Makkah

Coming from a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, Barbies were certainly taboo for a boy, but I was allowed to play with them because "I was an artist" - as they would justify my girly passions. I was obsessed with dressing them up, sewing little princess gowns, over creating haute couture garments on those skinny dolls. Showing them off in their new looks. Overwhelming! And my Barbies smelled so freaking good... of sweet plastic, artificial dreams, boudoir, makeup and futuristic fashion on those unrealistic bodies. It all came back to me when I smelled this awesome attar (literally, attar means mix of oils), that very same pride I felt when I was a cute boy playing with high fashion Barbies! Memories! Makkah is for me the plaza I go whenever I feel proud of being me, somewhat artificial, artistic, graphical, avantgardistic. I'm gonna post this on each review I'll make cause folks need some education: I hate to break it to you, but the amount of aromachemicals and natural ingredients that actually go into your favorite designer bottle is way under 5 EUR. Niche might go higher, but don't get fooled, they are still cheap to make. Bottles don't cost much if it's not a renowned crystal. Everything else is formula developing (the nose and his conceptual team), risk taking (2 out of 3 new releases are complete failures), marketing, etc. So keep that in mind before saying "quality ingredients". Cause if your 200 EUR bottle is worth -10 EUR ingredients... You can keep dreaming your purchase is superior, but you have to know that's a lie. CPOs should be kept a secret, people will only assume the best! Moderation is the key.

Here's a great little bottle of fun! As a number of people have pointed out this has a weird 70's / 80's childhood nostalgia vibe about it. On opening the bottle the first strong note that hits you is a sweet very specific aroma. It's the smell of so many plastic toys of that era. I've seen Barbie dolls mentioned but I remember other plastics having this smell. Also others have mentioned those first scented erasers. It's true, all true! The smell is a very sweet, slightly strawberry buzz. After you've rubbed a bit on it becomes a very typical incense smell; the smell of so many hippy shops, the smell of so many joss stick variants. It's a little like Nag Champa, only not as harsh, not as green floral. It then gets better again. I'd rolled some on my chest under my t-shirt. After about 10 minutes the smell got really strong, and this time it was the unmistakable smell of Juicy Fruit gum. The last review I placed on here I gave mention to this aroma as being noticeable in the cologne I was describing. In that instance the fragrance had a light resemblance to Juicy Fruit - this one is identical. Bizarrely it was my search for a fragrance that smelled like Juicy Fruit gum that led me to signing up to Fragrantica. Anyway, I've found one, and I'm loving it. As for longevity, very good, easily up to 12 hours. Sillage is heavy - people will certainly be intrigued by what you're wearing. Well done Al Haramain, you've managed to bottle the childhood of so many people.

I am absolutely getting the same vibe as the reviewer, patxaran ahead of me... Reminds me of Gonesh incense 'Perfumes of Orchards and Vines'. Also: Hem 'Love'. A fruity musk, with just touches of soft florals and a wee bit of spices (cinnamon and cloves) and I'm smelling something like cardamom which gives a "lift" to everything else with its camphorous, cooling quality. There's labdanum and benzoin ("amber"), and a touch of vanilla for a classic oriental base. Lots of musk. This is an unusual, sensual fragrance... quite unexpected from something named after the holy city... And... it TOTALLY smells like a head shop. When I first put this on, I was like "I don't think I'll like this...", but then it started to settle and I found it intriguing... and now past 30 minutes I'm starting to really like it...I'm also reminded of Satya's 'Nag Champa' or 'Superhit' with that vanilla-benzoin-champa-orris-sandalwood-labdanum-musk combo. Wow! Still, if I were to name the 3 strongest notes, they would be strawberry lokum, cinnamon, musk. REALLY nice if you're into "fruity incense-like" smells.

Makkah smells EXACTLY like Montale Mukhallat to my nose. Very sweet, musky strawberry-vanilla deliciousnes. I agree with the other reviewers saying that it has a slight bubblegum or candy vibe. I`m a gourmand lover and I`m delighted with this perfume oil. I will gladly use it on it`s own or layered with Montale`s Mukhallat (not that either of them needs layering, but I like my perfumes strong so I will give it a try). Excellent value for the price. === Update: I feel like I need to come back and leave some more feedback as I may have judged this fragrance a bit too early and almost dismissed it as a cheaper dupe for a Montale. Makkah is so much more complex , I love the initial opening of candied strawberries, musk and it dries down to some sort of caramelized amber and vanilla. This perfume oil is so delicious I could eat myself when wearing it. It has fantastic longevity and good sillage. If you are, like me, new to Arabic perfume oils and don`t mind sweets, Makkah is a great oil to start out with. You will walk around smelling like the most exquisite Middle-Eastern dessert.

I love this perfume oil. It starts off strawberry bubblegum on me and sillage is light. Every minute as it melts into your skin it gets stronger. 10 minutes later sillage is perfect. An hour in to wearing Makkah i smell something green and a little bitter/sweet, like grass and oud. I like it, it's unique. 30 minutes later it changes again to the smell of strawberry incense and a touch of cinnomin in the back ground. Another hour later it smells like cuddly soft strawberry scented cosmetic powder with some incense. It remains in this stage for the remainder of the wear, with whiffs of strawberry powder to strawberry incense back and forth. It's lovely. It has really good longevity, lasting 8 to 10 hours! Sillage stays moderate all the way to the last couple hours. I've heard people say that this scent changes depending on weather. Today it is sunny and warm outside,in excited to try this out in rainy weather! I recommend this to any one wanting to try out arabian oils and like fruity/powdery incense. I love it!

Forget the habit to alcohol-based perfumes. Attar fragrances are a kind of sensuos trip, much more intimate and evoking than spraying careless mainstream stuffs. Oils stick lovingly to cleavage and wrists and persist for hours closer to skin, with a little projection. Using attar has become an essential part of an indulging, private ritual for me. I don’t know how one could perceive a breath of bubble gum in this scent, really. It is a quite austere fragrance, with just a hint of camphor in the opening. Then, it softens and becomes resinous, ambery and deep. It reminds me the smell of chopped pieces of coniferous wood consuming slowly in a fireplace. Strawberry notes are barely noticeable: they give a sort of harshness to the fragrance that balances the dizzying voluptuousness of amber notes. Dusty and powdery notes are scattered wisely around the vibrant, languid core of the fragrance, enhancing its remote solemnity

I have to agree with the many other reviewers who point out that this fragrance will spark off all kinds of nostalgia for 80's and 90's kids. Whether it's Barbies, those toy make up pallets in shockingly bright colours, Keepers (does anyone remember them, the insides smelled just like this) and as the previous review mentioned, scented erasers. It seems like this was the generic scent of girl toys back in the day. I don't get any of that to start with though. Just like pretty much every attar I've tried, they're way too much in the opening, bordering on making me feel nauseous. I've learned to be patient with them and after about an hour, this particular beauty shined through. Behind that nostalgic scent of childhood toys was also some smokey incense, which takes this fragrance from childish into a wearable fragrance which has made me completely fall in love with it.

Diamond! fantastic sweet strawberry incense! I love every time of the day and year! I bought another packet for 3 euros at a special discount! Yes! it's the type of beast on my sweater, 2 weeks it smelled! Maple MONTALE Mukhallat, strawberry with oud, thick and sweet with very high longevity! I love mega for the rest of my life. I would recommend! 5 stars! Brylant! fantastyczne słodkie truskawkowe kadzidło! uwielbiam o każdej porze dnia i roku! Kupiłem kolejne opakowanie za 3 euro w specjalnej zniżce! tak! to typ bestii na moim sweterku 2 tygodnie pachniało! Klon MONTALE Mukhallat, truskawka z oud, gęsty i słodki z bardzo wysoką długowiecznością! Kocham do końca życia mega. Polecam! 5 gwiazdek!

I'm reading many reviews comparing this to Montale's 'Mukhallat', but, for clarity's sake, Al Haramain's 'Makkah' was on the market (with a strong following) long before 2008 (when 'Mukhallat' was released), so which is the real dupe? I'm not terribly fond of Montale. The five of their fragrances that I've tried have all been simply an "upmarketing" to a western audience of already-existing blends popular in the middle east, repackaged in EDP format and a nice bottle... but not much originality. Unfortunately, people believe appearance+price=quality. The real gem is this unassuming little treasure of an attar in a plain bottle from Al Haramain.

A blind buy that I opened out of the really cute little cigarette-pack style packaging and instantly loved! My first words were "it's like an incense stick", and when others say its wearable Nag Champa they are absolutely spot on! Personally I love it, yes it's very unusual and very sweet but I adore every whiff I get of it when I move. My other half likes it too and wants to buy some. He says it reminds him of scented erasers that were all the rage in Britain in the 80s. There is definitely something nostalgic about it. Cant understand why it has ANY bad reviews myself! It will last for ages but I'll be replacing as soon as it does wear out.

I have been thinking for a while what to write in my review for this perfume. In the end I came to the conclusion that the scent strongly reminds me of the pink Orbit chewing gum for kids, the one that was being sold in the early 2000s (at least in the country I live in). I am not sure if it's still being sold like that, but the fragrance is definitely very strawberry-like and "bubblegummy" to me. :) I really like it, I find it unique, the longevity is few hours on me and the sillage is moderate, I would say. For the 7,00 euro I got it for it' s quite nice, my sister loves borrowing this perfume from me.

Finally I found something with that strong Nag Champa note I've been craving! The strawberry note is very different from anything I've found in perfume before, somehow it has different facets of thick, dark strawberry jam, strawberry bubblegum and strawberry flavoured tobacco! It's playful (not girly, imo), but robust and has depth at the same time. This is turning to be quite the compliment magnet and both my mum and my sister have requested that I order them a bottle each as well :) Edit: The more I wear it, the more I sense tobacco and leather in the background, which only makes me love it more!

the easiest way of using the roller ball applicator on this is applying a generous amount at the back of your hand (the triangle between the thumb and index finger), then use your other ring finger to dip a bit of the oil and apply it to pulse points. i find this way ensures the right amount of oil at those points and thus better sillage. dont worry cuz its oil it wont dry easily. and whatever thats left on the back of your hand will still smell amazing the whole day for u to dip your nose into from time to time. try it and enjoy! and did i mention this dries down into the best vanilla?

Another blind buy from Ebay from these cheap bottles and my new favourite. It reminds of Montale Mukhallat and other expensive perfumes, but it's cheap. I don't know why these perfumes are so maligned. Yes, they are cheap and kind of synthetic, but you can simply sell a kidney and buy Montale instead of whining because a $10 fragrance is not fine enough. The only total failure I've got from Al Haramain up to now was Husna, a kind of Madinah ruined with peppermint that smells like a mixture of 2 or 3 Western perfumes and reminds of street prostitutes. This one is simply divine.

This is such a unique, fun fragrance! I feel special whenever I wear it. Strawberry incense. That's pretty much all it is, it sounds so simple, but don't knock it until you try it. Yes, it's strawberry, but the incense, amber, and musk keep it from smelling juvenile or unsophisticated. A sure way to brighten a gloomy day, that's for sure! And I bless the reviewer (SuzySchnabel)who recommended throwing out the rollerball and just pouring a bit into your palm... I do this after my shower and rub in a generous amount into damp skin. Heavenly!

Public Service Announcement: Al Haramain recently released a long-awaited, 15th member to their 15ml line (to which 'Makkah' belongs), called 'Dhahab'. (I have no clue what the word means; hopefully an Arabic speaker chimes in). It is a vanilla-tobacco-wood-amber-musk creation- on the simple side, but I like it! I wore Makkah alone the other day, and thought of layering it with Dhahab next time... the result is VERY close to the scent of Hemani's musk jamids (solid musk perfume stones), but amped up! Lovely. Do try it!

Oh my. I had no idea until today. This is a very intentional dupe of Montale's Mukkhalat. The opening is virtually identical. I fell in love with the doppelganger of an expensive fragrance without even knowing.... Makkah is Mukkhalat's secret twin, dare I say. The only difference I notice is that the dry down on Mukkhalat is more about cream and vanilla, the wonderful strawberries and incense having almost completely vanished. Makkah STAYS Strawberry-'n-Incense, and I Looooooove it! Fabulous value - five stars!

I love this fragrance. Been wearing it everyday since 2021 and I still have half the bottle! It lasts a lot on my skin but it is a really intimate scent, it doesn’t have a sillage and I don't mind it at all. It is really sweet so if you’re not into sweet scent you probably won’t like it, but it doesn’t really smell like strawberry to me. It smells like amber and incense. It was a blind buy and I never regretted it, so definitely try it out if you like sweet fragrances, as it is really cheap.

I use this to perfume my hair. I love this strawbwerry, vanilla, musky goodness. Especially in my hair it just smells so yummy. I use the roll on and just give my hair a few swipes. My hair is very long and I still only need just a small amount. It's such a good scent to me. It's one of my favorites from al haramain I especially love the Amber, vanilla vibe I get as this wears on. So pretty! The strawberry is nostalgic to me in a good way as well. Love this..:)

Nag champa and then strawberry. I absolutely love Arabian fragrances. Especially houses such Al haramain, Al rehab, rasasi and Ard Al Zaafran. These little cpo's last and last and are very different to what you buy generally in the UK. The little glass roller ball bottles are very neat and the box reminds me of a cigarette packet. I will rebuy this one. Smelling like incense is great, but the fact this also then turns into a Gormound is even better!