, that has been transformed into a autumn/winter sultry spiced fragrance. I'd been a bit disappointed by the longevity & aura of the last couple of Kayali perfumes that I picked up [Utopia and Eden], but LOVEFEST has made up for it - around 14 hours on skin and it never goes close to the skin.

If you enjoy fruity fragrances,  but want something with a bolder presence for the colder months rather than something lighter which could come off as chilly at this time of the year, then I highly recommend trying out LOVEFEST.

LOVEFEST comes in 50ml [£67] & 100ml bottles [£91].

In the UK you can buy LOVEFEST from Selfridges, from Boots (online only), Cult Beauty, and Sephora UK [formally Feel Unique].