Âme Sombre (2014) Sultan Pasha Attars

A Saffronic Extravaganza

Âme Sombre (G1) Sultan Pasha Attars greets me with a heavy dose of saffron – dry, herbal, sparkly and spicy. Spicy and sparkly Persian rose otto and dry frankincense (especially their top notes) provides an extra boost to the saffron’s overall performance from the start. The first 15-20 mins is a saffron lover’s dream - almost as if it is on steroids, highlighting it’s dry, spicy and sombre (yet contemplative) facets with the help of rose, frankincense and tobacco. I can clearly detect some tobacco after about 10 minutes when AS gets drier, where it also adds an earthy quality.

Âme Sombre [G1] (2017 Batch)

Dry saffron (that we buy from shops) does not laid bare its olfactory wonders like this – or at least, we cannot detect them as they evaporate too quickly since it is not a base material. Here Sultan guided it in ‘a natural way’, but slowing things down and thus allowing each facets (spice, dry and leather) to shine without any discordance (i.e., well blended). It is like dreaming about a saffronic olfactive extravaganza when our brain works extremely quickly. Put differently, think of Matrix’s bullet sequence on the roof top.😊

After 20 minutes, the spicy facets (pepperiness) of rose otto and frankincense declines at a faster rate than that of saffron. Now the saffron smells less dry and AS becomes a bit more sweeter with the generous help from Bulgarian rose absolute, which continues to provide some extar boost to the rose accord. From this point onward, AS smells like an incense attar to me.
I could smell a salty type smell from the distance, just around 30 minutes mark. But it becomes quite clear (but always in the background) around 1 hour and continues to play in tandem with everything else. The ambergris-laden sea breeze smell and a soft leather from castoreum makes it a pleasantly animalic perfume, devoid of anything unpleasant.

The rose ‘accord’ here is a unique one which has (1) Persian rose otto that adds airy, peppery (read spicy) and sweet yet non-jammy facets and (2) Bulgarian rose absolute, which is typically sweeter than otto, compliments the other rose until the dry down – thanks in parts to ambergris and beeswax. It is worth mentioning that I detected beeswax first in the heart of the blend – around 1.75 hours mark. My guess is it is due to the jasmine which has similar sweetness (to my nose), but they have different animalic odour profiles. From this point onward, the combination of saffron, rose, tobacco, and honey reminds me of paan masala – albeit a very expensive and intense one, with the ambergris humming away all the time and wafting it’s salty sea breeze and making it diffusive and airy.

After 2 hours, the intensity of the airy ‘rose accord’ is reduced (but still quite pronounced). The salty air from ambergris and leather from castoreum remains almost the same. As the rose accord declines, the animalics and resins become more prominent. Frankincense becomes a touch sweeter – imagine you are getting the smell of luban resin that has been burning on an electric incense heater at low temperature for about 20-30 minutes when all the lemony aspects are exhausted. The use of castoreum here is quite beautiful, just on the side of austere elegance as opposed to being naughty, and seductive like in Salome (Papillon).

After around 3 hours I can detect a faint yet perfectly juxtaposed cumin aroma that provides an x-factor to this blend. I personally do not want to smell cumin actively in any blend. Here it is providing some mystery into the leather facet, albeit passively. Interestingly, I detect it only when it was a bit warmer (around 28°C) than the temperature in which I wore the blend (25°C) - and also because I was ‘looking’ for it. Cumin is one of those tricky ingredients that hovers between* pure stank (especially at its dry-down stage) and pleasant animalic in a blend. I know because I once made a blunder with that stinky object! Similarly, vetiver is another very powerful oil that can overtake almost everything, including ouds, if not used carefully. Yet their apt uses here add some depth and a little bit of sweetness in the base.

The aged patchouli in AS is so well blended that I can hardly complain. It provides some woody, sweet, and medical aspects – again to highlight, elongate and optimise the beautiful facets of saffron. Cedar contributes some piercing and dry medicinal smell to it. I may be wrong but I occasionally get a smell akin to a dry-down combination of opoponax, styrax and benzoin – essentially an astringent and resinous smell. Jasmine adds tiny amount of animalic and possibly sweetness. That sweetness can also be coming from beeswax, benzoin and rose absolute – just too well blended to be identified separately! Unlike the oud-heavy SP blends (Tabac Grande, Dewaniya, Al Hareem, etc.), oud here adds depth, and it never displays its full spectrum. It is like a cello in Mendelssohn’s violin concerto (my favourite) – or, the tanpura whilst Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan playing Raag Kirwani (or anything else) on his sitar.

Benzoin adds some depth in the base with sweet resinous quality, which also rounds the overall sweetness of the whole composition. Vetiver adds a touch of earthiness and rootiness. To me, ambergris is the king maker of this blend as it slowly diffuses everything in here, especially saffron, the star ingredient of this blend. This white floating gold is largely responsible for ‘slowing things down’ part (mentioned earlier).

Longevity: Âme Sombre lasts about 12 hours on my skin at around 25°C. Speaking of longevity, I should mention a peculiar thing about the application of AS. I know the practice of dab and gently rubbing the oil on the skin. However, I noticed that AS evaporates quicker if I rub it as much as some other thicker SPAs, for e.g., Encens Chypre, Tabac Grande, etc. My guess it is probably due to the less use of oud, and base-heavy ingredients that are quite prominent in Sultan’s creations, especially resins. So one needs to be careful about it. After 12 hours, it becomes a skin scent of salty leather and a gentle sweetness from beeswax, benzoin and other resins. Just like most incense (myrrh, frankincense, agarwood, etc. on a burner), AS is dry, diffusive and incensy. If you like saffron and incense, then this is one of the best things you can sniff.

In case you haven’t figured out yet, I love saffron! When I first sniffed Ame Sombre in July 2017, I knew I found something special. Since then I came across quite a few perfumes (both natural and synthetic) with saffron in various combinations with oud, rose and other usual stuffs. But nothing is as good as this one on my skin. So you may find this assessment to be a product of self-selection bias!




Link: https://sultanpashaattars.com/collections/all-attars/products/ame-sombre-attar
As usual always sample before buying a big bottle.
* Persolaise (a.k.a., Dariush Alavi), explained this notion of vacillating between the borders of something smelling pleasant and obnoxious in certain ingredients, which I find quite useful.