Illusion

Illusion is my favorite from a bunch of Nabeels and Al Rehabs I bought. Had never smelled anything like it, but it's right up my alley. It's quite sweet, but tempered with some bitter woody notes. I get vanilla/caramel, fruit, spices, wood, maybe a little smoke. Rich and complex, unisex, nothing sharp in there to my nose. Warm, cozy, sweet, dark. I had to try out the smell-alikes. 24 Scentstory Gold is wayyyy too strong for me. It's gorgeous but it projects like crazy and it just won't quit. Maybe I can finish my decant using it on my ankles? Kinda kidding. Will try in cold weather. I tried Lattafa last. One spray, my usual for everything, doesn't last all that long on my skin. Illusion sticks around longer. But Lattafa smells richer and more fleshed out, more rounded. Will probably end up with a full bottle of that, since it's my favorite of the three, and I've read that these Arabian oils can turn after a while, and that oils in general are less stable than alcohol based fragrances.

Another arabian oil that I'm in love with and I'm so excited it's finally in the database. I've been wearing this for months now and it's fabulous and totally unisex. It really doesn't smell much like the notes listed. It smells very similar to scentstory 24 Gold. It's a dark fragrace. It's sticky ,sweet, woody (i mean this in a good way). I can smell the cedar and strawberry but it's so well blended you have to concentrate to pick out notes. I love wearing it layered under other fragraces and alone. Longevity is amazing and sillage is an arms length. The dry down smells like a deep dark red wine. It's cozy, sexy, salty,sweet, ambery, carmel woods. If you've ever smelled scentstory 24 Gold and you like it you'll love this. It's so similar except illusion is deeper and has the wine dry down. Amazing!!

Oh my goodness - this is gorgeous. A blind buy (as most of my perfumes are), I paid £2.84 for 6ml, with free P&P from eBay UK. My thinking was - if it's a stinker - I haven't lost much... This is an immediate love for me. It's got great sillage for an oil and moderate longevity. Really rich, intense fragrance, sweet but not sugary or cloying, with a delicious woody base. Very well blended; I am not good at picking out individual notes, though. I have a number of fragrances from U.A.E. - this is my first from Nabeel, I think - they are VERY good, well priced and definitely worth investigating.

As with all Nabeel's I hated this at first and it gave me a storming headache. I tried again a few weeks later with a tiny dot on my tummy and I am very glad that I did. This has amazing longevity, even on my horrid dry skin. I totally get the comparison to the perfume parlour version of Cacharel Gloria, but this is much deeper and more complex. It is pretty cold here in the UK, so I look forward to trying this in warmer temperatures to see if it sings even more.

Delicious smell...Warm, sweet, spiced vanilla cedar. This has an earthy, sweet and dark character. I applied this more heavily than I do my other attar oils. I couldn't smell much with the usual one dot rubbed in. Once I applied more liberally, I got this lovely, rich flood of what I thought was a warm cinnamon, vanilla cedar scent floating all around. Spicy, smoky-sweet vanilla wood. It’s my favorite of these attars.