03/03/2015
ColinM
516 Reviews
ColinM
2
Balsamic gem
Sheikh Anas (if this page is for that oil) opens with a fantastic stroke of velvety and balsamic notes wrapping around rich flowers (soapy rose, jasmine, and surely others I don’t catch), posed on a woody-mossy base comprising also patchouli, musk, thin fresh green notes, spices (cumin), vanilla, ambergris (the real one: rooty, animalic and salty) and perhaps a hint of oud – or anyway some smokier and darker wood note. Shortly a sumptuous, yet totally friendly Oriental blend with warm, floral, woody, balsamic nuances. It may sound conventional, but it isn’t, at least for my nose. If compared to other ASAQ scents, the main difference is that Anas smells much more balsamic, light, fresh and floral than others, which makes it more versatile and “easy” to wear. The quality is – as usual – totally high and respectable, and as usual, the experience of wearing this oil (despite being quite simple and effortlessly easy-going) is much different from wearing a “normal” Western perfume: on skin all is richer, denser, more powerful and thick, with a dilated evolution through an entire day and a vibrant, rich persistence, with basically no “drydown” as we mean it – just different phases, but with the same clarity and power. The balsamic feel remains for quite many hours, while the amber gris note plays a key role in coming and going and interplaying with flowers – so the scent kind of alternates between “dark” stages and brighter ones. Now, Sheikh Anas is among the less expensive scents of this brand, so it does not offer the same deepness and “mystical” experiences of other higher-quality ones, but it’s still miles above any Western industrial scent pretending to act Oriental (Amouage or Xerjoff anyone?). It’s a cozy, exotic, silky, friendly and unisex scent, a perfect floral-woody blend with a warm rooty-earthy soul that would make anyone’s day better. By the way, a couple of drop and you’re good for the day (so don’t think in terms of ml/Oz as you would with a normal perfume: the tola is small, but will most likely last you for years).
8/10
8/10
