Pearlescent Black

Lovely fragrance with a strange opening. When I was fortunate enough to find this at a duty free, I decided to give myself a dab on my hand and I smelled.. absolutely nothing? Like, zero. Not even something light - I really could not smell a thing. As I'm fairly new to arabic houses as well as oils, I thought it would just need some time, and boy it did. After the initial nothingness I was suddenly blasted with sandalwood and florals. It instantly transported me to arabic malls with incense burning everywhere. In fact, I bought some sandalwood a few years ago in Dubai and it smelled exactly like that. Upon arriving at home I pulled out my drawer where I had my sandalwood stored and sure enough - it's the same thing. There are some florals to soften this out and it's overall very smooth, more on the quiet side and sits close to skin, however it lasts ages and it will definitely warm up with your skin! When I tried this, I also tried a bunch of other Ajmals, one with Patchouli, which was ridiculously strong from the initial spray, as well as Ambre Supreme, which was also outrageously strong. Now, 12 hours later, I can still smell all 3 at somewhat similar strength on my skin, which just shows me that this fragrance has excellent longevity, even though it's on the softer side, however even this softness shouldn't fool you. When I met a friend later that day, she immediately asked what I was wearing when she entered the room. She said she could smell it immediately when coming in. And while this might be the result of all 3 fragrances combined, this one certainly had its' place in there. TLDR: It smells fantastic, it's soft and doesn't project like crazy but it's a beautiful creation. Worth the price? Depends on you, 100 euros, to me, are somewhat reasonable. Packaging? Not a fan, a bit tacky, although normal for arabic houses. Will I pick it up? Not sure as I think Ambre Supreme is more up my alley.

This typical Ajmal oil starts with a harsh projection of oud (agarwood), that slowly mellows by the essence of various flowers, sweet smelling mostly,with just a hint of white flowers, keeping musk as a steady base. It remands me of B. Balenciaga, Voyage Hermes and The Girl Tommy Hilfinger. For a quite expensive perfume oil like this, I would expect high longevity, as other Ajmal attars have, but this is not the case here. Very nice, expensive looking, black sphere bottle though, that stands on a golden tripod, which resembles to a Chinese handcrafted piece of art.