Alahine

I don't know what led others to fall down the "rabbit-hole of frangrance/antica, but one perfume did it for me: Vallee des Rois by Mira Takla (NOT listed in Fragrantica). It is now in the Osmothèque. I have a few bottles and it is fantastic. It is my "10," my perfect fragrance. I interview for a job? I wear it. I'm crushing on that special someone? I wear it. It's my rabbit-foot, my go-to. It's the one perfume that literally stops people in their tracks, eyes rolled back when they smell it. Longevity is...OMG...three days if you don't bathe, I kid you not. Sillage is not in the "poison realm" but it's present, teasing, whispering, trailing. I threw all my bottles away of other perfume after two weeks of wearing it. That was not a good move in retrospect. But I did. When it was discontinued I found it. But, by the time I had hoarded some of it, I was already trying to reclaim my old loves and find my lost love in new places. Alahine is not a dupe of VDR, but it reminds me of it. It's not exact--not my one true love, but it's awrsome. I found Frgrantica through a member who shared my love, "knit_at_nite" and who directed me to "Chergui" produced by Serge Lutens. I had never heard of the brand, and now I have tested and tried the whole line (I'm an SL fan), and Chergui too comes close in some way. Alahine has many of the juxtaposing elements of floral-citrus lightness with the bergamot (but there is a strange & unpleasant 1 minute "burn off" initially)--and warm woods, musk and resin. It balances beautifully between floral/rose/jasmine and even turberose, and amber, incense spicy qualities (though less incense and spice than VDR). It shares the resinous "honey-floral" sweetness of SL Chergui. Other elements that I pick up NOT in VDR are patch. I had a few whiffs of cumin drift past my nose which puzzled me until I realized the patch used was probably turning that way on my skin. I like patch, and here it is low and quite fine, but again, missing in the VDR. It is an occasional whiff, so for patch/cumin haters, do not be deterred. I do not get as much Ylang as other members. The dry down is considerably more simple than VDR (which is fairly linear actually, maintaining its exact loveliness for hours). It "mainly" results in a low, humming amber /benzoin, musk-vanilla and sandalwood smoothness; that is what wafts up to my nose. But if I smell my wrist, then I get the heart of VDR all flooding back to me again, perhaps ever so slightly less floral. I don't usually score, but I had to considering what the perfume is "up against." Overall: Perfume score: a 9.0--9.5 (out of VDR 10) Longevity: 8.5 Silage: 7.5 A definite try from Teo! Bought an FB and it may be reformulated since it does not smell the same as the sample, which was from PP.

Alahine is my favorite oriental of all time. It is absolutely STUNNING. I have worn Alahine for about 12+ years now and I've never been able to write a review here on Fragrantica. I'm afraid. I can't bear to read other reviews beneath this one in case they are negative. Alahine feels personal to me. She is so gorgeous and perfect in every way. I will probably come back and write something more specific about the notes. For now, I'll say that Alahine isn't really describable in terms of specific notes. The house of Teo Cabanel does a phenomenal work weaving fragrances together that become a living entity, a smell that exists and is a thing of it's own. Due to this it's very difficult to describe Alahine in such a specific manner, such as "this one has amber and labdanum and ylang..." Alahine is a classic floral ambery oriental in the same sort of genre as Coco Chanel. Not similar to Coco, but the same type of Oriental family. Alahine is a warm, shimmering, slightly mentholated, camphorous, savory and balsamic aroma. Alahine is not strictly floral on me and not particularly sweet. Alahine is golden, like molten lava. Alahine smolders. And yet I don't find Alahine heavy. She sashays a dry, airy, oriental spicy dance. She is not sweet, virtually at all. But Alahine is warm, warm, warm golden opulence. I love to say Alahine all drawn out, like Alahiiiiiiiine, in a whisper. :-) Please protect Alahine. PS: I have not tried the newest packaging (with the colorful florals over the gold bottle). I don’t know if this latest packaging is a reformulation. I’m quite nervous. Also the description of Alahine relating to Mexico on the Teo Cabanel website is perplexing to say the least. I’ve been to Mexico numerous times (real Mexico not tourist) and this just doesn’t connect.

I’m beginning to think Jean-Francois Latty has never made a clumsy perfume in his life. This is a seamless, beautiful, amber floral. I don’t like amber florals - usually. Usually they’re clumsy - sweet Amber fighting against the high aromatics of the florals and both losing. Alahine... so smooth. The beautiful, spicy, delicately sweet amber - cherry touched. The cherry makes the jam of the rose smolder, the bare whispers of jasmine and orange flowers lift the edges of the rose into aromatic, exquisite. I’m reminded of Latty’s “Julia.” The same perfect balance of high pitched florals hovering over darker edges, all matched, no screech or rough edges. This is gorgeous. And enough with age-ist coughs at “old lady” or “...classic.” Fragrance has no age. What was All That, the ‘It Girl’ of years ago comes back and is All That again. The point is the fragrance, not the stupid, age-ist, sexist advertising puff flapping around it. Look at the rise and fall of smoky, the bombasts of the rose queen, the Moebius curve of Fruity Floral (in and out, in and out at the same time, never quite out), incense as a river that comes back down as rain. We love what we love when we live it, how it shows itself. Sometimes we move on, sometimes we come back, sometimes a note becomes unwearable, sometimes a scent picks up unbearable associations and is unwearable. Think if the scent you wore when you got roaringly, vomitously drunk over a lost person, of how you can’t stand that smell anymore. There is nothing inherently unacceptable about the scent - it existed before you knew about it and will go on whether you like it or not. The only thing that’s changed is you - it is unacceptable to you but that changes nothing inherent in the scent.

This review is for the edp in gold bottle with blue, fuchsia and orange enamel flowers. First test, into my hot sweaty elbow on a very hot humid day, did not go well. The perfume went very quickly to a sour rose note which stuck around dominating heavily while I waited desperately for the promised drydown. The drydown was pretty powdery amber, but quite faint. I tested again on a cooler evening across my whole forearm and now am in love. The ylang, orange blossom and jasmine are much more prominent, the rose a background note and not sour. The sandalwood effect is very good: in fact, this deeply reminds me of the late lamented original formulation of Samsara. It is not a particularly amber fragrance on me until the late drydown, and in this respect it is a disappointment (I blind bought in hopes of a complex amber scent to fill the amber-shaped space in my wardrobe where I’ve run out of Ambre Sultan). However, now that I’ve forgiven it for what it is not, I am finding Alahine a gorgeous, complex, beautifully blended perfume that is possibly going to fill the Samsara-shaped hole in my heart instead, and in a way that the current Samsara reformulation is unable to do!

Such a beauty, a full-bodied, perfectly-balanced, classic oriental. It is so rare that a perfume impresses me these days. Modern perfumes are frequently so thin and vapid. First my skin was delicately kissed by a melange of tropical flowers, surruptitiously interwoven with the scent of powdered honey. Next, the velvety texture of rose, spice, and benzoin wrapped me up in its arms and made me love it. Alahine lasted +12 most enjoyable hours on me. While I am not on the hunt for a perfume of this sort, I can't resist its charms. I am definitely swooning. What I like about Alahine is that it is not so distinctly Middle Eastern in scent. It is the love child of a classic French perfume and any number of perfumes by Montale. The scent seems very mature (for lack of better words), but there is something in it that is bright and brings vigor. This is not a perfume for clubbing or coffee dates with girlfriends. This is a perfume for a confident and elegant woman who changes with the times and doesn't dwell on yesterday. For young ladies with refined taste for their age, or the perfect gift for one's mother or grandmother.

First up we have Alahine and my oh my is she a balsamic beauty. So far my deep dive into this house has revealed that Teo Cabanel fragrances are expertly blended. The notes are not meant to stand out but are rather meant to weave through one another in order to create one seamless oriental fabric. Alahine is what I imagine eastern winds would smell like in the stories found in “The Arabian Night”. The opening is a draft of bold lavendar, woody begamaot and honeyed rose. As time goes on this draft is trapped in the balmy heat of the orient. The air here doesn’t circulate, rather those opening notes begin to sag with the weight of its resinous surroundings... eventually the base notes come as the cool and relieving evening breeze that follows after a hot Moroccon day. The iris and sandalwood are smooth and sedating; and the vanilla and musk bring a soothing, almost powdery lift to the eastern winds. Final verdict? Full Bottle Worthy 💯

Wow, this is a gorgeous oriental perfume- it has a really retro, classic vibe. It's obvious to me that this is a fragrance developed from an old formula, but it's great to smell a modern beauty with this classic opening, so rare today. When I sprayed it on it reminded me of the opening of Dana's original Tabu and Guerlain classics like Shalimar and Mitsouko. It's a heavy handed opening, heavy with ylang and resins and a retro skank note, but it has elegance. The scent develops slowly, revealing the beautiful rose, pepper and other florals. I love the drydown, which is calming and beautiful. Alahine doesn't last as long as one might think from the heavy initial sillage, but it lasts a few hours, maybe 5 hours. After that it's a skin scent on me. This is the new Shalimar to my mind, just stunning!

I’ve had a sample of Alahine for awhile, but I’ve always put off reviewing it because I don’t know how to sum it up. Initially, there is a very medicinal blast, which I quite like. Within minutes it goes through a floral/soapy phase. It’s a complete 180 from where it starts out, and I don’t really like this phase at all. The drydown is worth the wait though. It is a very resinous, warm, deep, smell. It’s a smell of amber/benzoin, and warm woods. There is a honeyed sweetness to it which I adore. This one changes quite a bit as it heats up with your body. It is long lasting. It tends to waft and create a beautiful scent trail. I believe that this is one that has to be tested before buying as I think it behaves very differently on different people.

I'll preface this by saying that I'm a big fan of rich "amber" fragrances, and Alahine is no exception. As soon as I put on a tiny dab from my sample vial, I was enveloped in a cloud of "amber" (whatever that really is) topped off with delicious citrus. As the perfume dried down, it revealed a heart of rose, a dark red rose, surrounded by other generic perfume-y things. The scent is strong, has a lot of sillage, and lasted through the night so that I woke up smelling it this morning, an unexpectedly happy beginning to a dark, cold, rainy day. Because it's so strong I can see how it might be easy to overdo it, but in moderation this could be a staple amber-rose fragrance, definitely a use-up-the-vial scent.

The opening is sharply aromatic, with bergamot and lavender (which is listed on my manufacturer sample but not here). It fades rather quickly into a smooth, creamy floral - heavy like good satin - dominated by rose and ylang. There is a vague spiciness at this stage that makes me say, "Christmas!" without knowing why, exactly. Fairly soon (about an hour in), Alahine settles into a rich, warm ambery scent that is more polite than you might think, for an oriental. I do smell quite a lot of patchouli, but I'm sensitive to that note. The sweetness of the amber (cistus) and vanilla smooth out the patchouli and make it very pleasurable. A well-mannered oriental pretty enough to wear to work.

I really love this TC scent. When I saw the list of notes and wondered if it would just be too resinous. Thankfully this well blended beauty isn't. There is enough lavender, neroli, ylang and black pepper to make this a very interesting and lovely scent. It is a scent in the same group as Shalimar. It has a warmth and intensity. Perfect for cold weather wear. The scent to wear when you want to be noticed for all the right reasons. It's womanly and self aware. A diva! There is a similarity with Etat Libra d orange Bijou Romantique but I think I like this one better. One of the few TC scents a little above average sillage and longevity.

Warm, rosy amber-laced , woody resin with a well balanced touch of powdery iris. Very beautiful on my skin's chemistry. Hint of florals but not a trace of anything remotely resembling bergamot or citruses. Not sure whether this will work for others, but for me, the fact that it works is what counts ; D. Reminiscent of a drier, not as sweet, Amber Gris by Balmain. Lovely, just lovely. FBW with backup.

I just tried Alahine last night. I found it very powerful and in a indirect way connected with interlude man.*not the same but to me its what I equated. Day2: really seductive and beautiful unisex smells expensive. Thank goodness for split buys decants. I may have not tried it a second time if I was sampling in a fragrance boutique. Smokey just so gently-a smoooth beau

Very well done fragrance. On my skin it works real well. I can smell the Ylang Ylang and Rose, but it is so perfectly balanced with the added spicyness, vanilla, and musk that I could barely find the floral notes. I find this to be a very beautiful scent on a cold day with a cup of hot tea. Its subtle. I would were it casually in the winter.

This is the last fragrance I sampled in the Teo Cabanel discovery set and it is possibly my favorite. A beautiful spicy amber with some white floral notes that is somehow vintage and contemporary at the same time. It smells like it contains at least some natural ingredients and is obviously of high quality.

i can not get enough of this sweet balmy dream! What an intense sweetness to start with, but in a best possible way, not just boring artificial white flowers. It is amazing power of sandalwood. Shame it is not very long lasting, but lovelly none the less. One of my best loved fragrances.

Does anyone else get raw sweet velvety honey right away?! Wow this is beauutiful, and so unlike any oriental floral I’ve tried. Divine! Full bottle worthy in my humble opinion!

the opening is extremely incense-balsamic which in about 30 minutes settles into a nice spicy oriental fragrance. not really sweet to my nose, very comforting.

Alahine isn't in my usual comfort zone(I hate labdanum and don't like sandalwood when it's strong in a fragrance) but as soon as I dabbed some from my tiny sample,I could see that it's a high quality fragrance,unlike what I thought just by looking at it's pyramid,I didn't dislike it Alahine is definitely a balsamic oriental.I can smell lots of creamy benzoin,sandalwood and something ambery blended with ylang-ylang and other powdery florals and pepper..labdanum acts like a soft leathery note adding a touch of classy sofistication to this warm and balmy confection and I can detect a bit of something smokey/incensey here It's first stages are seductive in an oriental,eastern way but I like it's cozy dry down more,when it calms down to a warm,soft and powdery scent of amber-vanilla-florals I can't talk about it much because it's the first time I'm sampling it and I've applied very little amount but if you like benzoin/amber and ylang-ylang you'd love this..it's a mature scent.soft(but not light)and rich.it's inviting and mesmerizing,an oriental with enough of flowers,woods,resins,spice,smoke,powder,labdanum-patchouli bitterness and ambery honeylike sweetness,yet so well blended that it doesn't seem too much and is still approachable by modern ladies with more simple tastes I don't think that I'm going to buy it but I'd like to dab it from my sample sometimes and enjoy something different with my usual favorites All in all I find Teo Cabanel fragrances very impressive,they have niche complexity and quality as well as being really wearable.some sort of vintage/retro glory and luxury while feeling modern at the same time.every single one that I've sampled til now,had satisfying longevity and projection.and I love their bottles.it may not be important for some people but is always a plus in my book I wish to see a gourmand from Teo Cabanel,I imagine it to be a multi-faceted,well-blended gourmand for adults.hmmmm ❤❤❤

Let's be honest and say that Alahine is not really my cup of tea, having tried Barkhane first and fallen in love with its herbal and spicy fragrance. Alahine is a really memorable scent, well blended and everything, but it doesn't fit me and I don't enjoy the ylang ylang. To me, it's too heavy, and not fitting my light and playful side. I had wished for more lavender (the Teo Cabanel website has lavender among the head notes, as does my sample) but couldn't detect it, neither any vanilla or herbal / camphor notes that others found. Alahine projects well and has very decent sillage to the point of having to be applied sparely. I don't get any fruity notes, but a quite strong floral and sweetened sandalwood. The rose and musk of the base are really mature. There is no "old panties smell", I believe that to be a projection. The base is really well done and I do understand why people love it, so I'll just leave it to them and be happy wearing Barkhane. The notes on the inlet of the sample, received directly from Teo Cabanel: Bergamot, Lavander, Ylang Ylang, Bulgarian Rose, Moroccan Rose, Orange Tree, Jasmine, Pepper Plant, Iris, Cistus, Patchouli, Benzoin, Vanilla, Sandalwood, Musk