Amouage - Attar Homage

Amouage - Attar Homage

The perfume brand Amouage originally from Sutanate of Oman enjoy great popularity all over the world.

There are editions of Eau de Parfum for man and woman and............not that famous Amouage Attar.

As I could not find a suitable scent for myself among the famous Eau de Parfum (already tested Lyric, Dia, Gold, Reflection, Epic, Jubilation IIV - review will follow soon) I came across the Attar collection and ordered my first sample: Amouage - Attar Homage.

Just to let you know up front: it is gorgeous!

The house Amouage created Homage for their 25th jubilee and the professional critics were great. So it made me even more curious to test it!

So perfumeur Christoph Chong created a floral scent with the main accent on Taifi rose which is very popular in the Gulf region for its fully and romantic sense.
To fill one bottle of 12ml perfume oil there are used roses of one whole yard. But there are also ingridients arround this wonderfull rose which make the wonderfull composition: silver frankincense, orange, jasmin, amber, oud, lemon and sandlewood.

The fragrance is so smooth and fresh and I would declare it as soft-oriental as it is not heavy in any way. It is a scent which everyone even in the West can wear daily. It is very pricey: 12ml = €270 but it is absolutelly worth. And you have to consider that you need even a drop to smell intesivelly the whole day long.

It is declared as unisex, though I can not imagine it on a man!

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!

Perfume samples for testing

Where do you get perfume samples for testing???

I think it is of big importance to test perfume thoroughly before you make the decision to buy one.

For me it wasn't possible almost never to buy a perfume on the first smell in the perfumery. I need to smell a perfume a couple of times to get a feeling and even more to test it  a couple of times on my own skin.

Recently I got a sample of "Amber Absolute" (Tom Ford Private Blend) which I tested twice in a perfumery and fell in love with. So as I got the sample and put a drop on my skin I was very surprised, not to say I was shocked how it smelled.
In the perfumery it was kinda smooth amber and on my skin it was like medical ivy mixed with alcohol with a strong displeasing smell of frankincense. It was reminiscent of cough syrup my daughter used to take....

So it shows once again how important it is to test a scent on one's own skin!

The smell which you notice at someone else doesn't have to smell same on your own skin. It is because we all have different skin chemistries...

But where to get samples?

You can get samples at perfumeries when you buy something there but mostly the scent for which you are looking for is not available.

In general I have two sources where I get samples. And you can believe me that I am testing many several perfumes almost every day :-D

1) There are online perfumeries which provide samples by payment. Here I will name a few good one's where I use to order:
- www.luckyscent.com (located in the US)
- www.allaviolettaboutique.com ( located in Italy)
- www.theperfumedcourt.com (located in the US)
- www.ausliebezumduft.de (located in Germany)
and finally: on Ebay you can find amazing samples!

These ones I like most because they have a good choice and espacially a great choice of rare and international, exotic perfumes which are not easy to get!

2) There are some internet communities for perfume lovers where you can do several things (comment perfumes, read comments of different useres, exchange expiriences about perfume and most important you can make exchanges of samples)
For me this way it is quite amazing because you have the ability to get many samples for free in order you give your samples which you don't need any more! And you learn to know amazing people with the same passion...
And here they are:
-www.parfumo.de (located in Germany - it is my favorite!)
-www.fragrantica.com
- www.basenotes.net

For any questions, drop me a line ;-))

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

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?