Ghaliyah Leather Attar (2024, Lucky Oud)
Begins with a strident indole (mostly white florals, more on it later) with a prominent warmish leather with a powerful dark greenish siren. A warm barn is here too, but it quickly goes into the background, allowing white and yellow florals to bloom. Also, the intensity of leather is positively related to temperature.
The ‘leather’ in the name is quite appropriate as GLA highlights various leather facets (through different aromatics) with varying intensities - more specifically, through different oud, musk, floral and balsamic qualities. There are some tart fruity notes too - similar to some classically distilled tart and fruity Burmese, Cambodian and Thai ouds, slow-aged deer musk (macerated on sandal with very little heat treatment). Speaking of deer musk, I also noticed a pissy/ammoniacal note that I associate with musk pod skins tincture at the start. It is clearly detectable adjacent to the initial indole hit.
Florals: I get Jasminum auriculatum, hawthorn, bakula, common jasmine, tuberose, rose, geranium and possibly ylang ylang and osmanthus (it’s leathery part). The floral qualities of the compo – namely it’s indolic, creamy and fruity floral qualities are quite persistent. They are clearly detectable until the deep heart, when they morph into this singular creamy and slightly balsamic leather [3]. My guess is civet is used in GLA as the floral are so vivid in it. Just like in Hana, Ketaki and Peepul, this soft-spoken perfumer’s love for white and yellow florals are quite evident here.
Greens: Most likely it is oakmoss, galbanum, angelica root (due to the presence of a sharp and bitter green note), some very green and spicy Indo-Malay oils. [1] The bitter greenness (similar to that of some green ouds, oakmoss, galbanum, angelica root, patchouli) combined with [2] vanilla, dry hay, and tonkafied (read somewhat of a sweet and balsamic) leather makes the overall leather profile veering towards a floral animalic one. Now imagine adding [3] with some greeinish leather qualities. As an example, imagine a Maai (Bogue Profumo) with lots of ouds and a more prominent leather note and a less floral one. The combination [2] & [3] becomes the dominant profile from 2nd hour onwards.
Balsamic oudiness: so far I have noticed a sweetness similar to tonka, and hay with a slight smoky vanilla, balsamic sweetness of Assam belt ouds and heart notes of benzoin, gurjun balsam, styrax, and trails of vanilla, and tonka absolutes. I am sure I missed a few.
Incensy ouds: I'm almost certain that there are some greenish, oceanic and musky Indo-Malay ouds. But I need to wear it in cooler weather to decipher them further.
Ambergris: waxy, creamy, touch chalky, labdanum like ambery and leathery, with an undercurrent of an eggy halitosis. The halitosis part is not very prominent – so don’t worry about it. Considering how this sea-faring gold is aptly presented here, I presume it has some grey and possibly some almost-veering-into-black ambergris.
An incensy and slightly vanillic and waxy musk accord holds everything together and allows florals and ouds to embellish each other until the end [4].
The trail is a wonderful leather affair where Hindi and possibly many Indo-Malay are largely imparting their inherent sweet & balsamic and greenish, incensy and musky qualities respectively with various intensities. The aforementioned musk accord [cf. 4] morphs into this softly fruity and sweet musky hum – a beautiful nod to some Indo-Malay oudy trails. If you like ghaliyah to be floral and leathery with a constant oudy hum, this is worth sampling.
