Al Nashama

This one surprised me. These days when I buy a Middle Eastern fragrance, I don’t often expect that I will need to let it sit for more than a day or two. It seems that the brands have heard the influencers and heard the complaints and are beginning to send scents out that have had time to mature so that they aren’t written off in the very beginning, or by people who do not have large enough collections that allow them to put a fragrance away after buying it for 3 to 4 months at a time. And so lately, my Middle Eastern purchases have been great and wearable from day one. While they do improve with time, this is nothing like the experience I used to have with Middle Eastern fragrances about a year ago when some of them would be completely unwearable on day one, and need to sit for 3 to 4 months before becoming something that even resembles a fragrance. Now, when I first got Al Nashama, I felt that there was something beautiful here, but the notes didn’t quite feel right. Something in the mix was coming off bitter in the way that synthetic coconut can, although there was no coconut listed in the notes. I, personally, am not a fan of coconut in fragrance, and the more synthetic the note the more I hate it, so I struggled with this when I first got it. Also, I understood this to be an impression of Paragon by Initio. That is a plummy woody fragrance that is absolutely beautiful and while unisex, leans masculine. I’ve heard that Al Neshama would be a more feminine, leaning version of that, and therefore my interest was piqued. When I first smelled this I was disappointed. I could pick up the essence of the plum done in a similar way as paragon, but the rest of the fragrance was just a mess of accords. But I have some experience with this happening with ME fragrances, so I put it away. First for two weeks, then for four, and now here we are six weeks later, with a fragrance that has taken my breath away and captivated my senses. The bitterness is nearly gone, making a brief appearance early in the development and disappearing by the time we get to the mid. The opening is sweet fresh and addictive... it’s possible that time stops when you spray this. This time I could smell the aromatic herbs blended beautifully with a jammy, syrupy, and lush plum, deep, dark and bold. And then just as I was drowning in plum, a rich and fragrant leather embraced me. It is not suede. It is not soft. It has all the rigidity and coldness that it needs to bring balance to this warm, almost hot lava of plummy syrupy goodness. It is stunning. Nose to skin this fragrance is too much. It is dense, heavy, dark, sweet, rich and unrelenting. However, in the air, a beacon. It creates longing. It is way more poetic than I could ever hope to be. I sit here with the nagging dissonance that I could ever be inspired to write such a review about a fragrance that cost me $30. I’ve encountered many wonderful and inexpensive Middle Eastern fragrances. I’ve encountered many wonderful and inexpensive designer and celebrity fragrances. I’ve left reviews on several, but nothing has moved me quite like this. It just feels strange, but here we are. For the price, I would say let it sit. It is worth the wait. And if you are sensitive, spray the back of your neck, the backs of your shoulders, the insides of your elbows behind your knees and your ankles. Don’t spray your neck or your chest and you’ll be fine. You and those around you will be able to fully enjoy this masterpiece in all of its beauty. This is truly an underrated gem.

* Strong complex blend of sweet, fruit, amber, spicy, powder, floral, herbal, woody and patchouli musk aromas * Hybrid cologne that expertly blends fruit, woody and fougere fragrance DNAs * Sophisticated and attractive * Strong performer * Unisex * A modern sweet and fresh fragrance that actually works for older users * Beautiful and unique packaging and bottle * Good QPR value * Good price * May lean a bit too feminine for some male users * Strong fruit may throw off younger users who enjoy modern fresh and sweet fragrances * Competing with its own company's Vintage Radio release Lattafa's Al Nashama is a critically acclaimed release and I have to agree with the acclaim. It's a purported clone of Initio's Paragon, but having no experience with that fragrance I must judge on its own merits. This is a very strong and complex aroma. It blends sweet, fruit, amber, spicy, powder, floral, herbal, woody and patchouli musk aromas. There are aspects of fruity, woody and aromatic fougere fragrances here that makes this appealing to users of those types of fragrances. It's also got appeal to younger users who enjoy modern fresh and sweet fragrances, though they will have to enjoy fruit in their fragrances to enjoy this. This is a very sophisticated and attractive fragrance. It's totally unisex and works well for older users where other fresh and sweet fragrances would annoy them. It goes for a fair price at online discounters and is a good QPR value, especially given its strong performance. Presentation is beautiful, especially the bottle. This may lean a bit too feminine for male users given the strong fruit and floral components, but that's up to individual tastes. As a man I'm definitely enjoying this. Very high quality and a high recommend overall.

Okay. So I've got Vintage Radio and this (don't have Paragon but I've smelled it recently) and I can tell you that, while both have similar underlying DNA, they're not redundant. AN is more surypy sweet, in fact the sweetness reminds me of the kind you find in Ariana Grande Cloud, doesn't have the woody notes, and a creamy lavender is more prominent and goes hand in hand with the syrupy sweet, fruity plum. It DOES lean feminine, doesn't have the slightly tingly hint of synthetic oud accord that VR has, and it's an overall less unisex yet still very much year round wearable scent. Right now in the far dry down it's reminding me a tad bit of Montblanc Individuel lol. Projection is decent (about 3 hours) and so is sillage (4-ish feet), and performance is definitely less than Vintage Radio, but still a respectable 6-8 hours, I suspect it'll get better overtime! I'm a huge fan of the packaging, perfect for gifting, and yeah while the cap feels abit cheap and looks kinda goofy, the bottle has grown on me. Apparently the name "Al Nashama" means, resumed, someone of high character, courageous and of noble traits. At least according to Gemini lol XD Solid 8.5/10.

Need to put this out here because people tend to forget, middle eastern "clone" houses need maceration, some batches are better than the others, but when demand increases after hyping them up they cant macerate later batches so usually the batches towards the end tend to be weaker and more artifical, after maceration they become stronger and smoother more balanced without the artifical smell, and youll be surprised. Now as for this scent its very sweet, floral throughout the dry down, leans more feminine at first but then its very unisex, its not for everyone because the sweetness can be too much, its a nice plum fragrance, nice floral, and its getting better and better with time, it has great performance and great projection on my skin, definitely the 8-12 hour range depending on the weather, and yeah its a great scent for someone whose looking for a sweet plum fruit fragrance, just give it some time to mature and smoothen out.

Bought this on a blind buy and I actually really like it, even though it isn't what I expected. I can't see how this could be unisex. It smells very sweet and feminine to me. On spraying, it doesn't smell great. Almost like scented soap, but after about a minute it settles and smells amazing. Very very sweet and it does seem a little immature due to that, I was really into gourmands as a teenager and young adult and I don't tend to go for them so much now. I do love this though. After an hour or so, a lot of vanilla comes through, and there's something in it that reminds me of Britney's fantasy, specifically the midnight fantasy. It's not a perfume I'd call sophisticated, it's definitely sexy and I think it would be a crowd pleaser because it smells yummy and sweet, but it's got no edge. I plan on layering it with Oud 24 hours, which I absolutely love but find to be slightly too masculine.