Attar/Mukhallat of the Day

[language scent]

a while back i put close to .9g extract of close to 20 different wild kinams in 1year old aged white ambergris, added some .15g ntltd, .2g oud ertugrul, .2g hainan co2 oil, .2g yunnan oil and today i added a gram of IO hainan kinam(cultivated kinsm oil)....out of this world! the kinam extract shines by midnotes

 

[Mr.P]

Awesome

 

[Sproaty]

my first blend.
I was aiming for something similar to Ralph Lauren Polo Green, a leathery chypre. I wanted to make it more base note heavy with natural animalics and perhaps not as "green".
I've had a load of essential oils that I've bought from Mesoud so that I can start to blend my own oils as a new hobby. Over the weekend I reorganised my whole oil collection. I separated from my atttars and oud any essential oils I've acquired from various sellers over the years - sandalwoods (lots and lots!) , vetiver, patchouli, rose, musk, ambergris etc etc. I brought a few oud oils down too, realising that this is a brilliant way for me to some samples that I have (there are many)

I have no idea how or where to blend these (maybe set aside a dedicated glass cup or something?) but I decided to just swipe onto a paper towel.
I used,
lemon oil
basil
geranium
jasmine
labdanum
patchouli
ruh khus
french lavender absolute
bourbon vetiver absolute
oakmoss absolute
tobacco absolute
birch tar absolute
musk/sandalwood combo
hyraceum/sandalwood combo
ambergrid/sandalwood combo
sri lankan oud - smokey initially and settles into a love blue oceanic note. It's calmed down a lot over the 2yrs I've had it
burmese oud - from mellifluence, very brown, earthy textured oil with a fantastic drydown

I then just folder the paper over and rubbed it together to blend everything 😂 I rubbed the oily bit onto my arm about 40mins ago and have been enjoying "watching" its progression.

From the first sniff I am rather surprised - this is lovely! I used things in random proportions with the intention of highlighting the more animalic and resinous facets, but I don't know the strength of my new materials so made my best guess. Nothing stands out too prominently, there is this underlying growl to the base of the scent, but it's not very strong. I only used small "pokes" at the paper using the oil's applicator, and used this as the way to vary how much of each oil I was putting into the blend.

All in all, an interesting first trial. I think I'm going to go simpler and focus on blending a 2-3, 3-4 materials together and seeing the impact that say, civet has upon vetiver and then how adding in some vanilla changes it. Stuff like that - I know quite a lot of notes from classic scents that I really like, (being a perfume nerd since 2016) so I'll try and make small parts of these scents in a way to train my nose and discover how notes alter other notes and the interplay between them, as well as just being able to identify these when I smell things in the future. It will be fascinating learning.

 

[Mr.P]

Glad your first experiment was encouraging!

I’ve been diluting samples of all my stuff down to 10% and dipping smelling strips in each - it’s a good way to see which things last longer and which ones evaporate quickly, also make it easier for me to judge relative intensities.

There are some materials that diluted to 1 or 0.1% have as much impact as others at 10%

I’m thinking of starting something simple tomorrow, probably a jasmine based floral scent.

 

[Ahmaoud]

Looking at the list of ingredients you used @Sproaty I started drooling the further I went down the list, everything seems like it would work perfectly for that genre of fragrance. Polo Green is still one of those scents I find myself drawn towards, albeit it's something I save for visits to the perfume counter or drug store to enjoy.

Reading a bit further back @Mr.P you reminded me of my brief venture down the rabbit hole of that Ajmal Musk which was so legendary on the forums. A little while back I became obsessed with finding a good enough quality, commercial black musk oil. The experience I'd had thus far was disappointing to put it lightly, so I tried to find out if Ajmal currently sold a musk oil in this style, unfortunately the catalogue of their loose oils is non-existent, different items in different countries even within the gulf. It was on Ebay I found myself considering a couple of candidates, and having been wowed by Ajmal up till then, pulled the trigger. While they were strong, there was something not right about either of them. See I used the dry down of Ajmal's 1001 Nights as a kind of animal musk reference (probably not accurate though) because it's soft and enveloping but never overly sweet, in fact the beginning of that scent is rather brutal. The new bottles were that run of the mill, black musk family of scents we've all smelled and can't stand, sweet almost like dried cola with something oddly minty and earthy.

I then scoured the internet for middle eastern houses, much like how you arrived at Majid Iterji's Musk Al Ghazal Black Grade1, which according to their website might be the real thing, knowing that it was probably being offered but at a much higher price bracket. I know I've seen videos of some houses there like on Sokkat AlTeeb's channel where he's literally macerating musk grains in Taif Rose oil to use in compositions. Being intrigued by the quality that Ibraheem al Qurashi offered at that time, I took the plunge to purchase what I noticed was a rather cheaper than list price (though not cheaper by any stretch) on a 6 ml of their Musk Al Ghazal, and when it arrived I was speechless. While concentrations weren't mentioned, this oil was like water. The scent was this perfect balance between a floral sweetness, and something where tiny drops of which were filling rooms, yet never being obnoxiously strong, I really wish I could do it justice. Anyways that satisfied me for the time being, once some samples come in I can see if there's anything authentic about what they were selling. Best of luck on the jasmine based scent excursion!

Didn't wear anything fully today, been trying to get the nose back to full capacity after a recent cold.

 

[oudstronaut]

.

 

[Taesik Yun]

haven't posted much on this thread for a while.

swiped Purple Leather 2 by Mellifluence Perfume on this moody late night.

I remember the original formual containing iris, violet, birch, juniper, osmanthus, and I pretty much senses the same notes in this version as well. perhabs it a little more sensual vibe.

I like this very much because it has a sort of dreamy quality to it.

I didn't bought any from him ever since he moved his shop from Etsy to eBay because I already have plenty of his attars. but smelling this after a while, I think I'm ready for the next purchase of his work.

 

[Mr.P]

I applied a swipe of mesoud’s centifolia absolute. Very nice saturated rose scent, no off notes I can detect. As I said before, it reminds me of centifolia rose from Morocco. The main difference based on memory is that the Moroccan was more heavily pigmented and almost stained your skin before it spread out but otherwise similar / identical scent.

 

[The Scent Guru]

SandalMints from OleFaktory @EJayB is really what the name implies! A clean refreshing mint that does not overpower the Sandalwood, rather it accents it beautifully.

 

[William Birch]

Dumb question I know but what is the difference between an Attar and a Mukhallat? Is it the notes? The carrier oil? I’m just confused because I see products that I think are Attar’s say Mukhallat :/

 

[User]

Dumb question I know but what is the difference between an Attar and a Mukhallat? Is it the notes? The carrier oil? I’m just confused because I see products that I think are Attar’s say Mukhallat :/

I think they are basically the same thing. Maybe there is a connotative difference or something. Same with 'ghalia'. I am pretty sure they all refer to the same thing. An Arabic speaker might have some idea about the subtle differences.

 

[William Birch]

I’m very sad that musk and Ambergris are illegal here because there seems to be so many lovey creations with these authentic natural materials in them.

 

[mesOUD]

Basicly
Mukhallat is blending oils
Attar is:A base oil,for example sandal oil,you distill 1 or more than 1 oil on a base oil,this is attar

 

[William Birch]

I think they are basically the same thing. Maybe there is a connotative difference or something. Same with 'ghalia'. I am pretty sure they all refer to the same thing. An Arabic speaker might have some idea about the subtle differences.

That would make sense thank you for the explanation.

 

[William Birch]

Basicly
Mukhallat is blending oils
Attar is:A base oil,for example sandal oil,you distill 1 or more than 1 oil on a base oil,this is attar

Ohh right i understand now thank you 🙂

 

[William Birch]

Today I’m wearing something I made myself as an admitted novice so please be kind.

Labdanum abs
Castoreum abs in sandalwood
Vanilla abs
Tobacco abs
And a top note of tangerine which I think goes really well with the Amber accord the Labdanum and Vanilla make.

 

[User]

Today I’m wearing something I made myself as an admitted novice so please be kind.

Labdanum abs
Castoreum abs in sandalwood
Vanilla abs
Tobacco abs
And a top note of tangerine which I think goes really well with the Amber accord the Labdanum and Vanilla make.

How does it smell?

I’m a novice too but I’ve been very happy with some of my own creations.

 

[William Birch]

How does it smell?

I’m a novice too but I’ve been very happy with some of my own creations.

Not as powerful as I’d like it to tbh.

I think the sandalwood I’m using overpowered the rest of the notes so I think I’ll have to scale that back, add more Labdanum and Vanilla maybe even a little bit of benzoin to make a real classic amber scent.

The tobacco is nice and the tangerine goes well in the whole composition.

I wish I had some ambergris to macerate but alas it’s illegal to buy here so I’m stuck with what I can work with.

Interesting that it’s so weak though the Attar/Mukhallat I have purchased or sampled are much more impactful and diffusive.

I think I have something here i just need to go back to the drawing board and rework a few things.

 

[William Birch]

Not as powerful as I’d like it to tbh.

I think the sandalwood I’m using overpowered the rest of the notes so I think I’ll have to scale that back, add more Labdanum and Vanilla maybe even a little bit of benzoin to make a real classic amber scent.

The tobacco is nice and the tangerine goes well in the whole composition.

I wish I had some ambergris to macerate but alas it’s illegal to buy here so I’m stuck with what I can work with.

Interesting that it’s so weak though the Attar/Mukhallat I have purchased or sampled are much more impactful and diffusive.

I think I have something here i just need to go back to the drawing board and rework a few things.

I’m thinking of adding some more citrus to the opening as they are classic diffusive materials and some orange blossom as I think it would work well with the tangerine and sweetness of Labdanum

 

[Mr.P]

I have been settling into a new place and am gradually getting my aromatic treasures out of cardboard boxes and into a “perfumer’s organ” to keep things on hand. Today I finally unearthed two special jasmine oils. They are old, but still have a fair amount of the characteristics they had when fresh.

One is a Moroccan jasmine from Pierre Chauvet (old school pioneer French extractor that was later bought up by some larger company) - this was their standard grade. They also had a select grade that was a bit finer smelling but that is long gone. Very little indole or skank of any kind, something i experienced in all of the 6 or so specimens I have sniffed over the years. I have no idea where all of the Moroccan jasmine went - haven’t seen it anywhere for about 15+ years. This type of Jasmine is worth seeking out and if any of you find a way to get some, please let me know. It is so distinct that there would be no chance of confusing this for an oil from India or Egypt.

The second is a gem, but in a somewhat diluted form. It is a legit Grasse jasmine absolute from enfleurage, got it in the late 90’s. I think the alcohol and being in a box helps to preserve it somewhat. I hear this is still being made but it seems no one with the clout to score a portion of the annual harvest is willing to resell to amateurs. This is another one that has no overpowering indole, though it is more indolic than the Moroccan. The indole is surrounded by some unique berry like notes that make it seem flowery and with none of the strong “litter box” notes that i often see in Indian jasmine. Doesn’t smell like berries, but it is as pleasant as the smell of fresh berries if that makes sense. Just appealing almost edible mouthwatering notes.

No leafy / green / violet leaf notes either. A very appealing scent which is distinct enough that it could not be mistake for a solvent extracted absolute.

I know my chance of getting a little drop or two of recently produced enfleurage is about zero. I feel like Moroccan jasmine should be less of a problem the only place I see that listed Moroccan jasmine was Sigma Aldrich!