Tabac Dore Attar

The first few seconds of opening you can smell chocolate like patchouli (very similar to Profumum Roma Patchouly) mixed with smell of rum/whiskey oak barell, how it develops further you can feel elegant smell of tobacco. How im wearing it couple of times, the opening seems to be not so boozy and chocolate, more like dry cocoa powder. If they compare Tabac Dore spray bottle with Oud Balsam from Feel oud, i will say they are very similar in case of attar version too (i didnt tested spray version), they have same DNA, maybe Tabac Dore was starting point for Oud Balsam. Tabac Dore is less sweet, less oudy than Oud Balsam, less beast. Its tuned down to more subtle everyday scent for everyday occasions, with more fragrance like aura. Oud Balsam is more about oud and resins, Tabac Dore is more about Tobacco and “honey”, still not sure if the all sweetnes is coming from oud or other ingredients. So in case of only 2 comments in comments section about Tabac Dore you can see the difference of perception. I dont get any strong oud, of course it’s definitely there, but the thai oud is maybe mimicking like sweet honey/fruity scent and in combination with tobacco is perfectly balanced so you can perceive it mostly like honey/sweet + tobacco combo, not strong oud scent in my opinion. At first hint you get tobacco oud combination, but there is more things floating around, its hard to catch them and describe them with words. There is hint of cinnamon, pepper, vanilla, but main actor is Tobacco and Oud. At the drydown is mostly sweet scent, will prefer if it will end more in animalic way, for this reason i will say its more for winter season. But the other time the sweetnes is ok for me, this fact depends a lot on if i have empty stomach or full, the sweetnes is working on me in gourmand way, so when im hungry it seems to be too much sweet. The other time drydown is in funky cacao way, there is also other type of finale which is in powdery way. At this point of wearing it, it develops in 3 different scenarios of drydown. (They are more ingredients than are listed here on fragrantica, it have same composition and ingredients as spray version.) Overall feeling is sometimes its too flat, flat but also deep, but only in one directon and the direction is vanilla. But it also somehow reminds Tolu Balsam, its more to the direction of tolu balsam than vanilla.

This is a class-leading tobacco scent, with tobacco absolute at the heart and only notes like ambrette, fig, and oud added to highlight the character of the tobacco. I find that tobacco scents are quite common in the market but few scents actually offer real wet leaf tobacco, instead hiding it behind veils of smoke, vanilla, and vetiver. This is a rare exception. BUT - the one caveat I have is that it progresses too quickly to a kind of dry, salty, balsamic phase, which is similar to the dry down of rosa's Manhattan. The rich dense tobacco disappears and we are left with something dry and resinous. The team from YouTube channel Wafts from the Loft mention this. They say it is pyrazine giving a 'burned popcorn vibe', although I don't get burned popcorn. But the nice people at Bortnikoff sent me a FREE sample of the Attar version (I am not a promoter, just a fan) and all these issues are resolved. The Attar has deep fig and oud and never enters a dry balsamic phase like the spray version. I have tried the attars for Dream, Oud Monarch and Lao Oud as well and they are all deeper and richer than the spray version - and beautiful packaging! So I would get a sample of the spray version and if you find it too dry and balsamic in the dry down, but like the overall scent profile, the attar is a no-brainer. I honestly think Dimitri tweaks the formulation for his attars so that they are richer and more rounded, even considering the expected different scent evolution as compared to the spray version (aroma chemicals effervesce differently from oil vs alcohol).

Olfactory Description : Tabac Doré is a fragrance of the oriental night, charming and unforgettable. The precious absolute of tobacco, which is used in the composition, contains more than 300 components, including intriguing pyrazines and sweet, fruity damascenones — they form a unique deep aroma of tobacco, mysterious and exotic, which relaxes you and gives you confidence. Another important component of Tabac Doré is wild oud from Thailand and Vietnam. “Wild” is the best word to describe the smell of this thick dark blend of oils, which has no analogues in the world of perfumery. Decorated with vanilla absolute, balms and resins, these two main ingredients will immerse you in the noble luxury of the East.

Comparisons with the spray bottle. Full, deep, dense to put it simple. That deep cigar and oud smell is alot better in this than the spray version because of the higher concentration and the ambery sweetness is taking a backseat while it's more on the front in the spray version. Performance is about the same. Tabac Dore isn't loud in either one, just warm and comforting. Expensive, but easily worth it.