Touch Me

Yeeeeeeeaaaah..... Umm...I will admit that this is a difficult one. Short of pure oud, this one is the farthest that one can get from the way a western fragrance behaves. You know those top notes that get you to plunk down your hard earned cash in the department store? Not here. That delicious boozy scent that is the result of the fragrant pyramid (top, middle, and base notes) commingling with the alcohol carrier that wafts from the atomizer of a western frag? NOT here. Instead what is here is a scent that takes patience to develop on the skin. The reviewer Laurdess is right in that to western noses, this stuff is noxious out the bottle. It smells dreadful. Like a red painted fingernail raked across a chalkboard, it's jarring and unsettling. You don't want to smell it again, you certainly don't want to wear it. I purchased a 6ml CPO about 8 months ago. I immediately uncapped it upon receiving it in the mail and took one whiff. Yech! I promptly placed it in the furthest spot of my vanity never to see the light of day again or find a home on my pulse points. I forgot about it thinking it was an outdated scent or perhaps I'd gotten one that had gone rancid. Certainly no one would want to voluntarily smell this way. Now, I love attars and I've really gotten in to them over the last year. Throughout my sensory travels in the attar world, I would continuously run into others referencing Nabeel's Touch Me as being a classic example of an aspirational (read: budget conscious) attar done right. Surely all of the individuals who loved this oil could not be crazy. I decided to fish it out and try it one more 'gain, as they say. I opened the bottle and almost lost my nerve. There was that noxious paint thinner scent again. I gathered up my courage and dabbed it on. Then I figured, YOLO, and rubbed it on in. Oh that medicinal oud is there in spades. I smell civet...kidding...but it was yeah...then I sat down and decided to let it bloom. It turns into a.........delightfully expansive floral bouquet edged in smoky leather. There is no sweetness, just pure sophistication that is so well blended that no particular note takes center stage. I am shocked. I am positively amazed. It does have a vintage feel to it in that it is not the saccharin sweet floral bombs of today, but it's certainly not outdated. This is the darkest red lipstick, vibrant bulgarian roses,spectator heels, black lace, and silk stockings. It's your grandmother's perfume if she was a stunning chanteuse belting out ballads in a smoke filled Lebanese cafe in the 1950s. To sum things up, this is an adult perfume. This is for grown folks. It's not the offbrand screw cap moscato that a wayward teen might sneak into their dorm room...this is the aged Chilean malbec that a well traveled person in their 40s might sip among mature friends in their own well appointed home while reminiscing about the silly days of their youth. It has it's time and place. Now I can't see it becoming an everyday perfume for me (to be honest I am not there yet...I enjoy just a little sweetness both to my wine and my perfume. Not syrupy sweet, just a shot of light to ease the weight of it all.) but I can enjoy it for what it is. I will be moving it into my rotation of scents.

While I certainly can't speak for all Americans (nor would I care to try: as one of the melting-pots of the world, we're a pretty varied bunch), I find this fragrance quite lovely, and can easily see its popularity! I bought the 1/2 tola/6ml CPO with the fittingly pale-orange label. Right away, I am faced with a sweet-floral accord that, to my nose, smells of orange peel, orange-blossom, and rose- with just a touch of jasmine and ylang-ylang. I know that it is more-complex than this, but these notes are the only ones that are "visible" to me right now. Underneath that is oudh with its floralish top-notes. I've smelt oudh alone- and find it fascinating; the oudh used here isn't the very-best or most-complex, but it is far from the worst: it's a nice, slightly-linear oudh which remains throughout a wearing. It is enhanced with delicate touches of musk, patchouli, oakmoss, and leather- which become more-prominent on the drydown. I'll try to add more to this review at a later date, but for now I'll close this off by saying that I think this is a striking composition- a floral chypre- well-constructed, beautiful and with great character- certainly well worth much more than what I paid!

I have the oil with the peachy-orange label. It rolls on smelling like every other Middle-Eastern perfume oil... oud, oud, and oh yeah... oud. Fairly quickly, it blooms into this gorgeous, hot, organic rose, and stays that way for about 5 minutes (my favorite part...mmmmm). Then, a rather brief drydown of the same rose but much quiter, and some pleasantly dusty, woody spice. All-around, earthy, warm and satisfying for rose-lovers such as myself. It could last longer, but it's so inexpensive that it's a pleasure to roll on & take the short journey again and again.

To "golden" below who called this "a really good dupe of NR Essence". Nabeel's Touch Me came out literally years before the release of NR Essence.

I've not noticed any oudh in this perfume. It starts off on me as a blast of white flowers with a slight hint of saffron and then jasmine in the background. There is a hint of citrus and spiciness as well. It is pretty potent and powerful and so a little goes a long way, I've got an oil version of this perfume. To me in general the notes are so well blended together, that they're difficult to pick out-apart from the ones I've listed above. I find this perfume pretty sweet-or it might be that my skin likes to amp up the sweeter notes, I would personally like to tone it down with more earthier notes-if I were to layer it. Personally I'd consider Touch Me as a mix between a western and an oriental perfume, perhaps leaning a little more towards western. Touch Me is a fragrance that I would not wear if wearing jeans, a t-shirt and trainers, this perfume is one I would use if I were to dress smartly. To me this perfume is not for every day use, it's for special occasions. Touch Me is an elegant and sophisticated perfume that smells far more expensive than it is.