Rihan Al Aoud

This would have to be one of the most extraordinary perfumes in my collection. I have paid double for Western perfumes, with no wear near Rihan's impressiveness. This is now in my top 5 fragrances of all time. Anyone will feel a millionaire wearing this and somehow it boosts my confidence levels, like I mean business and don't try and get in my way, buddy! Weather: dry, sunny <32 degree Summer's day. Application: 4 drops inside left wrist and then glide the oil over mid clavicle notch, neck pulse area and up to behind ears. The progression is very slow and there are about 3 stages. The opening brings a cloud of incense and dark rose and orris? powdery notes, the incense is sweet and strong and oh so heavenly, like being in a private sacred space. But don't be surprised if your significant others want to get close...real close. My hubby went wild when he smelt it on me and couldn't get enough of me :) Ahem, anyway, a couple of hours later I detected a slightly sour burnt bordering on acrid note, possibly the oud was just developing or there may be touch of saffron on this, but that settled down after half an hour. Finally, I was left with a smoothy velvety dry ambery sweetened oud, that wasn't heavy but enveloping and blissful and I got a sense of smelling rich and self-confident and knowledgeable. This is extremely well blended and seamless and I don't detect any real progression between the 3 and 13 hour mark, having a shower seems to give it some added lightness and sweetness, though I did not wash it off my neck, to see whether it would disappear or not, it did't. This softens in volume as it retracts over time, by the 19th hour I can barely smell it on my wrists, so I guess longevity is conservatively 13-14 hours and projection - maybe 6 feet initially then mostly an arms length to around a foot around the wearer, until it retracts to the skin. No question this a gold standard in Arabic perfumery and only a few Western perfumes would have a hope of competing with its majestic stature.

Bold and passionate perfume with woody and light notes of spices at the head of a persistent plume of a sweet agar tree aged 25 years. The exciting aroma of Rihan Al Oud is the embodiment of beauty and absolute superiority! Handmade bottle made of white marble. The magnificent ud aroma including impregnations of a set of notes: special wood, spicy-vanilla and sweetish flower. The bottle is made of real white marble. The beautiful design and precious content of “Rihan Al Aoud” can be a worthy gift. When applying perfume on the skin, you are greeted by the rich aroma of the precious Ud tree. Warming and settling, it reveals shades of wet moss and old tree bark. Someone will find in his sounding soft smoky notes, and someone will like natural earth tones. The smell of noble wood of agarwood is a precious stone in perfumery. It gently and harmoniously echoes other flavors, while remaining the basis of the entire composition. In the “Rihan Al Aoud” perfume, the ud smell is saturated with warm, resinous amber, which makes the sound even deeper and gives the aroma a certain languor. Your generosity and innate sense of style is well emphasized by the sound of “Rihan Al Aoud”. His aristocratic fragrance will not allow others to doubt your privileged position. By the end of the day, perfume will allow you to relax in the smell of juicy vetiver and sensual rose.

This Enslaving Scent by ASQ is composed with the most lavish and rare variety of agar-wood ensuring splendid uniqueness and royalty in an ambiance of supreme imagination and magic.

A more complete note list from a different site: Indian oud, amber, rose, vetiver. Sweet, bright, light, and silky. I normally don't associate any of those adjectives with oud, but Rihan al Oud has oud in the name, in the note list and belongs to Abdul Samad al Qurashi's "Al Aoud" collection. There must be oud here! Yet I'm having a hard time picking it out of the very well-blended notes. Floral sweetness of roses, a smooth light amber and some earthy green vetiver are more apparent. Some subtle oud appears after there's been development, but this is very different from most oud mukhallats, where the oud comes roaring out of the bottle. Perhaps the oud is of a type I haven't encountered before or is relegated to a supporting role and that's why I'm having so much trouble identifying it. I usually wear oud-y fragrances in the winter due to their warm, insistent character and projecting power, but this is an oud that I'd happily wear in spring and summer. It has a bright sparkle and bit of green from the vetiver that might wear even better in warm weather than in cool.

An oriental-floral with a woody-ambery-incensey bone structure in the same mould of a bunch of the latest deliveries by Amouage (Opus VIII above all but, more generally, most of their latest feminines). It's extremely well done and easy to like, perfectly unisex and delivers a fantastic performance too but, just like those Amouage I refer to, it lacks a bit of personality...at least in my opinion. Downline: If you like the latest stuff by Amouage (especially a bunch of the latest Opus and/or feminines), give this a chance as it is absolutely on the same level. For me though, while I appreciate the quality, it is still somewhat of a pass. Rating: 6.5/10