Category Archives: Floral Oriental

Areej Le Doré Aquilaria Blossom

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Aquilaria Blossom is a collaboration between two of the top masters of oud fragrances and oud distillation, Russian Adam of Areej Le Doré (“ALD”) and Taha Syed of Agar Aura. It is a much lighter, more resinous, less oud-y, more amber-scentric fragrance (on my skin) than many of the things that I’ve tried from either brilliant auteur. That makes it a more approachable, easy-to-wear, and versatile scent in many ways, even if it comes across as more simplistic, linear, and less operatic in character on an olfactory level. I enjoyed it, particularly during its cozy, snuggalicious drydown phase.

Agar Aura and Areej Le Dore Aquilaria Blossom in the 30 ml and 10 ml bottles. Photo: Russian Adam.

Areej Le Dore & Agar Aura Aquilaria Blossom 30 ml bottle. Photo: Russian Adam.

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Agar Aura Al-Jazzab

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Roses and oud are a combination tried a million-fold before, but Agar Aura sought to surpass all prior standards with Al-Jazzab, an extrait described as having even more indulgent, extravagant, wildly sumptuous roses than even Layali, his parfum that stunned me blind despite my not being keen on roses in perfumery.

Arctic volcanic eruption in Iceland by the phenomenal “Garðar Ólafs Photography,” one of my fav. landscape photographers. (Link to his FB account embedded within photo, but he’s also on Twitter where he offers NFTs of his photos.)

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Chanel Le Lion (Les Exclusifs)

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Le Lion de Chanel is the latest addition to Chanel‘s high-end Exclusifs collection and a fragrance that I loved from the start, so much so that I bought the largest bottle possible soon after my second test. Today, I’ll share a broad scent overview of Le Lion, macro and micro olfactory descriptions, and scent comparisons to other fragrances.

Le Lion de Chanel. Photo: my own.

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Amouage: Rose Aqor, Oud Ulya & Vanilla Barka Attars

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Rose Aqor, Oud Ulya, and Vanilla Barka are three of six new attars that Amouage has launched recently in an attempt to straddle the richness, glory, popularity, and complexity of its old legends and the increasingly draconian restrictions placed on perfumery in the eight or so years since IFRA forced Amouage to retire its original olfactory beauties. Do the new additions live up to the greatness of old? No. Do they come across as real, authentic attars? Also no, in my opinion. Are they terrible? Well, it depends on which ones you try and your personal tastes. Are they worth the money in question? That answer, like most things involving perfumery, cannot be anything but purely subjective and individual, but I will tell you that I personally have a lot of issues with these new “attars.”

Amouage attars via Amouage’s booklet on them. Photo of the photo: my own.

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