Pistachio is still a too less used scent note in perfumes. The yellowish-green nuts, with their unique woody, buttery, creamy taste, are a niche product even in the food industry. Botanically they are not nuts, but more similar to peaches and plums (stone fruits).
Europeans usually think pistachios originate from the mountainous Etna region in Sicily around the city of Bronte, where still today Europe’s best pistachios are grown. In reality, the heritage of the nuts starts in the Middle East. Iran, Babylon, the mythical kingdom of Saba – all of them are associated with stories of kings and queens who wanted pistachios reserved for their royal table, excluding normal people.
The nuts taste exceptional and are of beautiful colours indeed. The yellowish-green interior is encapsuled in a bright purple layer when the nuts are ripe. A special combination of colours, only rarely seen in nature.
Pistachios are used for a lot of sweet recipes, in ice-cream, cakes, cookies and so forth. Whilst there are some wonderful savoury pasta options with pistachios, the perfume “Yum Pistachio Gelato” is firmly part of the first group.
What you smell on your skin or your clothes after spraying “Yum Pistachio Gelato” is a high calorie dessert. Almonds and pistachios dominate the fragrance for my nose. In the beginning there is also some lemon, yuzu or other yellow fruit in equal part, but soon this scent melts to the back. The perfume settles after 15-30 min into its final state, the smell of fresh oven-warm cookies or a cake made of almonds, coconut flakes and pistachios, glazed with lemon cream. I smell little sparkles of citrus over the harmonious general theme. These little citrus notes are the only non-sweet part of the perfume.
The colour of the scent is white and pistachio green. A different green from the light and subdued tone of the perfume bottle, which is too pastel coloured. The scent does have the glowing quality that is also in the yellowish-green pistachio shade.
According to Huda Beauty’s (mother company of Kayali) website, the perfume contains the following scent notes: bergamot, pistachio gelato, hazelnut, sweet rum & cardamom, geranium, white peony, muguet, jasmin raspberry, white peach & pear, whipped cream, marshmallows, cotton candy, Turkish delight accord, cocoa, cedarwood, sandalwood & tonka.
Summarized to the most important on the bottle, we still find pistachio gelato, hazelnut, sweet rum, whipped cream, marshmallow and cotton candy.
As already stated, I smell less diversified scents, but the overall quality of the fragrance is sweet and gentle. There is no ice-cream note.
It is not the best pistachio perfume in my opinion, as other scents capture the uniqueness of the woody, buttery pistachio better. Especially The Dua Brand leads the short list of sweet pistachio perfumes for me. This said, “Yum Pistachio Gelato” is probably the best-known pistachio scent, due to the people who made the fragrance.
Kayali is part of the Huda Beauty empire, founded and lead by the three Kattan sisters. Huda, Mona and Ayla Kattan are of Iraq-American origin, have degrees in finance and founded their company in Dubai in 2013. Coming from the beauty influencer scene, the sisters grew their company bigger than Europe’s Chiara Ferragni scaled hers. They are a typical example of strong women who made the best of everything they got – whoever does that and stays true to his/her origins deserves the greatest respect. Cool achievement.
Kayali is Huda Beauty’s perfume line. The company is led by Mona Kattan and was founded in 2018. Since then, they produce high quality, finely crafted perfumes. I became aware of the brand a few years ago, not through the Huda Beauty angle, but because it was praised somewhere for its smart combination of scent notes in the then only 4 or 5 perfumes. Kayali does have a certain gourmand inclination in perfumes – my first purchases lead to more and a constant watch of the Kayali part of the Huda Beauty brand.
The perfumes are all expensive, quite the contrary to typical celebrity fragrances. They are expertly composed and there to stay in the market. The perfumes need not to fear any comparison to other niche brands. I am not fully sure if they are niche at all, thinking of their owners, but the quality is refined and currently one can buy the perfumes only through a few channels like Huda Beauty’s own website and Sephora. Niche enough for me.
The number of launched Kayali perfumes has increased sharply during the last few years. Hopefully that is not on the expense of quality in the long run. For the time being, my collection is happily going to grow.
When thinking of perfumes from Middle Eastern countries, oud wood is heavily dominating in many. This has not been the case at all with Kayali so far. It will be interesting to see if this pretty European / American perfume brand will melt the Iraqi heritage of their founders in the perfumes sooner or later and how well that will work.
If someone can do it, then Mona Kattan. Looking forward to new scent experiences!