The Best Kayali Vanilla 28 Perfume Review – 2024
Alyssia Chang
- Published
Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.
Overall Review: 8.2
Pros
- Comes in 3 different sizes and prices, perfect to meet anyone’s budget.
- The spray nozzle and bottle are stunning, and functions well to apply the perfume onto the skin.
- You get exactly what the product advertises: a vanilla-based scent.
- It lingers well on clothes.
Cons
- The bottle liquid is deceiving from the picture that is advertised versus what you actually get.
- The initial spray is way too strong and overwhelming, where the dry down is better yet still super sweet.
- The fragrance on its own doesn’t last super long (a 6 to 12 hour wear is a sign of really good quality).
- The bottle cap is plastic.
- The reaction from myself and people around me is that it is okay and smells good, but it doesn’t have that “wow” factor that you would want when wearing a perfume.
Product Story
Scrumptious gourmand fragrances are all the rage. These are scents with notes of delicious ingredients such as coffee beans, chocolate, cherry, tonka bean, peach, honey, and chestnuts, just to name a few.
With the fast number of foodies out there, why would you not want to turn heads by smelling sinfully delicious?
Here is perfume that will not only satisfy your brown sugar and vanilla cravings, but is a layerable, affordable fragrance that will make you intrigued for more! Here we will test to see how it holds up against quality, wear, and overall performance!
Key Notes: Vanilla Orchid, Tonka Absolute, Brown Sugar, Amber Woods, and Musk.
What is the best smelling Kayali vanilla perfume?
Kayali Déjà vu White Flower 57 smells the best and is the top rated vanilla perfume. It is super close to one of their most popular fragrances, Kayai Vanilla 28.
Packaging
The thick, lux-like cardboard box resembles the same shape as the clear octagonal glass. With reflective shine “rays” on the corners of the box, the small details are minimally gorgeous.
When you lift the top half of the box, a plastic diamond-shaped fragrance lid is revealed. It’s made to represent the traditional elaborate flacons made in the Middle East.
Surprisingly the liquid inside the glass bottle was nothing like the online rose gold colour.
Fun Fact: Kayali (Pronounced Keh-el-ee) Vanilla perfume has raw vanilla from Madagascar with a 20% Vanilla oil concentration. This vanilla extract changes into a darker colour over time. The scent will not evolve but the colour will!
Mine has a dark purple colour that resembles a deep Cola-like tone.
List of Ingredients
- Sd alcohol 40-b/alcohol denat.
- fragrance/parfum
- water/aqua/eau
- butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane
- alcohol
- tris(tetramethylhydroxypiperidinol) citrate
- citronellol
- coumarin
- limonene
- benzyl salicylate
- red 4/ci 14700
- yellow 5/ci 19140
- ext. Violet 2/ci 60730
Fragrance Testing And Results
There are many important questions and tests I believe that are crucial when seeing if a fragrance has merit, if it’s worth investing in, and if the smell is also worth wearing.
So, here are my complete analysis for Huda Beauty’s vanilla perfume!
A little history about my body’s skin before we begin:
- Skin Type: Dry to normal.
- How often do you apply body moisturizer? I use Aveeno 3 times a week.
- Does fragrance smell good on you? My skin is pretty porous and takes to fragrance liquid really well.
- Sensitivity to smell: Not sensitive and not allergic to any notes.
Smell
The Kayali vanilla 28 notes are super strong when you initially spray it onto your skin, in a sickly-sweet sort of way. I sprayed one mist at first from an arms length distance onto my neck, chest, clothes area. Then one on the back of my neck and then a final spray on my inner wrist area so my nose could actually reach a smelling test area.
PRO Fragrance Wearing Tip: when wearing fragrance, spray a bit on the back of the neck as the warmth of your collar, hair, or neck skin in general will give the warmth to let the fragrance radiate from the skin all day.
The Kayali vanilla notes that you first smell is the overwhelming combination of brown sugar, vanilla orchid, and Brazilian tonka. Then as soon as you let the fragrance dry down for 30 seconds is when it gets a lot better (the “cool down” I call it, a very important step before fully judging a fragrance).
The light floral combination of jasmine and patchouli melt perfectly with the deep woods and musk scents. Then the after tones in the back of my nose has the lingering sweetness of the vanilla extract.
Wear
Skin – The vanilla 28 didn’t have the longest wear on my skin. Not using my own nose but other people to test this (your own nose can get used to the scent, so if it is still going strong it is best to ask other people around you if they can still smell it), it lasted for about 4 hours before it was gone and would need another application.
Clothing – I was worried about the colour of the formula of this scent for my white clothes. The good thing is because of the stunning, smooth, fine mist, the dark purple didn’t stain my light clothes!
The next day after applying my fragrance, I tried on the same shirt that I was wearing the day before and the scent still lingered within the fabric! It was really pretty.
After washing did come off and my garment was back to normal again.
Quality
There are 4 main categories of fragrance quality levels in the world:
- Drugstore: Think of celebrity fragrances like Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears, or Avon, and Biotherm.
- Middle Retail: This is when the quality and popularity ranges from brands like MAC, Coach, Guess, and Aerin Lauder.
- Luxury Retail: These fragrances are found at places that are upscale like Saks Fifth Ave, Holt Renfrew, and Harrods. Think of fragrance brands like: Louis Vuitton, Ex Nihilo Paris, By Kilian, TOM FORD, and Panhaligon
- The Best of Luxury and Quality you can get on the market: Shumukh, Clive Christian No. 1 Imperial Majesty, and Baccarat Les Larmes Sacree de Thebes.
This Huda beauty vanilla perfume is in the Middle retail category for sure. There are cheaper ingredients mixed in with affordable higher quality ingredients keeps this product from the drugstore category.
The Nozzel Spray/Applicator
JUST STUNNING. As soon as I sprayed my first mist, my jaw dropped! Every bottle of fragrance should have this exact same misting nozzle. It is firm, smooth, yet it gently deposits a fine spray outward. It is brilliant, oddly satisfying, and makes me want to press the spray “button” a million times.
How many sprays do you need?
It is super strong at first, but the dry down is light. The staying power isn’t long, so I would say a minimum of 2 sprays for the first application. Then you’ll need touch-ups throughout the day.
Fragrance/Perfume Sillage
The Sillage is a French term that means the degree to which a perfume’s fragrance lingers in the air when worn.
From a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being that the scent is pretty much gone in the air to 10 being that I have a green mist from Pepe Le Pew lingering behind me; I’d say that Kayali Vanilla 28 has a 7.
People would notice my essence when walking and moving, especially being near someone. So, if you like to be noticed then this is a great fragrance to wear.
Projection
Projection means how a fragrance, scent, perfume, is perceived by others around the wearer.
The response was okay. People said that I smelled good and alright. I never received: “WOW, what are you wearing? That smells SO GOOD” or “I NEED to know the name of that scent” reaction, and I felt the same.
Layering
The founders: Huda and Mona said that you can use this fragrance as a final layering mist over your favorite fragrances to top it off! I tried this and LOVED it way more than on its own. To me it was made to be the cherry on top for your favorite scents. Alone it’s okay, but layering it on top, it enhanced all of my favorite smells!
Huda and Mona recommend to use it alone or layer it with their own Kayali fragrances. Use and spray a Kayali with the most intense scent first, then the lightest last. Example: One mist of Kayali Vanilla 28 then the Kayali Elixir 11 on top to create a deep, rich scent.
Fragrance Sizes:
- 0.33 oz/ 10ml $25.00 USD, $33.00 CAD
- 1.7 oz/ 50ml $85.00 USD, $113.00 CAD
- 3.4 oz/ 100ml $118.00 USD, $156.00 CAD
Best way to store fragrance and perfume:
Mona Kattan recommends to store Kayali Vanilla 28 EDP away from direct sunlight and extreme temperatures. To store this in a cool, dark atmosphere and in the fridge.
TIP
Do not store important fragrances/perfume in the bathroom. Even though it makes the most sense as this is the place where you get ready, the humidity and temperature fluctuate the most in the house because of hot shower, baths, and hot tools. Drug store fragrances are fine being stored in the bathroom but not ones you invest in.
Conclusion
I can see why the Kayali Vanilla 28 Eau De Parfum fragrance is a fan favorite. It goes good with many other perfumes and on its own has a feminine sweetness that is very attractive.
Yet, there is a fine line between a gorgeous vanilla and an almost gimmicky-cheap vanilla, and this fragrance comes very close to that not so good line. But what saves this scent is the long-term dry down smell that brings out the other balancing notes.
I will keep wearing this by layering it on top as a finisher on my other scents that might need a bit of a pick me up or variation to change it!
Would I purchase this again?
Because I am using this as a topper and not my main daily or going out fragrance, I think it is safe to say that I would not purchase this fragrance again. If I was in my teenage years, I might do otherwise as my nose palate has developed since then.
Pros:
- Comes in 3 different sizes and prices, perfect to meet anyone’s budget.
- The spray nozzle and bottle are stunning, and functions really well to apply the perfume onto the skin.
- You get exactly what the product advertises: a vanilla-based scent.
- It lingers well on clothes.
Cons:
- The bottle liquid is deceiving from the picture that is advertised versus what you actually get.
- The initial spray is way too strong and overwhelming, where the dry down is better yet still super sweet.
- The fragrance on its own doesn’t last super long (a 6 to 12 hour wear is a sign of really good quality).
- The bottle cap is plastic.
- The reaction from myself and people around me is that it is okay and smells good, but it doesn’t have that “wow” factor that you would want when wearing a perfume.
Review out of 10
Performance: 9/10
Vanilla 28 provides up to 4 hours of lasting power on the skin, which means that you will have to re-apply Kayali’s fragrance throughout the day to keep smelling it. The quality of the ingredients is not super high end but do deliver as far as what you’d expect the notes to smell like.
It is super easy to apply onto the skin as the bottle fits beautifully in the hand and the spray has an elegant fine mist for the perfect application!
Ingredients: 7/10
The ingredients are made with a combination of natural and synthetic based ingredients, more synthetic than natural. There is raw vanilla from Madagascar with 20% oil concentration within the Huda Beauty 28 perfume that changes the fragrance into a darker color over time.
Packaging: 9/10
Kayali fragrances come in luxurious, modern packaging that look minimal and are pleasing to the eye. The bottles are designed with sleek metallic accents and feature a unique cap closure for protection with easy, fine mist application. Each product also comes with an elegant presentation box to make it look luxurious.
Price: 7/10
Does the price reflect the quality and product that you get? For sure. You will find this a similar and comparable price range to department stores and other artistry branded fragrance lines.
Brand Reputation: 9/10
Kayali is building their fragrance reputation and is known to have pretty good products. Their perfumes have earned numerous awards, including the Fragrance Foundation Arabia Award for Best Women’s Fragrance of the Year, the Vanity Fair Beauty Awards for Most Innovative Design and Packaging, and more!
The Brand
Kayali is a fragrance brand created by sisters Mona and Huda Kattan. While Huda is the face for their co-founded brand: Huda Beauty, Mona is the face and founder of Kayali fragrances. She has always had a passion for fragrances and is known to be the “perfume Princess”.
This sister brand was launched in November 2018 and was inspired by the Middle Easts heritage and history. KAYALI is an Arabic word meaning: My Imagination.
The intention behind the 4-perfume fragrance line was to create scents that you can easily layer together.
They have partnered with Swiss perfumer B2B Firmenish to help create their fragrances and who is the master behind fragrances creations like: Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Versace Jeans Couture Man, Gucci Flora, Gwen Stefani L, and Guess Effect.
Kayali Vanilla 28 Q&As
Is Kayali Vanilla worth it?
Do you like sweet scents? Are you obsessed with vanilla smelling fragrances? If so then I would say yes. This fragrance for my skin and nose didn’t make me feel obsessed or super excited because I feel like it was a bit rich for my taste and those around me. I like a better balance of ingredients when working with vanilla (which I do LOVE in my perfumes).
What does Kayali Vanilla smell like?
It has the finished smell of sweet brown sugar and lots of vanilla. It is very rich and has a sensual depth that has many layers within the nose, and because of its Gourmand category it has a similar cake-like taste with a musk, amber pull.
Is Kayali Vanilla long lasting?
When I think long lasting fragrance and perfume, I think one that will last all day (a good 8 to 12 hour day). Kayali Vanilla 28 longevity is not long lasting. It lasts around 4 hours at best on my skin, but it does have a great lasting power on my clothes! The next day I did notice a light whiff embedded into the fabric of my shirt.
Layering: What do you mix with Kayali Vanilla?
On the KAYALI website they recommend to use this scent with their lighter scents such as Kayali Elixir 11 and Kayali Citrus 08. The founders favorite blend is to first spray Musk 12, then Vanilla 28, then a final mist of Elixir 11. They also have a video where they say how much they love to layer vanilla on top of their favorite fragrances, and this is the best perfume for that!
Who makes Kayali Vanilla perfume?
It is made in France by Swiss perfumery brand Firmenich. Firmenich International SA is a privately owned company and started back in 1895 as Chuit and Naef. The founding chemist named Philippe Chuit and business man Martin Naef were soon joined by Fred Firmenich who joined the company in 1900 and quickly became the main partner, renaming the company after himself.
I hope that this article inspired you with useful fragrance knowledge and insight!
I would love to know your thoughts on KAYALI and the Huda Beauty brand. Is there a favorite KAYALI fragrance that you can’t live without? Let me know in the comments below!
If you have any questions of my experiences, please comment and I’ll respond as soon as possible.
