Ember Shaan

@scentatic | Ember Shaan by Byermia Fragrance Some scents tell a story. Others are the story. Ember Shaan captures that intangible realm between heat and ash, where rituals are etched into smoke and the smell of fire persists long after the final spark dies out. ——— The scent opens like a desert ritual at dusk—still air, heat clinging to stone. A burst of bitter coffee hits first, dark and roasted, rising in waves of smoke and grit. Then comes cumin, raw and intimate, not just evoking skin, but feeling like it warm, lived-in, almost breathing. There’s fire here, and closeness. You don’t smell it, you step into it. As the coffee settles, a soft wave of tobacco unfurls sweet, smoky, and slow-burning. It’s wrapped in the resinous glow of opoponax, giving the scent a velvety weight, like the air has thickened with memory. Then the opium accord drifts in dark, dreamlike, casting a smoky haze that clings like the scent of a forgotten ritual. It doesn’t shout. It lingers, quiet, hypnotic, and deep. Time goes by, and what lingers is a quiet, golden heat. The labdanum feels like sun-warmed leather, dry and intimate, while soft curls of benzoin and amber hum beneath the skin like fading embers. There’s no drama now—just the afterglow of something sacred. Then, out of the silence, a trace of smoke and gunpowder flickers, a final breath of fire, remembering itself. ——— Ember Shaan is a rewarding, personal exploration of smokey coffee, amber, and oud that is ideal for people looking for a perfume with character and complexity. It distinguishes out among artisanal orientals for its exceptional craftsmanship and intriguing story.

I can honestly say this is one of the most intriguing, intoxicating & delicious fragrances I've ever experienced - I'm truly in love! It's very exotic and I guess rich pungent? Not exotic in a 'jungle' way or Middle Eastern - I feel like whole vibe of an Indian Goddess would smell of? My Indian dentist instantly wanted to know what perfume it was. I'm not that clued up to talk about notes further it opens up very medicinal bit that's gone in 5 minutes. It evolves into utter decadent richness & I'm still smelling it the next morning. If I had to sum up in three words I would say esoteric, enigmatic, powerful. I literally have to get a full bottle!

Oodles of infinite complexity in Byermia's Ember Shaan! Whilst upon first application one might imagine this composition stands only to be dominated by a heavy coffee accord, just ten minutes of patience will reveal perfumer Ashek Zubayer is at the top of his game. This photorealistic coffee begins to prickle with the smell of turned earth, fragrant cumin and delectable resinous-balsamic tendrils of labdanum and opoponax. This resolute push-pull between sweet and savoury accords is like witnessing warring ancient forces play out; an impassioned grapple for dominance. But here there is no conqueror; there exists only the perfect equilibrium between sweet and savoury, dark and light. Ember Shaan requires some true gravitas to wear well. Its unapologetic in its approach, and is bold and commanding. A delightful and surprising highlight in the rich Byermia portfolio.

Ember Shaan opens up warm and cozy with the aroma of roasted coffee, sandalwood and spices that do not take over but lie like an extra soft blanket in the background. Like a cup of creamy unsweetened roasted coffe in the opening which stays for a long time before the next chapter in this heartwarming journey emerges. A smoldering ballade of notes in the base with a subtle gun powder accord mixed with oud, papyrus and other notes that is tamed by a fusion of benzoin and olibanum. A unisex scent that lasts around 8-10h on my skin with medium sillage and projection. I highly recommend Ember Shaan 👍

Bold spicy woody gourmand scent that gives you the feeling of a Middle Eastern cafe and hookah bar. The scent opens with notes of coffee, cumin, tobacco and opium. There is a brief ambery floral heart of labdanum, rose, opoponax, and cypriol. The perfume settles on a woody powdery bed of cedar, sandalwood, slight oud, incense and benzoin. A bit like Shaghaf from Anfas, it is a nice but familiar blend. The masculine leaning scent has moderate projection and good longevity. Enjoy!

Zubayer is a genius. Capturing millennia-old stories in tiny glass bottles. Ember Shaan is the story of Thutmose III, the energetic, athletic and artistic Pharoah, widely known at the Napoleon of Ancient Egypt for his military successes. The fragrance specifically tells the story of his supposed innermost thoughts in the moments post the battle of Megiddo (the event which gave rise to the word Armageddon in the Old Testament) and which marked his expansion of the Egyptian empire into the Levant. Byermia’s website lists feelings of energy, joy and grief; with victory being as fleeting as the setting sun, or as a bright fire fading into a smouldering ember. I think any wearer prone to fantasy and self-reflection could easily transpose this short narrative onto their own hero’s journey. I know I certainly did. I tested Ember Shaan for the first time in the aftermath of Mother’s Day, while my aching old mum bod was in the throws of battling a particularly nasty common cold (and the kids still asked the inevitable question, “Muuum! What’s for dinner?”). Here's where things get interesting, and once again where my take on Zubayer’s story goes off on a more personal tangent. Thutmose III inherited the throne at age two, and his stepmother Hatshepsut served as his regent, later becoming Pharoah herself, donning herself in beard and masculine garb. After her death, Thutmose III and his son erased her images and name from art and literature, modern scholars can only speculate as to the reasons why. But my overly fanciful imagination has filled in the blanks to suit my whimsy, and Ember Shaan has become Hatshepsut’s fragrance; an olfactory protest for mothers everywhere who sacrifice their identities for the glory of their children.... Only to become invisible, erased, forgotten. Ember Shaan screams from the rooftops (well, pyramids) “Make your own f***ing dinner!”. The opening is meaty. I’m talking boarder-line charred bodies, not dissimilar to Zoologist’s Moth. I guess this burnt savoury sensation comes from gunpowder accord plus cumin. (I love me a bit of taco seasoning in my fragrances!) Moth is unwearable to me. It is a furnace blast of hot spices (cumin and cloves) belching through an ice-cold temple of depravity. But Ember Shaan is nuanced, and gently acclimatises me to its gradually shifting temperatures. Other reviewers might call this “smooth” or “well-blended” but it’s more visceral than that, as if Ember Shaan is obeying the laws of thermodynamics, and it makes me lean in to its ugly truths, rather than run away with nose pegged. The scent unfurls from top to base with layer upon layer of fragrant resins; opoponax, olibanum, choya loban. A liturgical lasagne if you will, one that never screams “church”, but rather reminds me of its historical and biblical backdrop, like hot winds through an Egyptian desert at night. The mid-phase blossoms in verdant-faceted woody splendour, I assume due to nagarmotha and Australian sandalwood joining forces with the opening’s opium. I couldn’t isolate nagarmotha or Australian sandalwood in a lineup, however intellectually when I see these notes listed, I cannot help but feel a palpable sense of home-grown pride. We had nagarmotha in our front yard when I was growing up, “nut grass”. (Say that with an Aussie drawl. Go on, I dare you. It’s fun.) And Australian sandalwood is grown and harvested sustainably in my state. I don’t detect the Turkish rose as a stand-out note, but its effects are felt as a plush cushion softening the spear-like edges of these spikey, splintered greens. The dry-down isn’t flat per-se, that would be depressing. Neither is it buxom as in other incense-amber offerings (le Lion, for example, is still loudly blowing its own trumpet in its late stages with generous bouquets of vanilla and patchouli, and Dior’s Dune is giving me unwelcome flashbacks to the 90s, forty-eight hours after it has dried on my wrist). Ember Shaan’s dry down is gently undulating. Warm benzoin. Vanillic tobacco. Dark, leathery ouds. Dry wood. Close to the skin. I find this strangely reassuring, like the quiet promise of rest and regeneration before my next call to action. I will wear it with pride every time I want to underscore an achievement. And for us mums, sometimes getting out of bed in the morning is an achievement. Ember Shaan isn’t pretty. It isn’t “nice”. It isn’t safe. It isn’t what Good Girls wear. And it is most certainly not the smell of a Nurturing Mother. I’ve worn it all week, to please myself and no one else. I sprayed it before school drop off. My eldest son was gasping for breath. My youngest son blocked his nose and performed a stop, drop and crawl as if trying to escape from a smoke-filled building. Now THAT’S the hallmark of a well-crafted scent in my humble opinion. The bottle pleases me immensely; the minimalist desertscape logo embossed on beige leather (my shadow is blinging beige). I like the gold trim on the cap. I like the tactile cream lid. I like imagining how it will simultaneously fit in and yet stand out visually in my growing collection. If you are looking for an apocalyptic scent with wearability and unisex to male-leaning appeal, look no further than my new signature Ember Shaan.

Super spicy opening that fades into the background with creamy sandalwood and ambery barely noticeable amount of cacao that's sweet like vanilla, and the spicy aspect is still blended throughout it all