Dahn al Oudh - in original

Here I want to tell you about dehn al oudh perfumes in its purest, original, arabic form!

From my first sampling-order I got several Dahn al Oudh perfumes to test for my upcoming business.

As I knew oud just as an ingridient of perfumes made in the west, and I fell in love with it, I was very excited to get my nose finally on the purest form of oudh!

And what to say, my expectations really were disappointed. I just could not believe it! The smell of the pure oud can at any rate cause a choke impulse :-SSSSSS

All I could smell was kinda horse stable, a fecal, eathy scent...A friend of mine who I asked to smell it, told me she feels like smelling a puma's anus lol!

What I really don't understand, that the oud is so precious and high in price. You can pay many hundreds of dollars for a 3ml oil perfume of pure oud! And ever it is older, the price is higher and the smell is stronger!

And here they come:

Swiss Arabian - Dahn al Oud Shurouq

Ajmal - Dahn al Oudh al Shams

Ajmal - Dahn al Oudh Lujain

Swiss Arabian - Al Salaam Dahn al Oud

The next one I must admit that by time it display in a precious, but still a very, very strong scent:

Swiss Arabian - Dahn al Oud Kambodi

And the last one is much nicer to smell less the fecal note, but still very earthy! Probably because it is a "Mukhallat" what means a mix! I must admit I like it much:

Ajmal - Mukhallat Dahn al Oudh Moattaq

By the way, do someone know what means "Moattaq"???

What is your expirience with Dehn al Oudh? What do you think about the smell?

SoOud - new fragrance line EAST meets WEST

SoOud is a luxury niche perfume house founded by the famous perfumer Stephan Humbert Lucas in 2010. Since perfume is king of the Orient, Stéphane Humbert Lucas has created soOud to celebrate their heady scents by blending their olfactory exuberance with the refinement of French perfumery.

The name is maybe a reference to the Saoud royal family from Saudi Arabia. By a happy cooincidence it has the word "oud" inside, an olfactory reference to oudh.
SoOud is the hidden essence of oriental beauties and unknown harems, but also a harem of oriental scents (not very known to the western nose). It is intended as "a jewel on the skin and the perfume of inner beauty" and all of them contain agarwood in high concentration.

The oriental veil niqab served as an inspiration of mystery and beauty. Though on many online shops I could read that the brand Sooud deny the coherence to the idiological background! :-SSSSSSSSSS
What to say Islamophobia doesn't miss even in fragrances!!!

There are eight new fragrances which were launched in 2010 from Sooud and last week finally it was possible to get them in Germany. I had the chance to test three of them and I can say it is absolutelly following the current trend: East meets West! Eastern ingridients in french-way compositions!

Here are the eight fragrances of Sooud (the ones I tested will be commented thereunder):

Al Jana

Al Jana is a natural green fragrance with notes of thyme, star anise, helichrysum, ylang-ylang, cypress, cedar, vetiver, sandalwood, tonka and clary sage.

Asmar

Asmar is the dusty scentof earth and sun, tanned skin and sand. It is a scent of amber, strong yet delicate due to its warm notes. Notes: bergamot, white honey, roasted coffee, amber cigar, grape marc, amber, tobacco leaf, suede, musk and vanilla. Dorian Gray meets Scheherazade ...

Burqa

Burqua perfume is like pure blood, Chinese ink and and bewitched essences of dark wood Prestigious and elegant, it contains notes of jasmine, rose, black violet, cardamom, sage, benzoin, myrrh, black ink, rubber sap, black amber, patchouli, Guaiac wood, oud and teck.

Burqa is a very spicy scent but it has a balsamic softness. Very interesting! But in the heart note it reminds me too much of Miss Cherie - Dior! Not my taste!

Fam

Fam (Mouth) is an intensive and flamboyant perfume of red spices combined with warm woody tones and powdery floral aromas. This sophisticated fragrance exudes all the charms of agar wood, with additional notes of saffron, chili, roses, cashmere, rose powder, rubber sap, vinyl accord, sandalwood, cedar, milk and red musk.

Hajj

Hajj ("Sage"), created around noble notes, reveals fresh spices on the background of warm tones. The scent of wisdom and spirituality, it is made of bergamot, candied mandarin, star anise, rosewood, osmanthus, licorice, ginger, patchouli, tolu balsam, tobacco leaf and vetiver.

Kanz

Kanz (Treasure) is black as coal, tough and tactile; a strange combination of opacity and transparency; the smell of agar worthy of Maharajas. Note: Sambac jasmine, Bulgarian white rose essences of nagarmotha, agar and Indian sandalwood.

Kanz is in my opinion the best and most interesting of these three I have tested. It is a soft, oudy scent and if I would have to choose a color to describe it I would take white like the white rose and jasmin which you can nicely notice here.

Nur

Nur or 'Light "is a pearly - powdery scent of amber; precious, elegant and refined. It contains notes of lemon, incense, artemisia, chamomile, cedar, apricot, orris root, musk, amber, Russian leather and vanilla from Madagascar.

Ouris

Ouris ("sublime") is a symphony of butterfly colors, which include notes of peach, plum and blackcurrant, sweet Turkish delight, jasmine, almond and pollen. This beautiful feminine palette contains additional notes of honey, tagetes, jasmine, white cedar, iris, sandalwood, vanilla and tonka.
For me Ouris is a fruity-honey compostition where I smell the plum and peach at first and the sandlewood gives a soft oriental note - interesting for summertime!

Designer Shaik - perfume collection

Shaik is a selective fragrance line born in Arabia, in fairy-taley Bahrain, created without much restriction in components, as a fairy tale does not know limitations, as well as its founder Mohammed Al Asfoor in his desire to present it to us.
The bottles of his fragrances speak for themselves. They look extravagant, with pieces of silver and Swarowski crystals.

The first collection is named Opulent Blue, launched in 2007, and is composed of two jewels:

Opulent Shaik No. 33 (Women)

Opulent Shaik No. 77 (Men)

The compostition is created of spices as well with woodsy, musk, and wild flowers note.

The second collection is called Chic Shaik, launched in 2008 and has also following two jewels:

Chic Shaik No. 30 (Women)

Chic Shaik No. 70 (Men)

The chic shaik collection is much lighter fragrance than the previous one from the Opulent Blue Collection.
The women fragrance includes aromatic, floral and woody notes and the for the men it is a aromatic, woody note.

I personally ordered a sample from Chic Shaik No. 30 to test it and here are the results:

My first impression was, wow what a rich fragrance, full of thousand different flowers. It is a bit sweet, a bit spicey but not woody. The vanilla makes it smooth, but just a bit in the background. All in all it is a flower bomb! And you will deffinetly stand out with this rich and very feminine fragrance.
So for the quite and decent tastes: don't waste your time with it!
It is described that this one is lighter than the Opulent collection. But for me already this one is so strong, that I really can not imagine how the Opulent fragrance is.
Anyway I will test it and let you know!

I'm so inlove with Tom........

Ford's Oud Wood ;-DD

I really love it and I finally got it yesterday, alhamdullilah! I am really soo happy, because I could not think about any other perfume to buy since I have tested it last month. Since the Private Blend Collection of Tom Ford is only to find at very exclusive perfumeries mostly in big metropolisis; and since I don't live at one I had to drive over two hours to get to Dusseldorf, where I go for shopping from time to time.
So yesterday finally it was the day of the days and now it's mine. It is like a drug to me, I can't stop smelling it since yesterday ;-)))))))
Yes I am - crazy, when I get in love with a perfume...And this one is one of the best I ever had...
So you see my joy is unbreakable and won't blabber too much I will just give you a short discription and for every perfume lover a very MUST-TEST!!!

So here the notes of this wonderfull perfume: amber, cardammom, oud, pepper, rosewood, sandlewood, vanilla and vetiver

Just the opening of this scent make you speechless..There comes a spicy freshness due to the authentic oud and seems just a bit mossy, and the rose and amber make it wonderfully smooth, the pepper underline the sharpness of the oud so naturally and discriteely, mmmmmmmmmmmmhmmmm

It is a deep and full fragrance, at the same time fresh but warm and smooth and it is absolutely out of the ordinary. If you wear this you will anyway attract attention because it is all in all a very classy scent!!!

MY VERY NO 1 at the moment!

If you are interested in any of the Tom Ford's Private Blend fragrances, you can ask me for a tip or description, as I tested almost all and the most are really great! Just drop me a line...

As I have tested many new exclusive scents, I will post about Chic Shai, SoOud,..... these days, inshaallah - STAY TUNED

My Fata Morgana

This is a story which happened last summer in Abu Dhabi at the Emirates Palace during my holidays.

My daughter and me sat in the restaurant in the morning eating our breakfast when they came in.

I never saw eyes like these, hazel, gold-shiny color beautifully formed...They were so beautifull and shiny, full of happiness and they looked at me behind the niqab of that young, elegant lady, hand in hand with her handsome husband.
They looked like a typical local couple. She was wearing a beautifull but simple black abaya having a wonderfull Louboutin clutch in mint python and he a white candura. But they were the first local couple I saw there, who were so intimate and lovingly to each other.  So due to this impression I was sure they were at their honeymoon.

The waiter placed them right beside our table. And at the moment they passed our table it happened....as they were taking place I sensed something so beautifull in the air that I never smelled before. I was sure it was a fragrance passing over from that couple.

They sat down, and she took her veil off. I was already asking myself how she will manage to eat with the niqab, as I never saw a woman with a niqab in a restaurant before.

It is very hard to describe the scent, but I still have it in my memory.
When I would choose a color to define it, I would choose the color salmon! It was soo smoothly and just a bit soapy, clean with a light oriental note but not oud, since it had nothing sharp in it, probably with a base of musk.

I wass kinda obsessed of it at that moment, as I am a total scent-freak! And every time she moved, or stood up a wave of this wonderfull note would come over to our table. I was really speechless.

I looked some times over to their table, but not too often, because I am normally a decent person and I know from my experience, that you don't feel comfortable when someone looks too often and too long in your direction.
I enjoyed this wonderfull smell during my whole breakfast and was really sad as we finished and had to leave.

But later in the afternoon as we came to the pool and took place at a sunlounger it happened again.

Again I was speechless and looked arround from where this scent is coming. There were just an older local lady in black who sat at the sunlounger beside us. And I thought she also is wearing the same fragrance as the young woman from the morning.

Then I went in the pool with my daughter and after slipping down the water slide I saw a young woman in front of me, wearing a nice burqini in front of me. And the same eyes looked at me again.

After a time I went to the sunlounger where I could see that the older lady beside me was the mother, or probably the mother-in-law of the mystical young lady, as they sat by each other sorrounded by a few kids and two men!
So they were not on their honeymoon and seemed to be a few years already married to each other, judging by the kids' age.

Just a few seconds later they took their whole stuff and went all together away.

I hoped so, to meet her again, as I really wanted to ask her about the fragrance and was not able in any of the situations I met her because of the intimate situations and the fact she was in company!

I never met her again!

Unfortunatelly!

And since then I am searching for that scent and I hope so, I will find it someday inshaallah, because I think it is probably the most beautifull smell I have ever sensed.

Enthusiasm vs. deadlock & desperation PART II

It can change so quickly the enthusiasm-thing ;-DD

It is really amazing shortly after my last post, I have got an email of one of the perfume companies I've inquired! It was a misunderstanding: They answered my email but I never received it! And they resent their mail once again today and asked if I've got it.
I guess there is something wrong with my email account, because I did not get it. My spam inbox I am also checking daily, so I really don't have an idea whats wrong with it ;-SSS
Due to this misunderstanding it is in all probability that the other companies had the same problem. I will call them inshaallah to check out if they got it!
So maybe it is not all lost!!! And I have to revise my allegation against the arab companies!!!!!
ALL WILL BE WELL INSHAALLAH!!!

And many thanks goes to lovely Blue Pearl who immediatelly went in action to help me! Love you <3

So my lovely followers, stay tuned, I will report the upcoming news ;-D

Enthusiasm vs. deadlock and desperation

Right now I am at one point where my enthusiasm is changing in a deadlock and almost deperation concerning my business plans.

I made a whole concept from a logo to a operating system and everything else. But still the most important things I need are not fullfilled!
I still don't have a product-line and I still don't have serious suppliers.

It is really strange and it makes me mad that no one of the big suppliers (Ajmal, Al Haramain, Swiss Arabian etc.) whom I emailed have even answered my emails not to mention they haven't replied my inquires...Aren't they in need of new customers :-SSSSS
The wholesaler are giving me purchase prices which aren't acceptable in any way if I want to make any profit. The prices are about the prices which you have in retail! Where is the logic here???

I already made a sample order at one wholesaler but it is far not enough to create a product line for my shop! So I would have to order more and more and test more and more! But this way is very expensive and the problem of finding the right supplier still remains!

With a heavy heart I made the decision that I make a deadlock for my search untill March 2011. Then there will be a perfume trade in Sharjah and inshaallah I am assuming that there I can solve both of my problems.

In the meantime I will concentrate on market researches and educating myself more in perfumery stuff and sales policy.

Though I know that a trade fair is necessery I never thougt that I won't be able via internet to make my first contacts.
I don't know if it is a mentality problem of the Arabs, not to answer and to show so little interest in new customers but it looks like that. Nevertheless my passion for everything arabic still remains ;-D

From my experiences in Germany I know that these kind of behaviour is not acceptable in business and I never made those experiencess in my career!

The scent of Arabia

The scent of Arabia

A very good report which was released in khaleejtimes.com about arabian perfume and its history aswell the production process and marketing...

Oud in Western Perfumes - Test Part II

So as my testing of western perfumes goes on and on here the next ones:

Rose Oud by Kilian

It is disappointing, because it is artificial sweet. It reminds me on the smells of a fun fair and all those sweeties you can get there like candyfloss.
All in all it smells very artificial and trashy!

Aoud - Micallef

Aoud Micallef is one of the best western Oud perfumes I tried. Actually it is a men's perfume but I would not mind to wear if by myself! It is authentic and nicely fresh!

Al Oud - L'Artisan Parfumeur

And finally I got to test today Al Oud from L'Artisan Parfumeur, a very well known parfumeur by the way!
This is the worst scent I have ever smelled. You won't believe it, but all I am smelling here is the smell of sweat. It is such a stench, that I can not believe that anyone pay even a cent for this much less the high amount it costs!

Oud in western perfumes - Test I

Juliette has a Gun - Midnight Oud

Well, Juliette has a Gun - Midnight Oud sounds so heavy, that I imagined this would be a deep scent where Oud is in its deepest form and will be the main scent dominating everything else!
But NO it is not! It is not deep, nor it is dominating, nor does it smell like pure Oud. It smells very syntetic somewhere in the background.
The fragrance itself smells fine and fresh but don't diserve this name!

 MONTALE:

Montale has a very wide collection of Oud perfumes which are very popular among all nations, both Arabs and western people. The nose behind the Montale fragrances is Pierre Montale, who spent a long time among Arabs on the Arabian peninsula and created even private perfumes for royal families!
So I started to test this sort of Oud perfumes and here are the results:

Montale - Royal Oud

Royal Oud sounds to me as the best of the best, so I had very high expectations on this! But I have to admit that I got disappointed.
Right after the first spray all you can smell is a very strong medicinal smell which is so dominant and last over an hour in its itensity.After an hour it the medicinal note deminish but stays all the time in the background!
All in all it is a deep and fresh note based on the ingridients of kumquat and grapefruit but this medicinal scent make you fell like you are in a hospital :-((

Montale - White Oud

Montale White Oud is a very soft and warm scent, more feminine in my opinion. But there is also the medicinal scent which is dominant but not that much as the Royal Oud. Damascus Rose and Vanila make the scent very smooth and powdery, but the medicinal scent is also always present.
So here also a NO from me!
Though I think it is worth to take a smell on some other Montale fragrances...

What about you? Did you make some experiences with these scents?
Any suggestions my dears?

Tom Ford Private Blend

Private Blend is first and exclusive collection by Tom Ford, which includes twelve eau de parfums, each of them can be used solely or in combination with other fragrances from the collection.
Private Blend Collection was launched in 2007. The fragrances are available in 50ml and 250ml bottles.
"PRIVATE BLEND is my own scent laboratory: it's where I have the ability to create very special, original fragrances that are unconstrained by the conventions of mainstream scent-making. PRIVATE BLEND is designed with the true fragrance connoisseur n mind." Tom Ford

The Tom Ford Private Blend includes the following 12 unisex perfumes:

1. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Oud Wood’ Eau de Parfum with fragrance notes of: exotic rose wood, cardamom, Chinese pepper, rare oud wood, sandalwood, tonka bean, vanilla, and amber.
2. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Tobacco Vanille’ Eau de Parfum with fragrance notes of: tobacco Vanille, tobacco leaf, aromatic spice notes, tonka bean, tobacco flower, vanilla, cocoa, dry fruit accord, and sweet wood sap.
3. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Purple Patchouli’ Eau de Parfum is a 60′s inspired floral woody fragrance with fragrance notes of: orchid accord, citrus notes, noir leather, purple patchouli accord, exotic spices, amber, Peru balsam, and vetiver.

4. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Noir de Noir’ Eau de Parfum is a dark chypre oriental, with fragrance notes of: woven saffron, black rose, black truffle, hints of floralcy, vanilla, patchouli, oud wood, and tree moss.
5. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Bois Rouge’ Eau de Parfum is a woody oriental perfume, woth fragrance notes of: citrus and spice, cedarwood, patchouli, jasmine, muguet, sandalwood, vetiver, amber, vanilla and tonka bean.

6. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Moss Breches’ Eau de Parfum  is a dark and complex perume, with fragrance notes of: fresh wood and warm spice notes, beeswax absolute, Moroccan clary sage, Hungarian tarragon, Corsican rosemary and labdanum, patchouli and benzoin.
7. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Japon Noir’ Eau de Parfum  is a contemporary perfume, with fragrance notes of: bergamot, a spice bouquet, purple patchouli, porto noir, night blooming jasmine, leather, amber and vetiver.
8. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Amber Absolute’ Eau de Parfum is a honey colored scent, with fragrance notes of : the purest form of amber, African incense, labdanum, rich woods and a touch of vanilla bean.
9. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Black Violet’ Eau de Parfum with fragrance notes of: citrus, a modern pulpy fruit accord, black violets, woody accents, and oakmoss.

10. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Neroli Portofino’ Eau de Parfum is a modern intercontinental version of an iconic fragrance theme, with fragrance notes of: citrus oils, floral, and amber.

11. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Velvet Gardenia’ Eau de Parfum is a heady floral blend, with fragrance notes of:  of ripened black gardenia, orange, jasmine, rose, muguet, tuberose, dark plum, honey, beeswax, incense and labdanum.

12. Tom Ford Private Blend ‘Tuscan Leather’ Eau de Parfum with fragrance notes of: Tuscan Leather, saffron, raspberry, thyme, night blooming jasmine, leather, and black suede

I am totally crazy about these perfumes and at the moment my favorites are:

OUDH - taking the western world in storm

Oudh is becoming the most popular ingridient of western perfumers. The insider are talking the year 2009 and 2010 are the years of Oudh and there is no end in sight!!! So here I want to show you some of the western oud perfumes.

At this point in time I am testing these kind of ouds and must admit that it is not nearly compatible to arabian oud perfumes. The most of the western oud perfumes I have tested smells very syntetic, too medical, not heavy enough, what means that you can just smell it a bit in the background and the other ingridients are the dominant in the composition.

From all these perfumes I would say that the Tom Ford Oud Wood is the only one which can be considered as authentic oud scent!

Armani Oud Royal

Christian Dior - Leather Oud

 Jo Malone - Oud & Bergamote

Juliette has a Gun - Midnight Oud

L'Artisan Parfumeur - Al Oud

Pure Oud by Kilian

Tom Ford - Oud Wood

There are even more Oud called perfumes from popular western parfumeurs and by and by I am testing them to compare them with the original arabian scents. I was asking myself if this trend is good or bad for my upcoming business?! It shows that there is the demand about oud but also it shows that these Oud perfumes are diminished and adapted to the western  customers taste so that they still smell french and not arabic.

So what is Oud?

First and foremost it is my favorite perfume ingridient ;-D

Also known as Agarwood, Oudh, Oud, Agar, Aloeswood! Actually Oud is from wood pieces of the Agarwood wich can be burned as incense or as perfume oil made out of it.

History of Agarwood, Aloeswood or Eaglewood

Agarwood is the resinous heartwood from Aquilaria trees. These trees belong to the Aquilaria genus, Thymelaeceae family. These trees are large evergreens native to South and Southeast Asia. The trees can be easily located from an altitude of few meters above sea level to 1,000 meters above sea level. The beast growth in these trees is seen at average levels of around 400-600 meters. At least fifteen species of Aquilaria trees are known to produce the much sought-after Agarwood. The most common species found in India is Aquilaria achalloga.

Formation of aromatic resin in the tree

The trees occasionally become infected with a parasite/fungus mould and the resin is produced as a natural immune response to a fungal attack. As the fungus grows, the tree produces a very rich, dark resin within the infected area. This resinous wood is valued very high and treasured around the world since the odour of this wood(agarwood) is pleasing and unique with no resemblence to other natural floral perfumes.

The idea

So here I wanna tell you how I came up with the idea for this blog. A few weeks ago I made a desicion for my professional future plans. Due to my passion for everything arabic and as a perfume addict I came up with the idea to start a business here in Germany with arabian perfume.
And in fact everything started with my last holidays in Abu Dhabi where I even more got in love with the arabic world. There for the first time I learned to knew about the fabulous scents of Arabia. It was so magical and inspiring. Due to my personal situation where I was looking for a new professional challenge the idea came seemingly on its own.
In my other private blog which is about everything and nothing about me last posts were almost about the perfumes and business plans as it is my biggest occupation at this point in time. So I decided to create this special blog which will be all about my current issues on perfume and business.

So to give you an update at wich point I am currently. I collected all informations which were necessary, made a business plan, ordered the very first samples, arranged my new office....The two most important things I have to decide or find are: my product line and good suppliers.

As for the product line: I want to offer typical arabian perfume from high quality like brands of Ajmal, Arabian Oud, Al Haramain etc. As I ordered the samples I could only choose by description and ordered almost every perfume with high concentrated oudh! I was very surprised how heavy they are and considering the cultural aspect and the different tastes of perfumes in the western world I have to admit that I failed. I have to make a second sample order with much lighter scents, which are still arabic but not too heavy for the western people. So it will take more time than I planned to be able to create a adequate product line.

As for the supplier: it seems to be a serious problem to find adequate suppliers from this position via internet. Anyway I planned to visit a perfume trade fair in the middle east but the next one will not start untill March 2011. And for me it is toooooo long to wait.....

So if anyone is in this business at the best from the middle east, or anyone has helpfull ideas, suggestions or whatever, do not hesitate to contact me....