Nasreen

I sampled this yesterday while speaking with its lovely namesake. Nasreen sprayed my arm down with 4 sprays of it since I was too shy to apply more than a squirt. "You know it's good because it's got my name on it!" She laughed and exclaimed happily. This is a scent worthy of having ones name on, to be sure. This is good quality oud paired with a beautiful powdery musky rose, prominent saffron, patchouli and an indistinct sweet-creamy note that is not quite vanillic. It opens rosey-powdery and a bit sweet with a hint of oud. As it dries down the saffron and oud become more prominent, the powder recedes a bit and an old-school chypre quality comes to the forefront. It feels like a modern take on a chypre with a middle eastern woody-musk twist. It is really pretty. When I met up with my husband wearing a cloud of this, his words were "What is that?! You smell sooooo good!" I told him it was a Micallef and his response was "It figures!" It does indeed figure. It is made impeccably from high quality ingredients which comes through. This is worth of a sample if you love all of the following things: oud, old-school chypres, saffron and/or rose musks. If any one of those are not your style, this won't fit. The original Agent Provocateur is as close relative.

I got a sample of this and decided to give it a try. When I first put it on there was a sharp scent that was unpleasant. It wasn't patchouli or oud, those I can handle, but it calmed down into more of a rose scent. After an hour the scent is very faint and mostly has a whisper of floral incense. Looking at the notes I wanted to smell some honey and more incense. It isn't something I will spend my $235 on.