ValentinT

Aurum d'Angkhor is, along with Sultan's "Juriah," his most powerful and impressive composition. While Juriah is the dramatic diva, Aurum d'Angkhor is the sublime king.

With over 20 different notes, Pasha orchestrates an oriental onslaught filled with his signature raw materials: rose, honey, saffron, tobacco strengthened by oud and a hefty dose of animalic (this time, however, without castoreum).

What makes Sultan's work so special is that the nose perceives the opulence of the composition with the first swipe, but then is served various notes like individual courses at minute intervals.

In this way, Sultan skillfully showcases his blending art as a perfumer while equally highlighting the exquisite selection of ingredients.

Take a deep breath and we find ourselves in the Orient, take another deep breath and the rose petals begin to dance as shooting stars paint the sky.

10 out of 10 has rarely been so clear.

Sultan loves castoreum and flowers and enhances them here with extra musk and amber.

What emerges is a roaring, floral leather monster, smoothly ironed out by sandalwood. Sultan builds enough backbone through the animalic notes to do without any oud.

If I could choose 3 attars from Sultan that best represent his talent and style - Cuirlilas would be one of them.

Juriah is rose, then more rose, then even more rose on top of rose, animalics and oud.

Sultan named this attar after the daughter of his rose farmer he gets his roses from.

Upon swiping, this mukhallat sits on your wrist like a motor and won't stop humming non-stop for 8 hours. Fresh, spicy, citrus-y rose notes will dance around you with a sillage that turns every room you enter into a field of Turkish and Damask roses.

This scent is fairly linear and unapologetic about it. When compared to other rose/oud masterpieces like EO No 3, Juriah may seem less complex as it lacks these clear transitions between top-heart-base like No 3 does.

But are you really going to make that your critique when you get beauty straight from the beginning to end? Why would you want that to be interrupted? The first time you smell Juriah, you just want time to stop and everything remain in this moment.

This is a must-have if you enjoy the queen of all flowers. Beautiful, dramatic, enchanting, fresh and sophisticated. A masterpiece by the maestro and the man I consider the best attar maker in the world.

A smoky chocolate dessert served on an agarwood plate made of Indian oud.

Dense, deep and thick from straight to finish with smooth transitions from top to base.

Fantastic sillage leaving your nose constantly sniffing delicious animalic oud.

Truly raw, naked and wild.

A beautiful experience for every oud head appreciating natural aromatics.

Bortnikoff tends to flash his potential with each of his offerings but unfortunately never lives up to it. This smells funky, goofy and unfinished. It's good, but given what it could be, it's disappointing, to say the least. And this is a recurring theme with Bortnikoff's work.

A nice one-time tester you'll quickly forget if you own other oud fragrances.