Dehn al Oudh White by Abdul Samad al Qurashi

Salam alaikum and good evening after a long time!

I will begin like this: If I would have to chose just one perfume house on Earth to be left among all which exist undoubtably it would be Abdul Samad al Qurashi!

So today I will try to present you an extraordinery oudh perfume from Al Qurashi: Dehn al Oudh White.
Does the name make you curious? Me for sure it made absolutely curious because I knew several Dehn al Oudh fragrances and tried many of them and each and every one was just shocking me (you can read here). So the word WHITE in combination with Dehn al Oudh and the color (I know sounds maybe easy or naive to judge by the color, but due to my experience the brighter colors are often the lighter and nicer scents in my nose) of the oil let me expect something different. So I ordered a sample and can say: yes I was right and even more I made a great discovery: an authentic soft oudh fragrance uncomparable to any other.

To start describing the scent I can say it is really white (if you also can imagine scents in colors). White like creamy, white like pure, white like clean, white like smooth, white like peace. All this and even more. It is one of the scents which set you in a meditative mood. I like to use these kind of scents on a  calm day or when I am relaxing or praying. It is really peacefull and a close to skin scent.
Here again I have to state how well composed it is, so typical for Al Qurashi. Very fine ingridients low dosed!

What I am smelling is a soft oudh note which is an internal component drawing through all the other ingridients all the time you wear it. There are very low dosed: a flowery note, something like a mix of vanilla, almond (though I hate both as a single perfume note) and cinammon; just a hint of all of these makes a great mix here.

I can recommend this scent absolutely to everyone: who don't know wheather to love or to hate oudh, the oudh-starter, oudh lover in general, the ones who are undecisive, who like oudh in western oudh perfumes but lacking the authenticity. So practically - everyone :DD

Puristic rose - My rose

Dark Rose - Czech&Speak

Here comes a very special rose fragrance, I have recently tested. And I am totally fascinated - never smelled a rose fragrance in that way!

First I have to say, myself as a person I can describe like cold-elegant and in this way are my favorite colors, cold but lively like pink, purple, dark green, grey and same way are scents I adore: cold but lively and deep!
And this fragrance is like that!

Did I ever mention that I love roses??? Yes, I love them in all senses: seeing, smelling....

So far, let's take a look at this scent:

Would I have got the sample without declaration I would swear that it was a rose fragrance from Montale, because of the exact same medicinal scent which you get thrown in your nose right after the first spray!

All in all it is a scent which is cold but very, very deep! I see dark red almost black roses and snow white oud! And the roses are original roses, deep and georgous smelling roses.

The picture in my head would probably be interesting for a commercial spot:

There is a puristic hotel a la Armani, and absolutely everything is WHITE! From the floor to the walls, the whole interior are competely white!
In the lobby, there are roses blowing, red-black roses....

And in the middle of this scenario there is a lady, a mysterious lady - wearing a black costume, dark red lipstick having a short, puristic hair cut......................................

So if you love roses and want to test a different kind of rose perfume, Dark Roses could be very interesting!
But take care, there is no sweetness and no heaviness, just deep cold roses mixed with cold Oud!

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!

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

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.