Top Notes 
Heart Notes 
Base Notes 
01/31/2023
TheBark
17 Reviews
TheBark
2
An anomaly amongst Taif Al Emarat?
I've had this fragrance for four months and have worn it around eight times, and each time I feel like a mystery is unfurling before my nose. Fragrance marketing is a strange thing, usually driven by notes and accords, but even then, they often need to be more precise and accurate. In this case, the top notes listed here are mandarin and rose. On the company's website, it's pink peppercorn and tobacco. To my nose, it opens predominantly with frankincense. Unfortunately, I don't get a spicy peppercorn, nor is there anything remotely fruity akin to the orange family.
Reading further from the company's page, it lists the middle notes as incense and mandarin rose. At first, I was hard-pressed to smell any familiar type of rose and had never smelled nor heard of a mandarin variety. As it turns out, its origins are in Western China, and its petals are said to be fragrant. But, again, having never smelled one, I can say this is no typical rose here. It's not jammy, syrupy, bright, or gothic, yet, the nose, knowing it's "Mandarin Rose," instead of mandarin and rose, now seems to pick up a dusty, warm, soft, and an almost creamy element of a rose present, just not one that this brain can grasp in its library of scent profiles under "rose." So, is it really a rose, or is my mind playing tricks on me based on marketing?
Whatever the case, there is a point after the frankincense levels off that the fragrance has a sense of a sweeter component where the sandalwood also starts to come in. It's here that the scent reminds me of old sandalwood and rose hand soap from decades ago in my grandparent's house. The tobacco here is also "mysterious" because it's not your typical spicy, leafy, pipe, or raw tobacco most western-style perfumes are comprised of. If you came to this fragrance expecting to find something akin to the tobacco in Tobacco Vanille or Herod, you'd be sorely disappointed. Instead, it's more in line with Taif Al Emarat's note use in their Year of Zayed; it's subdued, refined, and laid back, playing a secondary role to the incense, sandalwood, and rose.
There is also oud listed here, but it's not pervasive and, again, its mixture with sandalwood here is reminiscent of its blend in Year of Zayed; I'm very tempted to say these fragrances are siblings, not in that they smell alike - they don't, necessarily, but the DNA is undoubtedly there, the amber and coffee (listed in Zayed's packaging) stripped away and replaced with the mysterious "Mandarine Rose."
Overall, I like it, although I can't wrap my head around it. It's definitely of high-quality ingredients and unlike anything else I've smelled, but it wouldn't be a hit with everyone as it is heavily focused on frankincense. The marketing from the company's website states, "A fragrance that will transport your mood to new depths of passion. Top notes of tobacco with mandarin balanced with agarwood and fumigated frankincense notes to create an inspiring mood." It does have a sense of spirituality to it, no doubt with the sandalwood, oud, and frankincense, but whether it lives up to putting one in an inspiring mood is ultimately going to be determined by individual tastes.
EDIT: not even a month since I posted this review, the notes on the brand's official website have now changed and are listed as Top Notes: Cambodian Oud - Tobacco; Heart Notes: Amber - Incense; Base Notes: Oriental Spices - Sandalwood - Olibanum. This is probably more in line with what I smell, as it's nevertheless incense-heavy.
Reading further from the company's page, it lists the middle notes as incense and mandarin rose. At first, I was hard-pressed to smell any familiar type of rose and had never smelled nor heard of a mandarin variety. As it turns out, its origins are in Western China, and its petals are said to be fragrant. But, again, having never smelled one, I can say this is no typical rose here. It's not jammy, syrupy, bright, or gothic, yet, the nose, knowing it's "Mandarin Rose," instead of mandarin and rose, now seems to pick up a dusty, warm, soft, and an almost creamy element of a rose present, just not one that this brain can grasp in its library of scent profiles under "rose." So, is it really a rose, or is my mind playing tricks on me based on marketing?
Whatever the case, there is a point after the frankincense levels off that the fragrance has a sense of a sweeter component where the sandalwood also starts to come in. It's here that the scent reminds me of old sandalwood and rose hand soap from decades ago in my grandparent's house. The tobacco here is also "mysterious" because it's not your typical spicy, leafy, pipe, or raw tobacco most western-style perfumes are comprised of. If you came to this fragrance expecting to find something akin to the tobacco in Tobacco Vanille or Herod, you'd be sorely disappointed. Instead, it's more in line with Taif Al Emarat's note use in their Year of Zayed; it's subdued, refined, and laid back, playing a secondary role to the incense, sandalwood, and rose.
There is also oud listed here, but it's not pervasive and, again, its mixture with sandalwood here is reminiscent of its blend in Year of Zayed; I'm very tempted to say these fragrances are siblings, not in that they smell alike - they don't, necessarily, but the DNA is undoubtedly there, the amber and coffee (listed in Zayed's packaging) stripped away and replaced with the mysterious "Mandarine Rose."
Overall, I like it, although I can't wrap my head around it. It's definitely of high-quality ingredients and unlike anything else I've smelled, but it wouldn't be a hit with everyone as it is heavily focused on frankincense. The marketing from the company's website states, "A fragrance that will transport your mood to new depths of passion. Top notes of tobacco with mandarin balanced with agarwood and fumigated frankincense notes to create an inspiring mood." It does have a sense of spirituality to it, no doubt with the sandalwood, oud, and frankincense, but whether it lives up to putting one in an inspiring mood is ultimately going to be determined by individual tastes.
EDIT: not even a month since I posted this review, the notes on the brand's official website have now changed and are listed as Top Notes: Cambodian Oud - Tobacco; Heart Notes: Amber - Incense; Base Notes: Oriental Spices - Sandalwood - Olibanum. This is probably more in line with what I smell, as it's nevertheless incense-heavy.
