Best Kayali perfumes: Vanilla 28 and the three to try next

This page groups them by style rather than ranking them. Each section says what the perfume smells like from first spray to dry-down, then who it suits.

How Kayali names its perfumes

Mona Kattan launched Kayali in 2018. The name means "my imagination" in Arabic. The house numbers each perfume by the rounds of formulation it took, so 28 means a long road to the final blend.

The numbers count formulation rounds, not rank. They are a record of how each scent was made, and they make the names easy to remember when you order a decant.

A first order works best as a small one. Sweet perfumes can feel generous in a shop and heavy at your desk, so wear a decant for a full day before you decide. What changes is the kind of sweetness: warm and spiced, creamy and fruity, nutty and cold, or bright and juicy. The sections below follow that split.

Start with warm vanilla

Vanilla 28 by Kayali

Vanilla 28 is the one we point newcomers to. It opens with vanilla orchid and jasmine, which feel soft rather than sugary. The heart turns richer, with brown sugar and tonka bean. The dry-down settles into amber, amberwood, musk and patchouli, so the sweetness ends up warm and a little woody instead of syrupy.

If you want a plain read on the main note, our page on vanilla covers the different faces it takes in perfume.

On longevity, community votes lean long lasting. On sillage, community votes lean strong. Voters mostly choose it for winter and fall, and for night and evening wear. It is listed as unisex, so wear it however you like.

Some people look for stand-ins from other houses. If you are weighing those, we compare seven of them in our guide to Kayali Vanilla 28 look-alikes. For the wider field of vanilla perfumes, read vanilla perfumes by the kind of vanilla you like.

The sweet ones

Yum Boujee Marshmallow 81 by Kayali

Yum Boujee Marshmallow 81 is the lightest-hearted of the four. It opens bright, with freesia, Italian lemon, nectarine blossom and apple. The heart is where the name earns itself: marshmallow, strawberry, coconut and orange blossom. It dries down to whipped cream, sugar, vanilla, musk, raspberry and ambroxan, which keeps it soft and clean-skinned rather than heavy.

On longevity, community votes lean moderate. On sillage, community votes lean moderate. On the season vote, summer and spring come first, with day and evening wear as the usual occasions. It is listed for women.

Choose it if you like sweet but want it airy. Its season votes put summer and spring first. Spray it lightly the first time, because the sweetness builds as the heart opens, and see how the fruit and the cream meet on your skin.

Yum Pistachio Gelato 33 by Kayali

Yum Pistachio Gelato 33 is the most dessert-like. The top reads as pistachio, ice cream, bergamot, hazelnut, rum and cardamom. The heart adds a floral and fruity layer of lily-of-the-valley, pear, jasmine, peony, geranium, white peach and raspberry. The base is the long part: whipped cream, marshmallow, cotton candy, tonka bean, loukhoum, sandalwood, cedar and cacao.

That is a long list, but it wears as one idea: a creamy, nutty sweetness with a woody floor. Read it slowly on a first wear. The ice cream and pistachio arrive first, the florals soften them, and the cacao and wood hold the finish.

On longevity, community votes lean long lasting. On sillage, community votes lean strong. Its season votes favour winter and fall, and occasion votes cover night, evening and day. It is listed as unisex.

If pistachio is what draws you, our guide to pistachio perfumes lays out eight to try, from green to gourmand.

The fruity one

Eden Juicy Apple 01 by Kayali

Eden Juicy Apple 01 is the freshest Kayali we stock. It opens with red apple, litchi, black currant and pink grapefruit, so the first minutes are tart and juicy. The heart brings wild berries, raspberry bloom, jasmine and May rose. The base is sugar, musk, vanilla flower, amber and moss, which adds a soft, sweet finish without turning it into dessert.

On longevity, community votes lean moderate. On sillage, community votes lean moderate. The season vote spreads across summer, spring and fall, and occasion votes point to day and office. It is listed as unisex.

It is the one to try if you like the Kayali idea but find vanilla heavy. Its occasion votes point to day and office. The tartness at the start keeps the sugar in check, and the base is sugar, musk and amber.

Layering two Kayali perfumes

Once you know two of the four well, layering becomes a low-cost experiment. You are not buying anything new, only changing the order in which you spray. Kayali builds its perfumes with layering in mind, so pairing two is the house's own idea rather than a trick. Our perfume layering guide explains the method: spray the heavier scent first, then the lighter one on top, and keep the amounts small.

Two pairings are worth testing with decants:

• Vanilla 28 under Eden Juicy Apple 01, which puts a warm base beneath a bright fruity top.
• Yum Boujee Marshmallow 81 with Vanilla 28, which makes the sweetness creamier and warmer.

We have not found a rule that always works. Test each pair on your skin before you commit to a larger size, and give it a few hours to settle. A pairing that smells odd in the first minute can settle into something pleasant by the second hour, so judge it late, not early.

Try them as decants first

A decant lets you test a pairing without buying a full bottle. The smallest size gives around 60 sprays, enough to wear a scent several times and learn how it behaves. The middle size gives around 200 sprays and suits a perfume you already know you like. The largest gives around 600 and is the one to keep. If you are new to the idea, read what a perfume decant is.

When you meet a new house, sample its range before you commit. Two or three decants show you what the house does well, and you learn which names you reach for again. Wear each one on its own for a full day, on a day with no other fragrance in the room, and write down what you notice at the start and at the end. Choose the size by how often you expect to wear it: the smallest to discover, the middle size for weeks of wear, the largest for a perfume you already know.

Our advice is simple. Take Vanilla 28 first, and add one of the other three as a second 3ml. If you like Kayali's sweet side, our guide to gourmand perfumes shows where to go next.

The bigger picture: Best perfume for women: 18 picks by style, from fresh to amber and Best perfume for men: 18 picks by style, and the aftershave question answered.