Narcissus
Jasmine
Myrrh
Opoponax
Rose water05/20/2025
ClaireV
731 Reviews
ClaireV
1
Huuuuge jasmine
Tawaf greets you with a hallucinogenic swirl of gasoline, grape brandy, plastics, nail polish remover, and magic marker – not immensely floral, in other words, and a little shocking to those used to commercial (synthetic) jasmine. I admire its thrusting, near sexual pushiness, but it is not for those of a nervous disposition. Tawaf is not just jasmine, but a clever mixture of jasmine with its tropical partners in crime – ylang and tuberose. The flat inkiness of indole defines the opening, and although I find it more squeaky-chemical (magic marker-ish) than animalic per se, it might pin your ears back if you are a jasmine virgin.
Soon, a bitter vegetal note emerges to tamp down the purple roar a little. This is the greasy yellow-green of narcissus, with its feral undercurrent of soiled hay. In the attar format, the initial floral surge is underpinned by a pungent herbaceous note, like lavender or jatamansi, which to my nose smells disturbingly like spoiled milk. It is as intense a smell as lavender buds crushed between your fingers. In the attar format (but not the eau de parfum), the scent takes on a silky texture, like heated beeswax slipping through your fingers. The spikiness of the lavender accent persists, but now it is the soapiness of opoponax resin being pushed to the fore, which gives the scent a pleasantly ‘barbershop’ tonality missing in the eau de parfum format. The eau de parfum settles into a powdery rose and jasmine tandem kept slightly dirty by way of the barnyardy wet-hay narcissus. In the far drydown, Tawaf eau de parfum smells rather like the classical jasmine-civet-rose combination in Joy (Patou) – a little sour, leathery, in short, a true jasmine sambac smell.
The eau de parfum and attar of Tawaf are quite different from one another, so choose with caution. The eau de parfum is sweeter, lusher, and more ‘golden’ in temperament, while the attar is oilier, more herbaceous and bitter, and with its emphasis on the lavender-opoponax accord, a virile green-blue hue on the color wheel. The attar does not accentuate the jasmine as much as the eau de parfum at first, although it does allow the jasmine to finally break through the herb-resin miasma past hour two. In the attar, the primary focus is on the lavender-ish, shaving foam aspects of opoponax, rather than the jasmine. In the eau de parfum, the herbal shaving cream aspect barely registers, emphasizing instead that skanky jasmine blast in the opening and a classical rose-jasmine-narcissus structure thereafter. The drydown of the attar is spicier, stronger, and more pungent than the eau de parfum, a fierce crescendo of jasmine, shaving cream, and boot polish. If you are a jasmine fiend, go for the eau de parfum, and if you like the sexy, herbal sourness of skin sweating under a wristwatch, go for the attar.
Soon, a bitter vegetal note emerges to tamp down the purple roar a little. This is the greasy yellow-green of narcissus, with its feral undercurrent of soiled hay. In the attar format, the initial floral surge is underpinned by a pungent herbaceous note, like lavender or jatamansi, which to my nose smells disturbingly like spoiled milk. It is as intense a smell as lavender buds crushed between your fingers. In the attar format (but not the eau de parfum), the scent takes on a silky texture, like heated beeswax slipping through your fingers. The spikiness of the lavender accent persists, but now it is the soapiness of opoponax resin being pushed to the fore, which gives the scent a pleasantly ‘barbershop’ tonality missing in the eau de parfum format. The eau de parfum settles into a powdery rose and jasmine tandem kept slightly dirty by way of the barnyardy wet-hay narcissus. In the far drydown, Tawaf eau de parfum smells rather like the classical jasmine-civet-rose combination in Joy (Patou) – a little sour, leathery, in short, a true jasmine sambac smell.
The eau de parfum and attar of Tawaf are quite different from one another, so choose with caution. The eau de parfum is sweeter, lusher, and more ‘golden’ in temperament, while the attar is oilier, more herbaceous and bitter, and with its emphasis on the lavender-opoponax accord, a virile green-blue hue on the color wheel. The attar does not accentuate the jasmine as much as the eau de parfum at first, although it does allow the jasmine to finally break through the herb-resin miasma past hour two. In the attar, the primary focus is on the lavender-ish, shaving foam aspects of opoponax, rather than the jasmine. In the eau de parfum, the herbal shaving cream aspect barely registers, emphasizing instead that skanky jasmine blast in the opening and a classical rose-jasmine-narcissus structure thereafter. The drydown of the attar is spicier, stronger, and more pungent than the eau de parfum, a fierce crescendo of jasmine, shaving cream, and boot polish. If you are a jasmine fiend, go for the eau de parfum, and if you like the sexy, herbal sourness of skin sweating under a wristwatch, go for the attar.
