Jakarta

I'm a massive fan of one of the more challenging Rasasi scents, Al Ward Al Musk. It has this weird wet dog/ body odour note that, although I love it, makes it a personal, at home pleasure. Jakarta is the street friendly, less difficult version. It keeps the glorious fresh, wild, pink roses. The wet dog musk goes and is replaced by a superb dark chocolatey note and there's wood down the back too but is very similar, a first degree familial resemblance. This one is a very strong recommendation.

This one was very similar to AKAF Baghdad but better in that it is more palatable I think.

Anthony’s website describes this as a “powerfully woody mukhallat full of green notes with a floral touch. Raw and rather masculine, it offers an authentic sensorial journey.” It has top notes of fresh vetiver and wild rose, heart notes of deep vetiver from Jakarta, leather, and sandalwood, and base notes of woody, sweet amber. Before I go into the scent, I want to reiterate the nature – and the quality – of the oil we’re dealing with here. It’s just like the other oil-based scent that I have from this house – Mukhallat Al Farisi: thick and syrupy, like sap oozing from a tree on a cold winter day. This combined with the beautiful packaging – a small octagonal cylinder with a gold top and gold writing – really creates a sense of luxury and beauty. Anthony’s description (above) is a really serviceable one, except that – being a rose scent – I find it to be very unisex instead of being exclusively for men. In fact, a man is going to have to be a pretty devoted rose lover to enjoy this. Thankfully, I am one and smear this on generosity when I wear it. It might be the case that men in parts of the Middle East are more culturally used to wearing floral scents, but (unfortunately) many men in the Occident are not as comfortable with this. This is a woody (sandalwood to be precise) rose loaded with the earthy spice of saffron. The rose is very much front and center – it’s not far from being a soliflore. From the top to the base, I can really only detect rose, sandalwood, and saffron, and I don’t detect vetiver or amber at all. In most Western-style alcohol-based EDTs and EDPs that claim to use saffron, I can barely even smell it; in Jakarta, it’s unmistakably present, and serves as a perfect complement to the rose heart and sandalwood base. There’s nothing big and jam-like about this rose, either – by which I suppose I mean to say it’s not at all sweet or gourmand, which I really appreciate. This is just mesmerizingly beautiful. Considering the quality, longevity, and sillage, the price is very fair. The 6 gram bottle that I have is 27 pounds ($40 USD). Don’t let the size of the bottle fool you: 6 grams could easily last you anywhere between several months and several years, depending on how you apply it – and I would certainly suggest daubing on two or three spots along your arm and gentle rubbing them together first. Then you can adjust the strength to your own personal taste. The fabulous thing about the Al Faransi website is that there are oils for practically every price point you could want. If the oud line is out of your price range, try one from the “Affordable Dehn Al Oud” line. To date, I have only tried this and Mukhallat Al Farisi (a stunning and absolutely potent leather), but am incredibly excited to try more. I hope my reviews serve their tiny part in spreading the word about these exquisite creations.

My sample arrived yesterday - the company were very generous in providing samples that are larger than requested, so hats off to them. I sourced mine direct from Alfaransi dot com, based in Birmingham UK, and they had the samples with me in very good time too. Anyway - I applied the oil using the plastic tester stick (I can never get the hang of the sticks...), and then rubbed it in and spread it out manually as best I could. For the first hour or so, I got an unexpected note - very enjoyable - but somewhat electrical in nature. It took me a while to sort out my memories and identify it, so maybe I'm wrong, but it reminded me of my dad using a soldering iron to fix wires onto circuit boards or various pins while I watched. I must have been very young. He'd often work on our dining room table - an old wonky but well-waxed beast of a thing, and as he worked, up would rise a sort of plastic oily warm smell, like he'd burnt some solder and the smoke was just coming off - totally pleasant. And then again, it reminds me of a tool bag containing metal tools (wrenches and spanners), a big coil of electrical cable, maybe 3mm thick, and maybe some tins of wax. My dad's old tool bag maybe, sat on the dining table or on a chair. I need to experience that again - I was sniff sniffing all the way to work as I drove in :) I'm pretty sure the chap driving in in front of me must have thought I was a weirdo as he looked back at me in his rear view mirror while we sat at the traffic lights outside the railway station. And of course, there was a big dose of Rose. That was there from the beginning. Now, some five hours in, I'm getting projection a good 5 or 6 inches of my arms, although it's better when I get within a couple of inches, and its mainly Rose. Dark Rose with Amber I guess - they seem to swirl around together. And that was what I was looking for. I expect this will continue on most of the day. So - back to work. EDIT Now, after a little over 10 hours - I'm just home from the office - the fragrance has all gone in terms of projection. If I dig in, I get what's left, and it's lovely - a lick of creamy Wood. No Rose now - just Amber and Wood.

Before looking at the notes, I tried the perfume first. I can easily say that it is a rose-based fragrance. The reviewer below me is spot on. When I first dabbed Jakarta in my hand, I do remember Perfumer's Workshop Tea Rose. It is spicy rose, tingling your nose, but less spicy than Ward Taifi from ASAQ. However, I believe this fragrance has similar structure to one of those perfumes produced by Parfums de Rosine. Jakarta settles down to a typical Mid-East rose style perfume. I personally don't think can pull it off. But I certainly can imagine this perfume fills the air inside the mosque, especially during Friday's prayer in Jakarta. It's always nice to have a perfume named of a city. Btw, have I told you that I am from Jakarta? :)