Ta'if

My first niche fragrance, my first love among refined scents. As I approached the niche perfumery, I had the chance to attend a very interesting and cozy event by Linda Pilkington in "Il Profumo" (boutique in Milan). She then was presenting her "4 corners of the earth" collection for the first time. Before leaving, I asked the owner a spray of a rose fragrance because rose is one of my favourite notes. I tried O.J. Taif and F.M. Une Rose. I came back some weeks later to buy Taif. I love it. I just love it. It is floral, gourmand, sweet, powdery. The rose note is quite dry, not succulent. There is a well blended contrast between the simple botanical rose note (you can smell it is not a moroccan or a damask rose) and the powdery sweet orchestra around it. There is a gourmand side of it but fortunately not a fruity-vanilla-cookie-Iwanttoeatyou effect. It is more like an arabian delicatessen tasting experience. There is something playful that keeps it soft and delicate even in the dry down. It makes me feel optimistic and calm, classy and unique, confident and kind. I like how the clothes smell the day after and how friends recognize my scarves because of it. The only rose perfume that reminds me of it is Delina, which is not listed in the above "this perfume reminds me of.." list. In any case, Delina is way more childish and cotton candy-ish to me.

Stunning. It turns even better on my skin than on the paper. This is a very light, airy, date-rose fragrance that avoids all stickiness of the dates and all the potentially nauseating cloyingness of rose. I'm not usually a fan of the way OJ makes all their fragrances "airy", but it works very well in combination with the date and rose here - it makes the perfume very versatile, very subtle yet persistent, and very elegant without being too in-your-face. If you're like me and find a lot of date+rose fragrances way too sweet (Jardins de Misfah by Une Nuit Nomade, for example) and that they turn sticky/headache-inducing on your skin, give this one a shot. It's date+rose for people who don't usually like date+rose. Scent: 10/10 Polarity: Unisex to feminine Projection: Soft Longevity: Good --- Edit: I purchased from the brand recently, and am completely perplexed at how different the scent smells in my new bottle. I've left it for about a month to macerate. The new bottle - absolutely NO smell upon opening. Bizarre. Now, about one month later - still very weak, and a very strong, synthetic green aromachemical. This isn't my first issue with the house. The quality control needs some work. The perfume itself is still great, but buyer beware.

This is a delicious easy to love, sweet rose fragrance yet not heavy or cloying. Its not a complicated or mind blowing avant garde but it is still a heavenly rose fragrance. I love this as much as I love 4160 Tuesdays Raw Silk and Red Roses. Saffron and the ta'if rose really compliment each other beautifully with the dates adding more sweetness making it verge on becoming a gourmand. The rose was very strong from the start along with the saffron with the sweetness of the dates becoming obvious half an hour in. The pepper and freesia keep the scent lively and bright with amber giving greater depth. I suspect the jasmine and neroli also contribute the brightness of this luscious fragrance. The saffron and amber are definitely the most enduring notes here. The UK has some of the most amazing daring perfumers on the planet as well as possibly the most conservative. British ladies do tend to be conservative about fragrance which is why SJP Lovely is so popular. Loud brash fragrances heavily applied are a big no no. If you want different then I dare you to check out the fragrances from 4160 Tuesdays. Sarah pushes the boundaries with her amazing story telling creations.

I just got this and i really like it. It reminds me of another fave of mine, sweet diamond pink pepper, which makes sense bc the notes are similar down to saffron. SDPP— it is more of a linear scent, but for whatever reason i dont go anosmic to it, so i smell it all day. Taif i kinda go noseblind but do I think the base and drydown is a bit more complex in this with more amber coming through. I think i get more orange flower too. I think i like the kayali a little more. But this is good too. this is an all season scent, all occasion. It could be an office scent or date scent. I will have to wear a bit more to appreciate the nuances. Note: i layered this with hermes eau de merveilles edt and got a lot of compliments:) i think in winter i would layer with vanilla or chocolate or leather. Update: i wear this more and more! I love it. I saw a u tube review and they talked about the petrol note and i can pick up on it now. Great with orange scents! Reminds me less of sdpp, just its own unique thing to me now. Great for super hot days. Floral but fresh not sweet or cloying.

I didn't expect to fall in love with Ta'if as I'm not fond of rose-heavy fragrances. At first spritz it was as I had expected. A beautiful ripe blousony rose. While I carried on with my day however, the rose blossomed into far more than that singular deep pink note. Sweetness of dates, warmth of spicy saffron, tickling prickles of pink pepper, rich resinous flow of amber. The rose now joined by broom and orange blossom. An exotic resinous veil pulled around the whole beautiful story. My nose and heart now overtaken by a dream of 1,001 nights, magic carpets, colourful bazaars filled with silks and stars and mystery and playful camels (ok... now I'm getting carried away, but having a whole Arabian fantasy sneak up on you will do that). Swoon-worthy Ta'if, I'm intoxicated. Edit: This has become one of my most worn fragrances. Sometimes I hardly smell the rose and the orange blossom plays the star. Or the pink pepper. Resins always present. So beautiful.

It’s floral, sweet, a bit peppery and smells like summer. Very reminiscent of Si passione by Gorgio Armani, and a Hundred silent ways by Nishanae. Smells like an evening, warm or cold. Update! I’ve worn this scent quite a bit since this first review. This is that girly, dress up scent for me. It’s so rosey and spicey and sweet. It’s sexy and elegant and sensual. I feel like I can feel the rose on my lips when I smell this. It’s good for day and night but when I envision this rose she’s bathed in sunlight and pink, warm silks. There’s also a distinct heat from this perfume which I think makes it great for summer (though I’m someone who likes to wear hot fragrances in the heat). There’s also a slight gasoline smell to it? It's very subtle, or maybe it’s tar, but whatever it is I find it very addictive. I just love it, at least on me the saffron, rose, pink pepper and dates all really come through. It melts into the skin so nicely.

First 5-10 minutes leans the tiniest bit feminine, but after that it is 100% unisex. Sweet fruits, light spicy, floral, rounded out unsharp citrus, very airy. It stays this way throughout the entire perfume without dropping any notes, even the rounded out citrus. Extremely versatile due to the airiness of it, like all perfumes with the Ormonde Jayne DNA. Not a problem for men to wear. Will not come off as feminine at all. I don't use the word 'groundbreaking' lightly at all, and I won't use it here. This is extremely extremely nice. Great longevity, great versatility, alluring scent, can be found for a great price. What more can you ask for? For dinners, for work, formal events of any you can even think of. Probably not good enough for clubbing because of how airy, sophisticated, well blended, and complex it is. With this being said, it is still very sexy on a man or woman.

sophisticated. if you're thinking dates + rose + pink pepper and automatically going jammy, sticky, cliché feminine middle eastern rose—no, you're in for a surprise. not that it's not sweet, but there's a watery effect to the rose here that takes it out of the chokening sweetness, and it's not that sweet. i'm not even a rose fan. i've come up with this phrase of "lotiony rose" that i use to describe clean, watery roses that are even less sweet than rose water—like in amouage epic woman and les eaux primordiales cèdre superfluide. this shows that same quality of rose, in my opinion. i think there might be tea or something in the background, allowing the florals to play off each other so masterfully and stay balanced. this shit flows on skin—it's so light, yet lasts and projects for a long time. you can also sense/smell OJ's signature floral DNA. overall, a strong hell yeah.

I have bought and decluttered too many rose scents to mention--jammy, green, cinnamon, marshmallow, cherry powder, gothic graveyard--I mean, I didn't really need to blind buy another one. But this rose may stay in my collection. An exotic rose blooming in a jar of sweet dates, spices and honey. First of all, for a rose with spice elements, it's light and daytime appropriate. I can see wearing 1 spray to work, as another reviewer mentioned below. The tai'f rose is gorgeous here--its heavenly sweetness is balanced with spice and amber, and it's perfectly blended--light and airy, not cloying or mature. It would work as a wedding scent, and I can see it for daily wear. It's hard to imagine a more perfect rose fragrance. For reference, I'm trying in August in hot weather--my favorite rose scents are Diptique's eau Rose, Guerlain's Rose Cherie, and YSL Blouse.

There was a time in the 90's when a south Asian wedding would be a modest affair. The father of the bride would expend his savings on a buffet at the reception of the singular matrimonial event, and if he had the means, splurge on an ice sculpture that required its own rotating fan to outlast the sweltering heat. The powerful scent trail of Ta'if evokes that. There is a particular breathmint of sorts that is consumed after a heavy wedding buffet, consisting of a rose petal jam spiced with cardamom or saffron and packaged in betel leaf, to be placed entirely in the mouth and chewed slowly upon while marvelling at that ice sculpture. Taif is remniscent of this gulkand paan - decadent, sweetly spiced rose with an ambery green heart. It lends a powerful scent bubble though close to skin, lasts a few good hours, and retains its composition in the drydown.

As I expected, this is basically a rose scent, but it also has a synthetic sandalwood note at the opening, a hint of honeyed tobacco, and a very strong citrus in the sillage. Maybe the sweet tobacco-like scent that I smell is the “date” accord. The rose is accompanied by enough spice, saffron, and other floral notes to keep it out of soliflore territory. If I had to characterize the rose, though, it would be a very dark red one, at the peak of its bloom. Once the scent settles down into it’s main theme, which to me is a rosy, musky, sandalwood, it stays linear all the way through to the end. The scent is strong and long-lasting, with plenty of sillage. I really like this take on rose, and find that it’s far enough toward the spicy-woody-musky end of the spectrum to make the flowers enjoyable. A big thumbs up for Tai’if!

One of the reasons why I love this is that I don't smell it on anyone else. It's a light and lovely rose with a Middle Eastern touch. Today, I layered it with Amber Rouge for amber and saffron in stereo and they complimented each other beautifully. I see it getting some hate on here but it's signature-worthy to me. Easily a year-round scent, especially layered. Would I re-purchase? Well, I got a deal on my 4 oz. bottle that was absolutely amazeballs ($100!) and now they're selling in 88 ml for nearly $300. Good thing it's going to take me a considerable amount of time to go through it, because who knows if the discounts will be discounting in the future!

This is the scent I was trying to sniff out in Amouage Epic woman. I could smell it in the background and it was the only part I liked. Who knew it was the ta’if Rose I was liking? I smell sweet powdery rose, but it’s not the regular Rose. I also smell dill seed not to be confused with dill pickle. Pickles smell like vinegar and this is not sour like that. I also smell soft spices. Ta’if is so much airier than Epic woman, yet still complex. This is the perfect amount of exotic that my western nose can handle. Also, something about it reminds me of the smell of the green foam bricks you put in flower arrangements.

I am obsessed... I have old square 50ml bottle with 20ml and i ordered new 50ml bottle... This means i am stuck. I want to save this older version for special times and want to use new bottle for relatively casual days. Geza... Stop mesmerising me, Rose Gold, Champaca, Frangipani, Nawab and this... Softest saffron and sweet/dry dates with ta'if rose, it feels so meant to be. Nothing has done wrong in this perfume. And i knew, my problem was sweet Bulgarian/Turkish rose. Ta'if is sweet but delicate, it's oriental without being intense. I wouldn't call it bold but it surely isn't quite or shy.

I sprayed 2 sprays on each arm to test it & wow this is very nice, immediate love for me. Rosy powdery scent of the highest quality. Uni sex in my opinion. Performance from this test was great & kept coming off my skin for solid 5/6 hours. Full bottle soon. Update: After a couple more wearing I find the longevity to be just 3/4 hours, after that it becomes a barley detected skin scent. I prefer to have at least 6/7 hours so, I will remove it from my want list. Update 2: Even if the performance is not great, i will get a FB because I don't recall a scent that i loved this much.

I don’t think Ta’if roses (Damasacan Rose) smell like traditional roses, and that’s probably the reason some reviewers say they don’t pick up a rose in this composition. I’m enjoying Ta’if. Saffron is the perfect accompaniment, with dates adding some sweetness. Drydown lets spices come into play, and I pick up an odd vinegarish scent that I like. Maybe that’s the broom note? Overall effect is slightly powdery, a middle eastern hat tip. Good performance all around. I have two more to test from my Ormonde Jayne discovery pack. I really liked Tolu and this one.

Wow what a great scent this is. Perfect rose scent with a right amount of everything. I smelled a few rose scent by far this the best one. Its not as strong and feminine rose scent more like balance rose with slightly peppery and a hint of amber and jasmine lingering all over it. Compare it to lyric man. This one is well balance while the lyric man focuses on heavy rose almost like dry rose to me but it smells good too. This is slightly tone down rose. Havent gave it a full wearing. But im loving it already.

The dates note has piqued my interest, so I gave it a try. I found Ta'if very pleasant on paper the first time I tried, but the second time on my skin was a turn off as though there is some sort of herbal dryness and sharpness that irritates my nose and is not as rounded as I would expect (perhaps it is the Ormonde Jayne's style??). I get a tad bit of every listed note, and the scent just feels pretty / okay to me. I do like the composition as a whole, but not very keen on the texture of the fragrance.

There are some perfumes that I didn't "love" initially but then end up reaching for it all the time, Ta'if is one of them. Luxurious rum-ish rose perfume that is surprisingly wearable even in the summer. This was the first sample vial that I emptied in the entire Ormande discovery set. I grew to love it. Be careful with its seductive power; I have had men in their early 20s compliment this perfume and no, I'm not trying to be a cougar! And now, I have the full bottle!

What a lovely rose. It's rich, it's sunny, it really projects, feels youthful but not girly. It has that airy molecule that's reminiscent of the red Emporio Armani ("Emporio Night", if I recall?) It's really pretty, but then I tried the rose in Amouage Guidance and I can't get enough of that with the incense and vanilla anchoring it. Anyway, two very different creatures, and each have a place. When I want a more airy, straightforward rose, I go for Ta'if. 8.5/10