Kingdom of Bahrain

Let me start my first Fragrantica review with this gem from Roja Dove. Bahrain is the most underrated from the Gulf collection and is one that is completely different from all the others, it brings a complexity which is almost a journey and an experience - it starts off with a fresh citrus opening which is rather dry (Chypre style that Roja is known for executing really meticulously) and slowly transforms into a woodsy, fruity and sweet dry down. It's not often that you find a fragrance that can completely go from one starting point and end in a complete different direction, I would consider this a form of art on its own - and Bahrain is such a joy to wear for this reason amongst others. I see this as Elysium's older brother, a more sophisticated scent which has complexities that might be appreciated only by those who have been in the game for a while and have already smelled a variety of scents. My rating: A solid 9.5/10 The dry down is a thing of beauty which is hinted at from the first spray. It's extremely versatile and would work in any type of weather, it really shines on a pleasant summer's evening. Performance is great but I find it more of an intimate scent which doesn't have beastly projection. Unfortunately, this has been discontinued so getting your hands on a bottle might prove to be difficult and expensive. On the other hand, a lot of people really dislike Bahrain (because it's so different from the other 'Aouds' in the Gulf collection) so maybe you might get a deal if you act fast enough. I think this is going to be a very sought after scent in a few years when people realise it's gone and are reading through reviews (maybe even mine) Lastly, let me discuss the price. I personally wouldn't pay retail for this, I wouldn't be able to justify it. I managed to get it at the clearance sale in Harrods which was a no brainer for the quality and even presentation. There is something worthy of hype with Bahrain but as always, you shouldn't blind buy into any sort of hype. This creation deserves more praise and I hope this review will get everyone interested enough to find out how good it is for themselves!

Kingdom of Bahrain is an interesting scent, for one because it seems to have no connotations with the middle east in the slightest. Instead, it heads into aromatic fougere territory, but despite this it’s still a beautiful scent and I can see why people love it - but it’s not my favourite from the Gulf Collection. The citrus notes of lime, lemon and bergamot are present throughout the life of the scent which is mixed beautifully with green, woody and aromatic notes of sage, bay leaf, birch, pine, cypress and patchouli to give the scent a powerful and sophisticated masculinity. Alongside this, it’s got the delectable sweetness of a gentle cotton Candy accord, contrasted by the sexy saltiness of marine ambergris. Bahrain is a beautifully smooth scent combining the rugged desire of aromatic fougere, with the youthful allure of candied sweetness. Like I said it seems to have no relation to middle-eastern perfumery which is strange, but the scent is beautiful and has good longevity.

Kingdom of Bahrain has a bubbly and acidic citrus opening mainly due to the FANTASTIC lemon and lime. The heart of spicy rose, jasmine and violet propels the scent into a clear, clean space that hovers over the voluminous, dense base with its peaceful 'oud and gray leather gaining a fleshy dimension thanks to subtle brushstrokes of birch tar, pine, rubbery saffron, pepper and an earthy patchouli. Perfume is saved from weight by two things: First, a surprising cotton candy note adds a hint of sweetness and delicacy to the leather and smoky wood accords, elevating the scent firmly into versatile, unisex territory. Second, fresh citrus top notes join a radiant ambergris at the base to effectively brighten the scent, brightening your darkest corners and breathing air in your crevices. Masterful, charming, elegant and full of spicy heat, yet fresh and smooth Kingdom of Bahrain is truly a perfume fit for a king. A masterpiece by Roja Dove!

My favourite from this brand. I hate hate all the oud line however this is totally something else. So happy I do not feel any oud in it. It tells a story of a beautiful teen girl wearing pink walking in the woods by night in an enchanted forest. You can smell the wet dark woods, the humidity leaves blending with the sweets and cotton candy reserves from her pink bag pack. Sweet deep woody resinous camphorous humid and mix with the cotton candy is really something else this perfume. Not for everyone. My top 10 for life.

An invigorating interplay of citrus and freshness from Lemon, Lime, Clary Sage, and bergamot becomes even more uplifting with an introduction Pink Pepper and spicy Saffron, made untamed by a bouquet of Violet Rose, and Jasmine, caressed with the unusual note of candied floss (cotton candy). After an hour the dry down comes front and center with an overture of woods including Cedar, Cypress, Casmir, Pine, Birch, and Aoud Woods, with an underlying base of Vanilla, Ambergris, Leather and Tonka Bean.

Extremly fresh and natural take on intensive lime I detect various green aromatic elements that give this blend a nod to the 80s powerhouses but in a much more refined and smoother way I detect zero sweetness from the candy floss accord projection on my skin was decent at 2-3 hour range after that it stayed closer to the skin for a duration of 8-9 total hours overall a great scent for the hot weather definetly easy to wear and a crowd pleaser

OMG! Landshark is a review who I’ve resoected for several years consistently now! I finally got a 1.2/2ml sample from luckyscent a few days ago and it’s nothing short of😱🤩😯🥰😲🤭🥳🥳🥳! YUUUUUUUUUUUUP’! Another $550 USD+ coming out of my pocket for sure.... This fragcomm is gonna send me into CHAPTER 11, 11.1. 11.2..., 11.3, aaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way down to the bitter finale😩🥺😳😭...! I’m going down smelling like a Sultan tho!😉😎!

Easily my favorite Roja scent. Opens with some spice and zest, but warmth is permeating throughout it's life. Rich, opulent, decadent, soothing, and warm. Must try for anyone, male or female, old or young, even if the note breakdown doesn't seem like your thing, this is a top 3 scent for me after trying 100+ in the past 2 years, can't get enough of it. Spoil yourself with at least a sample <3

Quality at the extreme end of good. Performance is supercharged for first few hours then is reduced to a whisper. Similar to the power of a tiger with less than stellar endurance. If KOB had better longevity it would be a true king with no equals. Projection in the initial stages is well above average as is sillage. Enjoy it while it lasts on your skin, as you are in for a treat for certain.

This is the best out of the Gulf collection, and possibly the entire Roja Dove. Just opulent opulent opulent. The notes are so sophisticated you just come to that conclusion. Oh, and discontinued too so good luck finding one guys!

another masterpiece from Roja and from that collection as all of them, it lasts forever and keeps evolving stunning!

The opening is simply the best lemon/lime citrus presentation I have ever smelled. For the first 15 minutes or so, the green and yellow citruses are just simply jaw-dropping. So real, so smooth, so ethereal. Then the citrus settles down and cedes to a green/woody/naturally sweet smell. It's hard to really put my finger on what makes this part of the scent progression so magical. The notes come together in a symphonic nature - Ambergris, pepper, a leathery/oud-ish vibe, and woods are all somehow blended into a sweet, but not sickly-sweet dream. I guess it is the cotton candy note that impresses me, because I would have expected it to ruin the other notes. Instead, it truly enhances and compliments all of the other great things going on. I like sweetness in my fragrances, but I really don't like sweet-forward scents. The cotton candy note never makes me think gourmand - not at all in fact. This is an absolutely amazing scent. I must admit I'm a little disappointed with the performance - I sprayed two good sprays on each arm and 2 hours in I'm afraid it is only a skin scent. But oh what a skin scent it is! Stunning

My next try from the Roja Parfums 2017 line of perfumes named for countries in the Middle East, Kingdom of Bahrain definitely feels like a bit of a departure from the other three I've tried (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait), each of which are some vary degree of rose/oud/fruit combo. Kingdom of Bahrain, rather, comes of like a spicy/woody combo along the lines of a fougere or chypre rather than something the abovementioned trio of accords play in significantly. Note-wise, I get mixed citrus, florals (jasmine, in particular), pepper, woods (cypress and birch, specifically), a certain herbiness (I'm thinking that's the saffron), and something vaguely animalic, perhaps attributable to leather and ambergris. It manages to avoid being sweet (I can't detect the tonka, really) so it stays pretty serious from its sharper opening to smoother dry down, a typical evolution. Performance is unsurprisingly strong and the price, at $550 for 50ml via Luckyscent, is unsurprisingly high, a bit too high for my liking, as there are many scents in a similar playing field for a fraction of the cost. 7 out of 10

An extremely pleasant scent, suitable for spring, summer, and autumn. Very different from the rest of the Gulf Collection. The quality of ingredients is exceptional and you get the feel that the best ambergris in the world has been used in this. It starts with citrusy, aquatic notes, and then the woodier notes start to come through, the sweet-saltiness of the ambergris is present throughout. Longevity was okay, 6-8 hours and skin and much longer on clothes. The sillage is not huge but it's enough to remind you that it is there all throughout the day. It doesn't beat UAE for me but this is a solid fragrance especially if you love ambergris.

Fragrantica that are originally born and raised in a Bahraini Family in Kingdom of Bahrain. I would like to highlight that this has nothing to do with my country in terms of the scent profile. It smells nice but thats it. Our culture and heritage has very little to do with the mix of cotton candy, lime, cypress, and ambergris. It smells like they have mixed Elysium with BR 540 together and that was the result. I really wanted to love this more since its the only fragrance that has my country’s name on it and especially that it was done by Roja Dove but I couldn’t. Little sillage but good longevity.

You're hiking in a thick forest in the early morning. You're with your lady, the ground is damp with the morning dew, and after some time, for some reason, you stumble upon a tiny sweets shop that's hard at work churning out fresh candies, nestled into a grove surrounded by trees. As you get closer, you notice that it's also surrounded by haggling merchants that are selling fresh fruits and flowers from their stands, and a couple of the merchants light up some cigarettes and step away to have a smoke. Kingdom of Bahrain by Roja Dove.

this one is very oriental. I you have such a taste then this is a good option. the smoky vibe is overtaking the rest of the notes. very good blend but as usual for niche fragrances it's very hard to use. I would say ıt would smell better in days that are a bit chilly. spring and fall.

Smells tons of kuweyt dinar rich elegant and luxury 10/10 scent but performance is trash duh

i'm so sorry but this is SOOO unworthy of the price tag, at least a few other old Rojas do but man, this? it literally smells like something leaning towards the BR540/OFG DNA, you could rebottle this juice into a middle eastern frag and i genuinely couldn't tell the difference... a concotion of cheap synthetics with a minute presence of naturals and also, the "oud" is literally undetectable. save your money and DO NOT pay the price tag for this 😂 (i agree with everything @akshat_dudeja mentioned below)

An emotionally distant impeccable composition When I finally added Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait bottles to my collection, I decided it was time to finish my decant of Kingdom of Bahrain. I approached it with a certain reluctance - it remains the only fragrance in the Gulf collection that I simply don’t connect with. Kingdom of Bahrain is undeniably well-crafted, but it brings together elements I’ve never quite warmed to: specific accords and note combinations that just don’t resonate with me. From the very first spray, it opens on an accord I find challenging - aromatic Bay leaf (Laurel), herbal Clary sage, and a medley of citruses that together evoke a distinctly traditional masculine profile. It’s the kind of sharp, aromatic freshness that doesn’t appeal to me, even on men. Beyond the opening, the fragrance is built around spicy, citrusy, woody, and ostensibly “fresh” accords - though I personally wouldn’t describe this kind of composition as fresh in the conventional sense. The floral heart, which should act as a soft bridge, is almost entirely overshadowed by the assertive top and base. It feels more like a structural necessity than a true presence. As the scent settles, the base reveals an aromatic, balsamic greenness - piney facets intertwined with an increasingly dry woody structure. Cypress, cedar, and a synthetic cashmer wood accord create a texture that is far from the usual velvety, soft, powdery warmth, even coziness associated with cashmere-like notes. Oud plays a surprisingly restrained role compared to the other fragrances in the Gulf collection. It isn’t animalic, opulent, or even particularly refined - instead, it feels clean, almost abstract, adding a faint resinous edge to the woody backbone. Leather is similarly subdued, lending a subtle darkness without ever becoming tactile or realistic. The base leans heavily into spice, and even Roja’s typically masterful touch with a cotton candy accord is nearly imperceptible here. Notably, this is the only fragrance in the collection that lacks sweetness entirely - a characteristic that might actually make it the most appealing option for those who shy away from sweet compositions. It also stands apart as the only distinctly masculine fragrance in Gulf collection, while the others lean comfortably unisex. My personal dislike of Kingdom of Bahrain doesn’t diminish its quality or make it a poor fragrance - far from it. On the contrary, I’ve tested countless fragrances within this genre over the years, and this one stands apart in terms of craftsmanship, intensity, and the precision of its notes.It is layered and nuanced, with subtle variations revealing themselves with each wear. Despite its “fresh” elements, I would firmly place Kingdom of Bahrain in a winter setting. There’s a density and darkness to it that outweighs any brightness from the citrus - those lighter facets feel more like fleeting accents within a much heavier structure. The composition is ultimately grounded by a refined smokiness and a faint tar-like nuance that emerges intermittently, adding yet another layer to its complex character. Kingdom of Bahrain is a fragrance I can intellectually admire far more than I can emotionally embrace. It stands as a testament to precision and compositional discipline, offering depth, structure, and a clear artistic vision. Yet for me, it remains distant - something to study rather than to wear, to appreciate rather than to love. Finishing the decant feels like a farewell and more like closing a chapter I’ve learned from, but have no desire to revisit. I have no idea how the scent can resemble any of the following scents (I haven't used or tried any of the others listed): Amore Mio, Overdose, Fruity Aoud, Baccarat Rouge 540 and Oud for Greatness are all completely different scents in terms of structure and notes. The following have a very similar scent profile, even though the scents are not similar to Kingdom of Bahrain: Search, Reckless Pour Homme and X for Men. The remarkable difference lies on how complex, dense, dark and multilayered Kingdom of Bahrain is. Thank you for reading, I hope you liked my review. I would appreciate if you follow me on my IG and/or YouTube (English subtitles available): @ninamariahperfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more.