Khaltat Night Attar Collection 2016 Eau de Parfum

Out of pure kindness, I received a sample of Khaltat Night along with my actual purchase (thank you!).

I had been eyeing the Khaltat Night Eau de Parfum for a while since I no longer have Oajan. So the sample came in really handy.

And yes, where do I start - cherry. At first, it's a brutal cherry, very synthetic, somewhat like cola gummy bears, only that it's cherry cola. A scent that comes across as really strange, almost off-putting. It's as if an 8-year-old with an iPad coughed in your face after emptying the entire gummy bear cupboard. It also has something of shisha tobacco with cherry flavor, as if you were opening the can and taking a DEEP breath. Some might like it; I have a trauma from it.

And that stays the case for a while, but only for a few minutes. Then it’s there - Oajan. Believe it or not. An incredibly deep, pleasantly spicy scent, soft, creamy in the background, very very masculine, but not in the sense of shower gel / barbershop vibe. No, it’s the other kind of masculine. Spicy, mysterious, it raises questions because the scent is indescribable. I would therefore describe it as less unisex, but it definitely belongs to the scents that a woman can wear. Unisex yes, but more directed towards the masculine.

This aura now clings to the skin, 80% Oajan, 20% its own character. The slight cinnamon rice pudding character from Oajan is missing, the somewhat deeper typical PDM DNA. Nevertheless, an incredibly similar progression, especially because it carries almost exactly that "depth" that Oajan also possesses, only that the progression of Oajan is indeed creamier, a bit spicier, and opens up further.

Khaltat Night starts, as mentioned, with an off-putting shisha bar cherry, and shortly after, it immediately moves away from that and into the land of depth. Vanilla, creamy, spicy, very bitter, yet so soft and pleasant. The cinnamon is there, radiating especially outward, together with the vanilla. I also smell something floral, but I can't define it. I’m not talking about the (in my opinion) disgustingly dry spice aura of Spicebomb (ugh), but really pleasant. If Spicebomb is terrible heating air, Khaltat Night is more like pleasantly humid air on a summer morning. It goes into the nose much more pleasantly, inhaling doesn’t hurt, even up close. Here, you’re not being blown in the face by the 20-year-old spice cupboard of a glass hand grenade; something very delicious is being baked, only up close it becomes a bit spicier. The musk comes through very well up close, paired with honey, which isn’t actually in the pyramid. There’s no trace of cherry left; it’s (thankfully) gone. A scent that makes you feel good, has a soothing effect, and simply feels incredibly pleasant and inviting.

Now comes a little disappointment - it changes very little. Once the cherry is gone, and the scent slowly opens up, it stays open & doesn’t get deeper. It radiates and radiates and radiates, but from that point on, it hardly changes at all; it just eventually fades away. So, it tells less of a story, yet you still get a VERY good short story!

It shines for several hours, but after 5-6 hours, it becomes much quieter. Still VERY strong when close to the skin, but the aura is only noticeable at a short distance, well under a meter. It clings to the skin without any problems for over 12 hours, typical for an oriental scent, but not as extreme as, for example, Oajan, where 24 hours can sometimes be normal.

Compliment scale: 9/10. A real performer, incredibly unique, FAR away from the basic scents in the designer area, absolute niche potential, but not remotely off-putting. Often available for under 100, and it’s MORE than worth it if you’re into gourmand, as gourmand is at the top here.