Attar/Mukhallat of the Day

[iori]

Alshiukh blend
Lovely tradition blend of Oud, Musk and ambergris =)

 

[Mr.P]

This rosewater is a treat! Quite different from the scent of otto or absolute. Nice full multilayered aroma with some beautiful light fresh floral notes that are simply delicious. This is a sample that accompanied the sandalwood i recently ordered

 

[Scentlover98]

I saw some study that was talking about the cognitive benefits of fragrance-rich environment during sleep. I wish I could recall the details but more or less there were elderly patients, perhaps in a home where such thing as could be experimented with and monitored. The authors presented evidence that being exposed to a complex fragrance landscape during the sleep cycle correlated with improved long-term cognitive function. One group had a static olfactory environment during their sleep hours, another group was exposed to the sequence of different aromas during the course of their sleep. I'm not sure if the static group had any kind of fragrance added or if they were just in a bland/neutral environment.

... returning here to complete my thought…

I've never felt that I swipe of sandalwood or patchouli before retiring was a waste. As someone on the other side of 50 I might wake up a little more often than some of y'all so on that level alone it's not a total loss. But I generally associate wearing some of these base note heavy oils with deeper and more satisfying sleep. Also generally wake up in the morning with a beautiful base note residue.

I love swiping oils right bevor going to bed. There are certain oils that I try to avoid since they can easily bring back certain memories (hence my brain starts to think) or lift me up and there are also certain oils that calm me down.

I searched for something like a Bedtime Attar/oil thread but couldn’t find anything.
I think this is a really interesting topic

I would love to discuss/know wich oils, attars or perfumes members of the community swipe/wear during nighttime.

 

[Mr.P]

One combo i love is neroli, rose and patchouli. I messed around a bit with different types of patchouli and different ratios of rose otto and absolute and neroli, but otherwise very simple. There is a nice sweet accord, and it goes through changes as i sleep - neroli fades fastest, then rose, then patchouli. I wake up with a very nice residual scent in the AM and i find the blend to be quite soothing at all stages.

 

[Zubayr]

Ghazali Omani - Elkhaldi

The first three notes on the bottle are apple, peach and apricot, which is exactly how it smells from the bottle and first application. The fruity notes were dominant for the first hour or so, with the other notes far in the background

After the hour mark, the fruity notes ease up a little and make way for the cardamom to add depth/heaviness to the fruity notes (I'm not sure how best to describe it) and also a heavy, slightly sweet, musky and slightly woody note, although they are still somewhat in the background. I can't completely discern the musk and oud as individual notes, but rather as a blend with its own unique note, but someone more experienced probably can pick them out

After close to four hours, the fruity notes remain but step to the side to make way for the musk/oud sweet, heavy note. What I'm most impressed about is how that apple/peach note has remained on my skin after hours, even after washing my hand a couple of times

This blend has very uplifting effect on me, although probably not the best to be wearing before going to sleep

 

[AlHind Oud]

Ghazali Kinami by Elkhaldi

Powdery floral blast, beautiful roses are dominant. I like how the opening projects so well but more enjoyable is it’s transition. Very smooth. I have not personally experienced some of the oud oils used in this blend but I can fell them moving into the heartnote with addition of sandal muskiness, kinamic sweetness. I think these heartnote will remain for a while. I’ll come back again to this post when I’m at the drydown phase.

Edit: The powdery note is from Iris and very prominent from opening until lasting.

 

[Castingshadows]

I love swiping oils right bevor going to bed. There are certain oils that I try to avoid since they can easily bring back certain memories (hence my brain starts to think) or lift me up and there are also certain oils that calm me down.

I searched for something like a Bedtime Attar/oil thread but couldn’t find anything.
I think this is a really interesting topic

I would love to discuss/know wich oils, attars or perfumes members of the community swipe/wear during nighttime.

I like to wear my high end Hindi’s to bed so I can wake up to the most incredible ouddy drydowns on my skin.

 

[melkhaldi]

Ghazali Omani - Elkhaldi

The first three notes on the bottle are apple, peach and apricot, which is exactly how it smells from the bottle and first application. The fruity notes were dominant for the first hour or so, with the other notes far in the background

After the hour mark, the fruity notes ease up a little and make way for the cardamom to add depth/heaviness to the fruity notes (I'm not sure how best to describe it) and also a heavy, slightly sweet, musky and slightly woody note, although they are still somewhat in the background. I can't completely discern the musk and oud as individual notes, but rather as a blend with its own unique note, but someone more experienced probably can pick them out

After close to four hours, the fruity notes remain but step to the side to make way for the musk/oud sweet, heavy note. What I'm most impressed about is how that apple/peach note has remained on my skin after hours, even after washing my hand a couple of times

This blend has very uplifting effect on me, although probably not the best to be wearing before going to sleep

Super happy you like!!

 

[melkhaldi]

Ghazali Kinami by Elkhaldi

Powdery floral blast, beautiful roses are dominant. I like how the opening projects so well but more enjoyable is it’s transition. Very smooth. I have not personally experienced some of the oud oils used in this blend but I can fell them moving into the heartnote with addition of sandal muskiness, kinamic sweetness. I think these heartnote will remain for a while. I’ll come back again to this post when I’m at the drydown phase.

Glad you like it! (You kinda should lol)
Ghazali Kinami comprises two masterpieces: the Ghazali base created by Nadeem Khan of @Al Hashimi , morphed around that beautiful sandalwood white Kinam co-distillation by @Al-Hind Oud
🙂

 

[Mr.P]

This is Ruh Khus Ateeq from @An Najwa - as you can see a dark green khus from Aligarh. I get all the classic khus profile elements here - earthy, woody, spicy, a bit starchy, a bit metallic. I wish I was a little bit more of a connoisseur so I could break the scent down or make comparisons to some classic oils. The khus profile is so distinct from other vetivers (and strong), that I find myself having a little bit of difficulty distinguishing between different khus oils unless they are outliers. At the moment I'm getting a really nice rich masculine perfume like quality in the mid notes. I'm not sure if this is the khus itself or interaction with something else that I applied earlier... the various facets seem in balance so it's not cloying or overwhelming like some vetiver can be - seems like excellent khus!

 

[Ahmaoud]

Damascus - An Najwa - Finally took the plunge and wore some on skin today. I've been infatuated with this blend from the moment I first sniffed it. It was bright, green, fresh and unlike anything I had smelled before. I'd open the sample countless times during the day, just to revisit the scent. What's unique is the transformation this blend goes through, at the top, and from the bottle, you'll get bright and fuzzy green florals piercing, tea like and citrus-y. However as the blend settles on your arm and starts to dry down an intoxicating gourmand muskiness overtakes the scent. It's so hard for me to describe the closest I can get is imagine the sweet lactonic character of sandalwood, mixed with the quality a musk maceration would have. The sweetness here is not overdone, it's deep and almost subtle in this aspect, all I can do is smile inhaling this! I almost don't want to know the notes it's that beautiful, or perhaps they'll come to me, but for now, the transition from the top to the dry down is just something else, almost feeling like two different scent, one to be worn in the morning and one in the evening. Yet neither is out of place here. I was genuinely worried I wouldn't enjoy the mid and base as much as the top. On some sniffs you'll still get whispers of the top, but just wow!

 

[Schoeibksr]

My first purchase with @Al-Hind Oud was Bilquis 2 and DAMN it‘s amazing for the price !
First impression :
Nutty-bitter-earthy-woodiness (CK ?) meets buttery, spicy & creamy sandalwood with a delicate milky sweetness & ethereal quality surrounding it all. Super pleasing, wearable & addictive, one of the best sandalwood-oud attars out there especially price-value-wise, perfect for all day use, with great performance on top. What I love about minimalistic compositions like this, when they’re made of such high quality materials, is that they still can bring out so much depth & complexity. 👍🏼

 

[Mr.P]

. What I love about minimalistic compositions like this, when they’re made of such high quality materials, is that they still can bring out so much depth & complexity. 👍🏼

I agree completely. it's just like food… Simple meals made with highest quality fresh natural ingredients balanced carefully against one another - on one level at least as good as it gets.

 

[Mr.P]

My attar of the day is my clumsy attempt at a non-ambergris ambergris. This is one of several different base accords that I am working on to match with different fragrances for my little perfume experiments. I mentioned this merely to share its name:

Ambergrish

I can't be the first person to have thought of this one but it gave me a chuckle. I wish it lived up to its name a little better

 

[Ahmaoud]

A snowy and chilling Saturday morning, and I knew what I wanted the moment I woke up, musk! But not just any musk would do, I needed it with Hindi oud, nothing else would do. So I started sniffing some candidates, mesOud's Rustam was the first one I thought of! Here the scent of moist musk grains is preserved, there's an earthy dirt/soil like quality to them, and the oud preserves it, I believe there's rose here as well, but very delicately used. The scent is grounding and familiar but at the same time evokes an emotion reserved for itself!

I then went to a dilution of An Najwa's Ghaliya Banu Hashim, I used a quite a bit this during summer, I thought about topping it up with Sulaym's Aqsa (Nagaland), and I think it was a success! I have similar "dilutions" running with larger quantities of Aqsa. Honestly this is my ideal Hindi oud for musk macerations. I needed the tiniest amount for enjoyment today, barely touching the neck of the applicator and applying on my wrists, I was greeted with the scent of powdery bitter chocolate, which developed into a fuzzy warmth indicative of the dry down of heavy use of musk in oud macerations. Just basking in that scent over a cup of medium roast coffee (true medium roast, just a hair over light roast, not whatever half the chains now think is "medium"), just a sensational feeling.

I still hadn't had enough, so I went to search for my bottle of Special Reserve No. 1 by Al Hashimi. Now this one got shadowed for me by the instant love that was Special Reserve No. 2, in fact I was wearing this is fairly warm weather and just loving it. However today was Special Reserve No. 1's time to shine. The combination of the musk with a more barny oud made this one stand out, I also have Hind II by Al Hashimi so it's easy to see how the oud influenced this attar. Also have to mention, most of the blends I've mentioned have ambergris, civet, rose among other things, so perhaps characterizing them simply as musks is not accurate. Regardless my search for this morning was complete, and I was sufficiently musked up! Though only wearing barely toothpick swipes of these blends, I'm able to enjoy the barny, bitter dark chocolate soil like powdery aroma of musk!

Special Mentions : These are other scents I sniffed while seeking musk this morning, elkhaldi's Musk Melange and Sulaym's Dusk Musk. As well as a quick open and sniff of Sokkat AlTeeb's Ghaliyah Daarain, which is more of an oud and ambergris blend

 

[Ashfaque]

Ketaki (Lucky Oud, 2024)

It is a quick impression after 4 wearings and a flue. So please bear with me. Though Ketaki is about kewda, it is more than that. Here again, Rafi Ahmed Baig (the perfumer) has displayed his love for the verdant and white and yellow florals.

Ketaki begins with a warm, fuzzy, sweet, and slightly ambery and woody note of kewra - an oft used materials in many foods, ayurvedic medicines of our Subcontinent and in some traditional Kannauj attars. In case you are wondering, kewra otto's inherent sweetness and various angular ambery and woody facets are aptly restrained here so that the florals and various woody and balsamic notes can show their beauties. In the first few minutes, the fuzzy warmth and a vetiver- and angelica root-like rootiness (i.e., their top notes) occasionally gives me a ginger lily root impression. The cristaline verdant quality of galbanum, neroli, possibly some cedarmoss and oakmoss gives the composition a dark green chypre structure with a floral amber heart.

Once the initial fizzy and ambery kewra, herbaceous green and spicy head dissipates, I'm greeted with a big dollop of white and yellow florals. Here the indole intensity lies between his other two green floral compositions that I adore - i.e., more and less than in Peepul and Hana, respectively. So far, I noticed creamy facets of yalng yalng, neroli, J. sambac, tuberose, gardenia, stocks. Jasmine and tuberose comes across like a green variant, which is perfect when you want to highlight the verdant qualities in a floral compo.

As hinted before, various verdant materials and notes play important roles in this composition. Sappy, herbaceous, bitter and slightly sweet-smelling galbanum is quite evident throughout. Not sure if this one has any aged patchouli in it but I get a similar spicy and herbaceous ambery smell with green inflections. It could also be coming from a combination of kewra, galbanum, cedar/oakmoss, top-heart notes of Himalayan cedar, ginger, ginger root, crushed rose stems & leaves, vetiver and greenish oud. The green accord comes across like a canvas on which various florals, balsams and resins - evoking an olfactory impression of contrasts and compliments.

Various florals impart a warm and dry hug - almost as if I am sitting near a fireplace on a cold evening and someone just left a bouquet of fresh tuberose, ylang ylang, jasmine, tiara, gardenia, plumeria, ginger lily root, one of slightly animalic and ambery lilies (can’t recall the species). Some of the astringent facets sometimes smell like the top-heart notes of chamomile, fresh marigold, violet leaf, elemi, tea (either green or black, still unsure) – they tend to hover between creamy and ambery floral and initial dark green facets.

After 3 hours, the overall green profile of Ketaki and it’s creamy florals’ intensities reduced enough that I can clearly detect the woody, balsamic and ambery notes of sandalwood, Himalayan cedar, benzoin, vanilla, benzoin, beeswax, Spanish hay and possibly tonka, labdanum, opoponax. Around 3.5 hours, I noticed a supple leather. This, and the aforementioned subtly sweet haying balsamic note reminds me of trails of some Assam belt oils (devoid of any animalic or pungent qualities). On the other hand, that leather in the presence of ever changing greenish accord sometimes nods towards Indo-Malay oils. My nose is still a bit down from a recent bout of flue. But assuming I’m not far off (i.e., oud is not very prominent), it is another example of elegant use of oud as a supporting note.

We rarely see green floral compositions done in classical ways with such a singular focus and elegance. Very few living perfumers’ green floral compositions convinced me. I can only think of Chypre Narcisse, Chypre Chrysantheme, Le Rayon Vert (by Sultan Pasha), Green Madness, Revenge and one more I can't recall the name of (by Anna Zworykina), SOMA (Johanna Venables of NOT Perfumes) and to some extent Rauque (by Christopher Sheldrake for Roberto Greco) that spoke to me. Apologies as I'm sure I've missed a few. If you like his style of white and yellow florals with a verdant bent, and you adore green floral compositions with a soft balsamic and woody trail, peppered with some green morsels, Ketaki is worth sampling. Ma-sha-Allah.

 

[Saudalhajri]

Made an ambergris maceration in an extremely fruity sweet Cambodian oud from a local source + a light Thai crassna oud, on the sweet side but has some dark wood and incense to it.
So far it smells like a combination of the two ouds, the ambergris was heated slightly in a double boiler but needs time to mature.

 

[Zuah1]

Oscent by Mosafir (Rai Munir): A Harmonious Dance of Nature and Elegance

On a crisp morning in Pakistan, as the golden light of dawn bathed the village in its warm embrace, I reached for Oscent by Mosafir—a fragrance that promised to transform the cool, serene atmosphere into an olfactory masterpiece. With a single swipe of this oil, the day unfolded as if touched by the hand of nature's finest artistry, and Oscent became the perfect companion for this moment of tranquility and renewal.

From the first breath, Oscent captivated with its refined and understated elegance. The black ambergris made an immediate impression, its salty, oceanic nuance perfectly complementing the fresh morning air. This rare and precious ingredient felt like a whispered echo of the sea—a grounding, primal note that added depth and intrigue.

As the fragrance began to bloom, the Kashmiri musk revealed itself, soft and enveloping, like the gentle warmth of the morning sun breaking through the crisp chill. Its velvety texture lent a sense of calm and quiet sophistication, grounding me in the serenity of the moment. It was a musk that spoke of purity and refinement, a true testament to Mosafir's dedication to quality.

The heart of Oscent was a radiant celebration of Jasmine Sambac. Its indolic richness emerged gracefully, weaving a floral tapestry that felt both uplifting and grounding. The jasmine added a lush, almost meditative quality to the composition, perfectly balanced by the musk and ambergris. It brought to mind the delicate blossoms that dot the gardens of early morning Pakistan, their scent carried lightly on the cool breeze.

As the day matured, the interplay of Malay oud and Indonesian oud began to shine. The Malay oud lent a resinous warmth and slight sweetness, while the Indonesian oud brought a green, earthy freshness with subtle smoky undertones. Together, they created a symphony of woods and resins that danced gracefully on the skin, transforming the fragrance into a deeply meditative experience.

What makes Oscent truly special is its ability to evolve with the day. As the sun climbed higher and the crisp morning gave way to the gentle warmth of noon, the fragrance softened and deepened. The dry-down was an exquisite blend of musk, ambergris, and oud, lingering delicately like a memory of the morning’s purity and the promise of a beautiful day ahead.

Wearing Oscent during that serene morning was nothing short of transformative. It enhanced the beauty of the day without overpowering it, allowing me to carry a sense of composure and elegance throughout. Its balance of freshness, depth, and complexity mirrored the duality of morning—calm yet full of potential.

For those who appreciate the art of natural perfumery, Oscent is a treasure. It is a fragrance that speaks of purity, craftsmanship, and the harmonious interplay of earth’s most precious ingredients. Whether for moments of reflection or as a subtle companion to a crisp, new day, Oscent is a true masterpiece that transcends the ordinary.

Rai Munir truly a master of musk

 

[Mr.P]

I made a very interesting attar. I'll share the details - not trying to be self-promotional, this isn't for sale. Perhaps the ingredients will inspire someone. this one I made as an exercise, starting with somebody else's ingredients and a fragrance I wasn't so crazy about. I iterated it a dozen times into something that I find pleasant, and after sitting overnight I am really surprised at how pleasant it is and I'm glad I forced myself out of my olfactory comfort zone.

Basically a floral bouquet of jasmine, rose, violet, sweet cassie, and ylang, a generous dose of orris butter, over a base of mysore and indonesian sandalwood (vacuum distilled Indonesian to add some sandalwood top notes!). Other notes include clove, ambrette seed, bergamot, amyris, tonka. This also has some of my amber perfume added for that unique sweet heart note, and the amber contributes patchouli, vetiver, styrax, benzoin, CK, Peru, Tolu, clary, cypress, sweet orange, vanilla, and labdanum among others. Probably my most complex scent so far. One thing I've learned… Violet leaf is a beast. No amount of discretion is enough when it comes to this material and it makes up the smallest part of the blend, which is about 35% sandalwood, 25-ish % florals, 5% citrus, 35% everything else.

This has a very cosmetic like scent as part of the mid notes - kind of interesting how traditional it smells. I think that comes from the violet and the orris.

 

[Saudalhajri]

I made a very interesting attar. I'll share the details - not trying to be self-promotional, this isn't for sale. Perhaps the ingredients will inspire someone. this one I made as an exercise, starting with somebody else's ingredients and a fragrance I wasn't so crazy about. I iterated it a dozen times into something that I find pleasant, and after sitting overnight I am really surprised at how pleasant it is and I'm glad I forced myself out of my olfactory comfort zone.

Basically a floral bouquet of jasmine, rose, violet, sweet cassie, and ylang, a generous dose of orris butter, over a large dose of mysore and indonesian sandalwood (vacuum distilled Indonesian to add some sandalwood top notes!). Other notes include clove, ambrette seed, bergamot, amyris, tonka. This also has some of my amber perfume added for that unique sweet heart note, and the amber contributes patchouli, vetiver, styrax, benzoin, CK, Peru, Tolu, clary, cypress, sweet orange, vanilla, and labdanum among others. Probably my most complex scent so far. One thing I've learned… Violet leaf is a beast. No amount of discretion is enough when it comes to this material and it makes up the smallest part of the blend, which is about 35% sandalwood, 25-ish % florals, 5% citrus.

This has a very cosmetic like scent as part of the mid notes - kind of interesting how traditional it smells. I think that comes from the violet and the orris.


View attachment 42994

This blend sounds welcoming and relaxing, would make a really nice room spray, especially the mixture of florals and sandalwood. Also lovely bottles! Where did you find them?