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!

Resinous strawberries? The strawberries smell dried, like those dehydrated for breakfast cereals. They are also sweetened with deep warmth, along with a resinous, rubbery aura. I will ENJOY wearing this one more over the next few months and deciding about a full size bottle. It's certainly an interesting take on strawberry! More dark than sweet, and definitely unisex. In short, Fun and possible Weird.... But good! :D

I absolutely love this perfume oil.It was recommended to be because I was searching for a bubblegum scent.Actually to me it reminds me of guerlain insolence in the opening but on the dry down to me it smells exactly like sweet tarts candy😍💪🏾I mean exactly. I don’t really smell bubblegum. If you like candy scents this is a must have. I bought another bottle immediately 💯👍🏽😍

This is gorgeous. Opening: Dolls head? For sure, but it’s a resinous dolls head. It’s thick, deep, I get incense sticks, not smoky incense, just the sticks before they’re lit. The dry down is sweeter, juicier with loads of vanilla. Utterly beautiful, good staying power and decent projection.

This scent is really nostalgic indeed, I love it!! Comforting and warm, it's definitely perfect for the chilly days and nights, but I think it won't be too bad during the summer nights. I only wish the projection was a little bit more intense, but most oils are like that.

Oriental, and balsamic. Now in cooler weather, works good on my skin. I hope in summer will work too. From this colecshon, my favorite is amber pure parfume. This is similar, but less aromatic. Little bit generic, middle eastern fragrances.

Hi... LOVE THIS! SWEET CREAM STRAWBERRY AND VANILLA!.. YES NAG CHAMPA! 10 STARS!.. LOVE IT SCENT....EVERYDAY IN YOUR LIFE...OM LOVE FOR ALL...JOY OF THIS PERFUMU

A very sweet, fruity and incense kind of fragrance. Yes, a bit synthetic but it fades. It's a great one to layer for lasting power because it's beast mode

Wow man in this Price I can't accept this performance. Room filler time atter.bublle gummy Powdery well 💯 percent recommend blind buy this

wanna smell like strawberry dipped into chocolate? layer this with choco musk from al rehab. and thank me later.

The best fragrance this summer, sweet and oriental. 10/10 long lasting everyday.

Layer it with Al Harmain oud Gold and thank me later - massive projection!!

@Mohammad: thank you so much! ASA-

Got this yesterday and was waiting for something I'd never smelled before. But actually one of my unlabelled oils from Morocco smells like this only a bit stronger in white flowers so this scent isn't totally new for me. So I guess there are dupes and smell alikes of this around so this must be a very popular fragance. The fragance is very sweet and very powdery (note this if you don't like sweet scents) but it is not your usual candy a la Pink Sugar or LVEB. This is a powdery strawberry jam heavily infused with amber, dark inciense, citrics and some white flowers. Plastic in a nice way, like newly opened dolls. Not as heavy as other attars and very wearable but still a very Eastern, weird and distinct smell. Not my favourite, but pleasant and something you can wear everyday in every season. Very gourmand but at the same time very heady and hippie, lovely for casual wear since it's not heavy in sliiage. My boyfriend says it smells edible but I think the inciense takes away the excessive foodiness this would have if it was only based in strawberries. On first application this is a bit like a car freshener but after a while this becomes much softer and nice, more skin friendly +must be the musk undertones) I'm not a fan of too foody smells on myself but this one I find it very easy to wear and distinctive. Strangely I get a bit of Chanel n°5 after a few hours of wearing. Edit: layered this with some sandalwood oil to tone down the excessive sweetness and got a lovely, colder and more adult fume. Like it much better layered this way. Edit: I've been wearing this for some days on its own without layering it with sandalwood oil and I've come to love its musky, soapy dry down. I think this is growing on me. The dry down is to die for!. Edit: my tastes have changed or perhaps it's the terrible hot weather but nowadays I can't stand this. It's too sugary cloying for me. I think I'm going to try this again next winter and see if I find this wearable again. But for now I think this is too sweet and candied for me. I am currently going for green chypres and fresher fumes that doesn't bother my nose in this heat and this is not at all a summer scent

This is my first oriental perfume oil and I am really not sure that I like it. To be fair, I put it over other perfumes I was layering so may not have a true idea of the scent. However, having said that, this smells strange to me/on me and I don't quite know what it is. There is a sweetness with spiciness and bitterness all at once when I first put it on. After a while it smells sweet and incense like but a little syrupy for me. I think I might try adding more amber oil to layer with this one. I expected this to be much warmer and maybe with more depth. Not what I expected and not a smell I am used to nor have I come across before. I remain on the fence with this one for now. Edit: I put this on after my shower on clean skin (not with other scents) and I quite like it! It is still unusual but smells way better unmixed. Beginning to think this is a good buy :) Edit: Further to the above, I have purchased a dupe of Chanel no. 5 and it smells just like it but wayyyy powerful. I have mixed it with Makkah and it is a heavenly combo :P to die for... Edit: My husband smells vanilla with this on my skin. Me too. Much later edit: I smell caramel in this; not the usual kind but the kind you make from scratch by gently warming sugar in a pan, that sort of caramel, sugary/caramel scent. Spices I smell also, am surprised these are not listed in the notes! Much, much later..... (a la Spongebob) - This is one of my favourite Al Harmain perfumes. My first Arabian perfume oil and I love it to death!

Honestly, no perfum should smell like this: incence shop, bubble gum, plastic doll? It is frightening even to read about. And also i think we would agree that it is IMPOSSIBLE to make a sophisticated perfume with Nag Champa- man, that is only for incence! This perfume breaks all the rules. And the result is superb! Soooo funny and enjoyable! Is it like Mukhallat? I don't think so, though i'm a big fan of Montale, Mukhallat is much too sweet and syrupy for me. But this one is much better, much more complex and soft on me, much more wearable. The scent is changing rapidly in the beginning like all Al Haramain oil do on my skin, but really exciting and entertaining all the time. Yes, i really mean entertaining- this is not just a perfum but also a lot of fun, it is really funny to feel how it changes from tone to tone. Luckily i don't get any "urinal cake" tone, but i went through the nag champa, the incence shop, the bubble gum, the strawberry phases, all of them made me smile. And now, in about 10 minutes after i put it on, it is creamy and soft and wonderful, sweet but not cloying, unique but not irritating. i really love it! I have been for Montale for quite some time, having quite of a collection of his scents, but i think i will change for Al Haramain. These scents are more complex for me.

Oh dear this is so intense! I tested it in a shop the other day amongs loads of other attars and it really stood out... BUT my nose was probably a bit fatigued already. Well, now the baby arrived in the post from good old fleebay and I almost nuked my arm. One drop or touch from the rollerball and you turn into a smokeless walking incense stick - strawberry vanilla musk. Or actually, hang on, I really had a real life incense product that smelled very similar - they were Indian incense sticks classified as "outdoor" i.e. large length and a little too powerful for a small room. Will post the name / scent type if I can find the pack. Looking at the notes above I don't disagree however I can't help getting the incense association here. Definitely a scent worth checking out if you like sweet powerful fruity scents with mega sillage. Just be prepared for the head shop effect - this is not cupcakes, it's more like smoking cupcakes (It's ironic this should come in a 15ml rollerball because even if you were to use it everyday I doubt you would finish the bottle in less than a year's time!)

When you first open the packaging, it might smell like plastic or car air freshener. Let the bottle air a bit, the smell of plastic will evaporate soon, and what is left is beautiful. Makkah opens with the pink strawberry-scented eraser, an unnatural aroma that certainly might put some people off, but is also strangely attractive. Raise your hand if you used to sniff your erasers, pink writing blocks and other scented toys as a child! Within 30 min-1 hour, the scent develops into delicious strawberry jam. The dry down to me is vanilla with an oriental twist, probably amber. The strawberry is noticeable throughout. This is a delicious happy fragrance for going out, going for a walk, meeting friends etc. A Barbie girl fragrance. And yes, it is very similar to Mukhallat by Montale.

This is an interesting, inexpensive fragrance. The opening is off-putting with nag champa and a urinal cake accord. It literally smelled like the restroom / bathroom of a sketchy gas station that sells drug paranelia and the like. After a couple minutes, the urinal cake accord gives way to heart of the fragrance - a super sweet strawberry scented incense. After an hour, the basenotes arrive and Makkah becomes more sweet, powdery, musky, and incense-y. It's a very unique scent - in the USA, I expect "alt lifestyle" and hipsters to enjoy this type of scent. It's not initially likeable or appealing. It requires patience to get through the urinal cake top notes. It's really a low-risk blind buy - if you hate it, give it to a hipster friend or someone who enjoys incense.

Chances are that the scent of Makkah will be instantly familiar to you, as soon as you sniff it. Plastic doll heads... Strawberry bubble gum... Car air freshener... All of these are true. To me, this smells like those little shops in Camden that sell incense sticks, fragrance oils, mats and bags handmade from sari scraps, dreamcatchers, scarves, little plastic rings, etc. I'm instantly transported to one of those shops when I smell Makkah. But do I want to smell like this all the time? Hmm. This scent gets better as time goes on, it improves after an hour or so, and ends up smelling like spicy, fruity incense on my skin. Then it eventually fades to sugary vanilla. It's strong, lasts a long time and projects. My husband hugged me and said I smell amazing.

Scent: 6 What i smell the most is the strwberry. It is true that It seems a synthetic strwberry bit this is not bad. The combination with the Resines make It a intense sweet fruity smelling. It is very dry as well. Longevity: 7 This is not the most long lasting attar i have ever tried bit the longevity os not bad. It lasts for 4-5 hours on my skin. Sillage: 6 Problem with this perfume is the sillage. It becomes very fast a skin scent what is nice for a daily use. Quality/price: 10 Even not being the best perfume in the world, 4.50€/15ml (oil) is a very fair price, so if you like the strawberry you can buy It without fears. Versatility: 10 Makkah os very versatile. It is a very soft scent so people can use It in every momento. Global: 7

Extremely close to Mukhallat which is why I bought it. Love this scent, I mostly put it on at home so I don't really waste Mukhallat cause I can't get enough of this smell. I feel like this is just a SLIGHTLY less sweet version of Mukhallat... For the price it's worth it though, if not to wear it then as a test to kinda get an idea of what Mukhallat smells like. Sadly the projection on my skin isn't that good and the lasting power isn't as strong as other people say, but that's just how it fares with my skin chemistry. It just doesn't last long on my skin. The applicator kinda sucks but whatever. I'll try to layer Mukhallat onto this for added strength and see how it works next time.

You need to hear my boyfriend's comment first: "What would happen if you put on every single perfume all at the same time? ....Wait, is that what you did?" This smells like Ivory soap at first, but there's incense and unripe strawberries and a deep rich vanilla/amber/musk something underneath. It really does kind of smell like EVERYTHING. Its new to me, but somehow very nostalgic. The incense doesn't go away, but it gets softer and better-melded. But the Ivory Soap endures throughout the dry-down. I personally love to wear this stuff at night, but I'm not brave enough to wear it to public-facing things Also: a tiny dab on each wrist lasts 16+ hours on skin!

I bought this two years ago. Did not love it. I put it away, pulled it out of the closet today, smelled it, and love it. Soft, fruity, ambery/musky. Very pleasant. It skews to the feminine side of the unisex scale, but I find it appropriate for a summer scent. It has some complexity, but not too much. It does not smell like a cup of fruit. It is more nuanced than that. Richer like a luxury dessert dish. Upscale and tasteful. It won't drop anyone's underwear, but your someone special will come just a little bit closer to breathe just a little bit deeper. If that sounds good and you enjoy a sweet aura around you, this is the scent.

Yup, it has been said before and I can also agree about it: Makkah smells almost identical to Mukhallat by Montale. However in my opinion Makkah has a more cheerful uplifting vibe to it. Slight differences are only detected after closely analyzing the two side by side and even then you really have to focus to try to pick out the differences. Makkah is no doubt the best most affordable version from Mukhallat out there! Also Makkah is way much stronger, it's highly concentrated ( could be because it is a perfumed oil ) and lasts VERY long. The scent itself is pretty straight forward: deep delicious musky strawberry scent!

A beautiful strawberry perfume that brings back my childhood - it smells like a scented eraser that my class mate had. I still like it though, although the sillage isn't what I'd hoped for. I should have listened to the 2 fragrantica members who said the sillage was moderate rather than the 1 fragrantica member who said it was heavy. Oh well, it's a nice perfume anyway. If you rub the bottle in your palm, you can then rub a bit of the oil in your hair and it scents your hair. It smells like shampoo so that is a good use for it.

I felt like wearing an attar to bed this evening and picked this one at random. When first applied, it smells like Nag Champa. It then morphs into a somewhat plastic Barbie-doll-like scent... and then, after 30 minutes or so - to me - it smells almost like marzipan, mixed with resins. I haven't tested Montale's Mukhallat, so can't comment on its supposed similarity to Makkah - but if they are similar, THIS is a ridiculously cheap alternative; these oils last forever on skin as well, although sillage is within arms-length.

The "Big Strawberry" was quite big when the bottle was new but several years later it's lower in the blend. The base notes are strong from the moment I roll it on. I can imagine it is all five notes listed above on Fragrantica, or maybe ylang is in the mix. I definitely smell confectioner's sugar and vanilla, maybe jelly beans. Makkah kind of smells like a sweet liqueur, kind of like vanilla frosting. I don't much care for it nose to skin but it's cheerful in projection.

Purchased a small bottle of this from Ebay as I was intrigued by the notes that people had mentioned on here. As soon as I put it on it hit me - plastic doll's head! But you know what, I actually really like it! I also agree with the strawberry bubblegum vibes too. Lasts a long time and I think it's a great little fragrance for the price and it is quite unusual. Some will hate it, but from me it's a 'Yes'!

A slightly deeper and little bit "serious" version of Mukhallat. Not so synthetic and caramel shades make this more delicious, I think. When I compare these side by side( ! ) I can smell something like patchouli in Mukhallat, which I cannot find here. All in all, the scents are so similar that if you don’t like this, you’ll hardly like Mukhallat either.

First you need to make sure to not cut open your arteries while applying it with the ball applicator. Then you're not sure whether you put all that effort into something fruitful. After a while, you notice it randomly when blowing your nose. And then the next day you wake up and your bed smells like it. It does last. It just does it in it's own way.