Note Pyramid
Donna
Coffee is the material that makes Gisada Donna Eau de Toilette worth smelling, and it is not where you would expect to find it.
The opening is deliberately childlike. Cotton candy gives that spun sugar sweetness, warm and slightly artificial, and it would be too much on its own, so iris and violet are set directly against it. Iris is cool and powdery, violet is dusty and faintly green, and between them they take the sugar down to something closer to sweet face powder than to a fairground.
The middle is heavier. Patchouli arrives early and dark, jasmine opens the whole thing out with a warm white floral richness, and benzoin adds a resinous sweetness that bridges the top and the bottom. Then coffee comes through the base, bitter and roasted, and it is the hinge of the composition: it stops the sugar being sugar and gives the dry down a dark, slightly burnt edge. Sandalwood supplies creamy wood underneath, tuberose keeps a thread of flower going right to the end, and musk softens everything into skin.
Ten materials and a clear argument between the sweet ones and the dark ones. As an eau de toilette it is lighter on the skin than the material list suggests, which is a point in its favour here: a composition this rich at a higher concentration would be hard work. Expect several hours, closer to the body after the first. Two sprays is the right dose, and the coffee is easier to pick out an hour in than it is at the start.
Andreas Wilhelm composed it. Evenings and cold weather suit it, and it is aimed at women.
Gisada is a Swiss house, founded in Zurich in 2013 and now sold across a wide range of export markets, working with outside perfumers on each of its lines.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
Similar Notes
The Scent Vault
Join thousands earning on every order
Earn points as you shop, redeem for money off, and unlock member perks.
Find out more
The Scent Vault Gift Cards
Give the gift of choice
One card, every scent. Let them pick the fragrance that is truly them. Send it instantly by email, or schedule it for a future date with a message of your own.
Shop gift cards
