Cairo

I owned this and for some obscure reason sold it, then acquired it again, and in my second acquisition was perplexed as to why on Gods's earth would I have gotten rid of this in the first place! Anyway, this makes me appreciate the fragrance much more, as well as understand it even more. This is perfectly blended and probably my favourite rose scent. I love rose, but find it extremely hard to find a rose fragrance for me that does not lean all the way feminine. The rose is blended so brilliantly with the Vanilla and spice, that it makes it feel like a hybrid accord of all 3, this is not a rose fragrance, but to me it's quite rose dominant with the vanilla and spice. I can probably wear this fragrance all the year round, night or day, but it would be a little bit too eccentric for the office for a man, I don’t think it would be for a woman, I'd wear it in all occasion otherwise and in all climates unless it was a blisteringly hot day. It has Penhaligon's exquisite DNA, luxurious, delicate, and akin to all other Penhaligon's it's a decent projection and longevity, a tad better than most Penhaligon's. It's very round with no sharp edges and creamy smooth. I'd buy this again, and it sits in my staple collection, alongside a handful of Creeds, PdMs and Initios. It's my number 1 Penhaligon out of approximately 21 bottles, followed by Babylon, Sartorial and Savoy Steam, when/if I acquire Lord George, it might overtake Savoy Steam :) I'd highly suggest it, it's blind buy and FB worthy, inoffensive and highly versatile. Enjoy, and God bless :)

When thinking about popular notes combined with Rose you find all of them in this scent except Oud. In Cairo - there are Saffron and Rose, Cypriol Oil, Patchouli and Labdanum blended nicely with Vanilla in a woody base. This is very balanced scent what comes to those notes and none of them is actually dominant. This is not overly sweet, it’s not so “jammy” like those ones with just Rose with Vanilla. It’s not dark scent either. Cairo is as well somewhat restrained if thinking the performance and comparing for example with gorgeous beast Radical Rose which fills the room immediately (I love it a lot). It’s not weak, don’t get me wrong, but it just doesn’t scream to get attention and the notes are in a perfect harmony with each others. Different combinations of the notes mentioned above has been done hundreds of times and considering uniqueness, it’s not found here. Anyway while searching the scent with all these notes in one I found this one being the best. The blend is not complex, nor difficult to understand which makes it very versatile and safe to wear. The longevity is great. Wonderful scent for everyday wear during autumn and winter. I can wear even a dense ouds during summertime but I think it’s leather which makes this too heavy for hot days imo. Thank you for reading, I hope my review was helpful. I would appreciate a lot if you want to follow me on IG and/or YouTube (English subtitles): @ninamariahperfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more. 🤗

Excellent, and Penhaligon's has finally gotten the message and is selling 10ml cylinders of the stuff under their own label, although strangely not on their websites. I seldom go into stores anymore, so I don't know if they're selling them there if you beg the salespeople to dredge one out of the back of a drawer. (Oh please, oh please, I won't tell; I'll make everyone think I had to drop $200+ at this very counter.) How many million decants sold by other people did it take them to figure it out? I wanted Cairo when it first came out, but I was really hesitant. The list of notes could go any way, and I was afraid it would just be weird. Penhaligon's has crossed the line from unusual to weird way too often in the last 20 years, in my opinion. And I swore I wouldn't buy another $50+ bottle of anything before I bought a decant first. (This is Fragrantica; most people here know what I mean.) So far anyway, I think Cairo is the best of their Trade Routes Line. For once, Penhaligon has produced a scent that smells like it might have come from Middle East and/or specifically Egypt. It's not DSH's Antiu; that's the gold standard for me on Egyptian motif fragrances. But Cairo is worthwhile and I'd buy a full bottle if I felt flush. Love the spices and patchouli. So far it's lasted about 6 hours on my skin, just from a quick squirt when it first arrived.

Another solid fragrance from the Trade Routes Collection. Cairo is definitely similar to Constantinople, the only differences being that this has a much more noticeable patchouli and saffron's sweet spiciness, whereas Constantinople focuses more on the rose and vanilla. In a way, it's like Cairo is the masculine scent and Constantinople is the feminine one, but I think both are unisex either way. For some reason the whiffs I was catching of this scent in the very early opening smelled like black olives, but that might just be me and in any case it was for about 5 minutes. Overall a very solid scent but not my pick for a rose-patchouli/oud. Performance was mediocre but once again I had issues with my sample's atomizer, I really wish fragrance houses moved away from that generic sample vial and used the one with the better atomizer (people with a ton of samples like me might know what vials I'm referring to). Projection was moderate but sillage was a bit dense despite how little I could spray on myself. Even while being outdoors I could smell myself a lot. Longevity is where the poor atomizer affects performance the most, as it's only been about four hours since I sprayed this on and it's already very weak, almost gone. I'm confident that off a decent atomizer/bottle this will last a really long time on skin.

Cairo by Penhaligons is an amazing fragrance from the British fragrance house and smells just like a rich Arabian prince and has a nice blend of Arabian rose and vanilla which may smell like oud notes like many people have mentioned but before you buy just know that there are no oud notes but it still smells very Arabic. I do love the amazing saffron note at the start and really does boost the Arabian feel of this fragrance too which smells very authentic in my opinion. Now yes the prices at Penhaligons are absolutely crazy just like Tom Ford with this costing around $300 retail but if there is one fragrance that they sell that is worth the high price point it would be this one. Penhaligions get a lot of stick about their fragrance's longevity but this one lasts a long time at around 12 hours on my skin which is amazing in comparison to Lord George which lasts around 6 hours so expect this to last a long time. I also love the projection from this fragrance as this can be smelled from a good distance away and leaves a nice Arabian scent trail when you walk around. Scent: 10/10 Performance: 10/10 Longevity: 9/10 Sillage: 9/10 Price: 7/10 Blind Buy Safe: 9/10 Overall: 10/10