Desert Gems

Dawn Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle 2018

Dawn by Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle

See Prices

More

We may earn a commission when you buy from links on our site, including the eBay Partner Network and Amazon.

See Prices

8.0 / 10 122 Ratings

A popular perfume by Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle for women and men, released in 2018. The scent is resinous-woody. Projection and longevity are above-average. It is being marketed by Estēe Lauder Companies.

More

We may earn a commission when you buy from links on our site, including the eBay Partner Network and Amazon.

Main accords

Resinous

Woody

Oriental

Smoky

Animal

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Pink pepper

Turkish rose

Heart Notes

Frankincense

Turkish rose absolute

Base Notes

Oud

Labdanum

Oakmoss

Vetiver

Ambroxan

Cedarwood

Perfumer

Carlos Benaïm

Ratings

Scent

8.0122 Ratings

Longevity

8.7114 Ratings

Sillage

8.1116 Ratings

Bottle

8.2124 Ratings

Value for money

5.269 Ratings

Submitted by Ravenous, last update on 01/10/2025.

Interesting Facts

The fragrance is part of the "Desert Gems" collection.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Dawn Brume Cheveux

Dusk

Tarab

Vittoriale

Mesmerising Oudh Accord & Gold Eau de Toilette

Carbon Sapphire

Reviews

4 in-depth fragrance descriptions

06/03/2023

4
Pricing 10
Bottle 7
Sillage 10
Longevity 8.5
Scent

DrB1414
214 Reviews

DrB1414

5

Cold Olibanum

Al-Fajr (Dawn) is Olibanum perfection. This one and Sultan Pasha's Ame Sombre are the best compositions that explore the Frankincense accord, at least to me. This one is more on the Orthodox church, cold olibanum smell, backed up by some earthy soft oud in the base, dry vetiver, and moss. I don't get a strong Oud as in Al Layl(The Night), nor the same Hindi fermented type, here it's more of an earthy variety, that is cleverly blended with vetiver and oakmoss. I also don't pick up the rose in here. It very much sings a perfect song about Olibanum, and it also has that oily almost texture to it like you'd burn the resin and pour the oil on yourself. This does absolutely not justify its price tag, but I love it and it does for me. Sometimes is better to let your nose and senses decide rather than the rational part of your brain. Because it's not as animalic nor loud as Al Layl, or Al Waad, this can be worn more easily without offending innocent bystanders.

08/25/2021

10
Pricing 10
Bottle 10
Sillage 10
Longevity 10
Scent

FilipMurray
18 Reviews

FilipMurray

1

Incense!

This is the most realistic incense I have ever smelled in my life. It smells IDENTICAL like when you enter to a church. Dusty, woody, dirty incense. It is there from the beginning and it will stay with you until the end. It is amazing that incense will remain the same all the time while other notes will come and go.

The opening is not animalic as The Night, but you can immediately feel the rose, smoke, oud and pepper. Pepper definitely softens the animal opening so it’s lighter than The Night and The Moon initially.

Dry down is a smoky, incensy labdanum. And through the labdanum you can feel the oud incense.
It's a cold fragrance. It's a bit dusty from vetiver.

It stays on the skin for 12+ hours, and it stays on the clothes until you wash it.
Dawn will be around you, but it's not too strong so it can be worn at slightly higher temperatures without bothering anyone.

I am very happy to have this masterpiece and to finally have a full Desert Gems collection.

03/02/2019

8
Bottle 4
Sillage 8
Longevity 5.5
Scent

StellaDiverF
213 Reviews

StellaDiverF

3

Unimaginative amber/incense oud

Frederic Malle Dawn opens with a quite fierce oud. It has the similarly animalic, sour and fermented aspects like the Indian oud in The Night. However, instead of a full-on barnyard stroll, it also clearly exhibits a rubbery facet that fits the profile of Laotian oud that I've encountered so far. As a result, Dawn is indeed lighter than The Night, but overall speaking it's still fairly animalic as an oud perfume.

However, like The Night, the authentic oud characteristics in Dawn retreat to the background rather quickly, and what's left is only a softly sweet and resinous woody backbone with flickers of rose petals. Moreover, it's gradually consumed by a standard olibanum incense and labdanum amber accord, and further dried out by a discreet touch of woody amber aromachemicals, to the extent that the dry down after about 4 hours is almost solely a desiccating incense than anything smelling remotely of oud.

I got a medium to soft sillage with Dawn and a longevity of at least 8 hours on my skin.

For me, The Night and Dawn share the same syndrome: a fairly authentic oud opening undermined by ubiquitous, uninspiring rose and amber/incense accords. If Dawn was released two years ago, I would have recommended it along with The Night as an example of animalic oud to sample, because even though they're fairly standard and unimaginative, at least they showcase the animalic aspects of oud pretty well and are put out by a well-established brand. However, during these two years, many artisanal and independent brands have come up with oud perfumes either more authentic, more innovative, more sophisticated or more luxurious, and with a more interesting price at that. Therefore, I would not particularly recommend Dawn before other more interesting oud perfumes.

02/17/2019

9
Bottle 8
Sillage 10
Longevity 10
Scent

Ravenous
3 Reviews

Translated Show original

Ravenous

Top Review 17

Spiritual Oud

After the night the dawn comes after a promise has been made.
Carlos Benaïm begins the day with a good portion of pepper.
The Turkish rose is not yet awake.
But already generously incense was burned.
Now a medical/leathery oud (allegedly from Laos) comes to the fore.
Furthermore, the Turkish rose keeps shyly in the background and generally never appears big.
The oak moss as well as the vetiver have no concession against the incense and the oud and float very far in the distance.
The Labdanum gives the frankincense again a lot of power and Dawn has a very spiritual character for me.
The fragrance did not have a great development, which I like very much about this masterly creation and which perfectly reflects the name and its meaning.
Those who are fed up with the tons of rose-ud scents will get a calming and surprisingly different oriental The shelf life ranges from dawn to deep night with a very present and flattering Sillage.
Carlos Benaïm has created with this fragrance a spiritual and different Oud which I do not want to miss anymore.
Due to the cool and not balsamic heavy character I feel Dawn is even suitable for all seasons.
After The Night and Promise Dawn adds another masterpiece to the Desert Gems.

Regarding the price I will not comment because everyone can decide for himself if he buys it or not.
As already mentioned below some people pay enormous prices for an ugly-kitschy Roja or Clive Christian....