Top Notes 
Leather
Apple
Bitter almond
Fruity notes
Frankincense
Lavender
Artemisia
Bergamot
Cardamom
Cinnamon
Cypress
Grapefruit
Nutmeg
Pine
Saffron
Styrax
Heart Notes 
Balsamic notes
Cashmeran
Labdanum
Lily of the valley
Earthy notes
Hedione
Oud
Cedarwood
Chypre accord
Gaiac wood
Geranium
Jasmine
Myrrh
Base Notes 
Musk
Sweet notes
Tonka bean
Ambergris
Tobacco
Amber
Benzoin
Patchouli
Sandalwood
Tolu balm
Vanilla
Vetiver
05/12/2025
Cawdor
18 Reviews
Cawdor
1
Out of focus
Vying surely for the most notes listed in any perfume, Al Bashiq is a clone of Spirit of Dubai's Meydan. Which begs the question, can a clone be a clone when it's owned by the same company?
So I'm presuming this is the same formula but composed of cheaper ingredients. That, and they're relying on mass market volumes to provide roughly equivalent profits to their premium version.
So what does it smell like? It's leathery, woody, fruity, with a pine note that gives it a slighty musty, almost medicinal quality. I'm sure there's something almost like coffee in there too. At one point it moves into definite barbershop territory, shifts into sweetly floral incense, then into a dirty, animalic, quite heavy tobacco. All of this is fairly standard middle-eastern fragrance territory, but the multiplicity of ingredients means it shifts focus frequently and unexpectedly, which gives it added interest.
I liked this quite a lot, but ultimately it didn't quite click: it feels a little muddy and unfocussed overall, and I wonder if the presumably less expensive materials are responsible for this. It certainly feels as though there's a really stunning perfume waiting to be unleashed, but that never really arrives. A special note of displeasure for the tacky faux-metal eagle lid, which distinctly marks it as the sort of thing you'd see on display in a bargain basement shop: that went in the bin straight away. I'd be really interested to smell the original to see if it manages to cohere in a way this never quite does for me.
So I'm presuming this is the same formula but composed of cheaper ingredients. That, and they're relying on mass market volumes to provide roughly equivalent profits to their premium version.
So what does it smell like? It's leathery, woody, fruity, with a pine note that gives it a slighty musty, almost medicinal quality. I'm sure there's something almost like coffee in there too. At one point it moves into definite barbershop territory, shifts into sweetly floral incense, then into a dirty, animalic, quite heavy tobacco. All of this is fairly standard middle-eastern fragrance territory, but the multiplicity of ingredients means it shifts focus frequently and unexpectedly, which gives it added interest.
I liked this quite a lot, but ultimately it didn't quite click: it feels a little muddy and unfocussed overall, and I wonder if the presumably less expensive materials are responsible for this. It certainly feels as though there's a really stunning perfume waiting to be unleashed, but that never really arrives. A special note of displeasure for the tacky faux-metal eagle lid, which distinctly marks it as the sort of thing you'd see on display in a bargain basement shop: that went in the bin straight away. I'd be really interested to smell the original to see if it manages to cohere in a way this never quite does for me.
