Mecca Balsam

This is one of those very rare perfect perfumes, at least according to me, but I like some of this Eastern-inspired stuff for the Western world. It's warm and cozy. Think Camel by Zoologist or Sadel by Svensk Parfym. A little balsam sweet, a little dusty, maybe smoky to some, highly exotic and emotive. Not super-complex. It doesn't change over time. But the one smell it has is magnificent. It tiptoes between all the different definitions and just does something original and deeply beautiful. I've owned three different sizes of this. The large bottle is nice, but I think the 15.5ml is my favorite. I absolutely love the plastic teardrop cap. None of the others that I've tried from this brand affect me like this one, but they have some nice stuff, for people seeking something more fringe artful.

This is a warm, balmy and spicy composition. Mecca Balsam is inspired by a trip to the Holy Mecca where it is 100 degrees almost daily, but this is a warm hug on a cold day; in front of an embery fire. The presence of incense is known upon application. This blend is rich and divine with just the right amount of tobacco. You’ll find that these notes are more perceptible in cooler weather. Mecca Balsam is a very full, dense fragrance that softens satisfyingly. My favorite part of this scent story, is the dry-down. This will likely be my Winter choice of 2022.

Two versions exist. I've tried both. I prefer the earlier non-smoke version. Aka the Jim Lewis favorite, referred to on profumo.it website where you buy this The "Jim Lewis" version of Mecca has smooth caramel resinous balsam notes. Never get sick of it. I detect Balsam of Peru, Benzoin and possibly Styrax ? Comparing to Tauer Incense Extreme a linear sharp pine resin. Comparing to Tabac Aurea a lighter, sweeter, tobacco and boozy Mecca, a favourite. 4.6 / 5

I've noticed that this brand is very straightforward with the names of their fragrances; this one was just what I expected. Beautiful elevated essential oil type smell, very balsalmic and mystical, natural, spiced, just a tiny bit medicinal. Lots and lots of resins. Oud usually goes sour on my skin, but the oud note was very subdued and hardly noticeable in the batch I got. 100% unisex.

This may be my favorite fragrance ever. Very rich, complex, dark tobacco and incense scent with light florals that dance in and out. I can't get enough of it. I love everything I have purchased from this house, including Tabac, Tawaf, and Irham. Excellent sillage and longevity. Highly recommended.

Smoke and resins very prominent, but I also get strong whiskey and black pepper notes. Of the incense frags I have tried, BDM is not the most wearable (that would be Etro Messe de Minuit) but the floral notes that emerge in drydown are among the most interesting.

This is a mystical scent. It transports you into a warm evening in mecca, you feel like you are walking into a grand ancient mosque with thousands of your brothers and sisters at your side. It is pure magic. A scent of the ancients. masterpiece.

The perfect perfume! For me it is - so rich and strong, and incense sublime! Beautiful creamy benzoin - oh Heaven in a bottle! I love it love it love it!

This is one of those fragrances that send me scampering to the web store to start planning my purchase after a few whiffs. It comes out of the bottle strong, thick and unusual. There's something almost chewy about the opening and a teasing at the edge of memory. What does it remind me of ?! Finally, I decide on the tobacco note in my beloved Field Notes from Paris. It's very masculine and I would probably prefer to smell it on a man, but since none is available, I'll happily wear it myself. To me this is primarily a tobacco and incense perfume. It has good projection for the first three hours then fades to a skin scent. i like this stage less. I think it's the oud coming out.

Brilliant scent. One of the few scents with a noticeable tobacco note that I enjoy. I probably will go for the attar version for better longevity.

Most prominent scent to me is Ras el Hanout, Arabic for "head of the shop". Mecca Balsam smells exactly like bottling the air of a Moroccan spice shop.

I see that the last review for this frag is from 2 years ago. Based on the reviews I went ahead and bought a 50 ml bottle and have it shipped to US. In terms of delivery they are very quick, it came in 3 days. So congrats on that front. As for the juice, I am not getting the tobacco. I dont know if it's reformulated because all I get from this juice is cinnamony, ginsengy, herbal medicinal concoction. I lived in China for 18 years and I just cannot get over the fact that it smells like some of the Chinese Medicine shops back in Guangzhou. The longevity is not bad, stays with you a good 10-12 hours, but the performance is quite poor. Very close to the skin, I used it on different occasions with a generous 4 spritz. But people around me cannot smell it. With a name like Mecca Balsam, Mecca being probably one of the birth places of medieval perfumery, you expect a really decent performance. And considering that it costed $205 (including shipping), I was kind of disappointed on both smell and performance fronts. The smell being beautiful or not is a very subjective thing. What I like, some people might not like or vice versa. But performance is the one physical aspect that doesn't vary immensely under the same conditions (except on some skin). A good performing frag, even if it doesn't work on your skin, should perform on your clothes. But this one unfortunately doesn't project anywhere. But hey the guys were decent enough to send me 3 more samples from the same line in vials and for what is worth, this one is the best one in that line. Overall for me this is a 6/10. If it costed me say $70 I would rate 7-8 probably. But as it is with this price, when there are beauties like MFK Grand Soir, Interlude etc in the market within this price range, I dont think this one gets the buck. p.s. Many frag houses unfortunately do reformulations either for commercial reasons or for the unavailability of certain ingredients and the essence of the original product gets lost in the new version. That's what might have happened with this one.

I get a lot of spices from Abdes Salaam Attar Perfumes' Mecca Balsam. The spices are richly aromatic and quite delectable. I smell cinnamon, anise and cardamom, on a bed of syrupy amber and labdanum. Mecca Balsam smells of spice bazaars and a mug of soothing, milky chai tea. This fragrance is a bit of a guilty pleasure, the type of scent I would reach for when craving something warm, cuddly and delicious. Although tobacco and oud are listed in the official scent pyramid, I don't smell these notes that strongly on my skin. I actually second-guessed my sample from The Perfumed Court, as I suspected for the longest time that it had been labelled incorrectly and that I was smelling something totally different. Prior to sampling this fragrance, I hadn't actually heard of Abdes Salaam Attar Perfumes. I had assumed it was a Middle Eastern niche house but turns out this is an Italian brand. His fragrances are a 'journey across the globe', incorporating traditional Middle Eastern perfumery into his practice. Each scent is crafted using natural ingredients and aims to open the mind to olfactory exploration. I really enjoyed testing Mecca Balsam, and I found the quality to be superb, lasting approximately seven hours on my skin. This fragrance is an autumnal scent, perfect for the change in seasons. Mecca Balsam also makes me crave chai lattes and cinnamon doughnuts, which is not ideal for the waistline.

i first received a sample with a fb purchase of different fragrance. instant love. unfortunately, i somehow lost the vial on a road trip. immediately, bought a fb. the bottle arrived faster than any other perfume except for a few of those shipped within the country. i am not sure whether the fb is the same as my earlier sample which was not at all intense, but rather more opulent--not nearly so agressive. the earlier fragrance seemed truly divine, from a paradise. the bottle i have now is great but has a more corporeal presence. i oversprayed and wow! wood and incense. rather than the ouds i usually recognize, this is for me like being inside a cedar box with some residual spice and incense. in the drydown, seems to be more flavorful, as in spicy, than the first vial, with distinctly sweet (almond?) aspects. however, 4-5 hours on my body, the enchanting sweetness of the vial seems to be back. fantastic. since this perfume is made in small batches, from natural products variations are to be expected. indeed one of the charms is the nuance. i guess it's like a beautiful sunset, no two are the same. i now have seven different products from abdes salaam attars, mecca balsam, in either iteration, may be my favorite of the lot

A nice alternative to Tobacco Vanille, which I wear comfortably as a woman. It’s less sweet, and with the addition of what I think is the same Bengali oud that’s used in Oud Caravan 3, this is smokier than TV. He’s done something special with the oud here - he’s made it a beautiful undercurrent, a backdrop for the incense and tobacco. This ain’t an oud-forward fragrance, and if you’ve never smelled real, proper oud oils you wouldn’t even notice it, it’s so well blended. If you are curious to try a real Eastern Oud fragrance, vs. the Western oud accords that smell actually nothing like oud, but also don’t want to end up smelling like a rotting corpse flower, Mecca Balsam is for you. Spicy, resinous, incense-y and honeyed by benzoin. It gives hot desert, middle eastern spices, ancient temple, and rather than a moist, chewy, fruity pipe tobacco, the tobacco here is dried and mellow, like warm hay. Autumn in New England vibes. Smells quality and expensive. Because it is. The perfumer here is French, but lives in Italy and is a Sufi convert. This house is so underrated.

Mecca Balsam is from Dominique Dubrana's "Scents of the Soul" collection, which include some of Luca Turin's favorites. The scent was inspired by a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he says “the scents of labdanum resin, of benzoin, frankincense and of the precious agar wood invade the streets together with the 4 million pilgrims who pour to the streets 5 times every day, walking to the great mosque like a river.” MB has a prickly spicy sweet opening with a smokey incense base. Medicinally resinous, and warm. At first I thought I was smelling cinnamon, but realized it was a rich, strong tonka bean. Fresh and pungent, probably the best tonka note I've smelled. Its cinnamon/almond/vanilla/cherry aroma blends with the incense, olibanum, tobacco and resins, adding a great piquant aspect. It has a boisterous effect, making the incense seem less austere. Overall is the sweet aroma of balsam, having a clean, windswept feeling. Beautiful inspiration and beautiful composition. With so many spiritual notes, it suits Luckyscent's description as a "statement of faith."

This is the 4th one I've tried from the Scents of the Soul series and it's my favorite! I love tobacco and I love labdanum, but with the addition of incense, it's just to-die-for. It's smoky and resinous and the tobacco mellows it out. It really does remind me of when I was on a flight with pilgrims on their way to Mecca from Cairo and they all smelled of incense and tobacco from the hookahs. I love this and it's completely unisex.

deep, dense and cavity-inducing smooth benzoin blending seamlessly with labdenum, incense and tobacco to form one of the more ridiculously sweet and balsamic scent. similar in character to oud malaki, but quite different in make-up. definitely worth a sniff and most certainly worth wearing in special occasions...

this one is regal, majestic and utterly divine! a sweet, smooth background with smokey resin in the foreground. cavity-inducing sweet honey (almost caramel) with the sharp smokiness really work well in unison. can't stop sniffing my wrist!!!

مكة المكرمة ما أجمله من اسم سوف اجرب العطر ان شاء الله فقط عشان الاسم الحبيب على قلوبنا أتمنى ان يليق العطر بفخامة الاسم What a luxurious name , hopefully the scent can fit the holy name