Olfactive Dreams

Imagine you are invited in Topkapi Palace in Istanbul by Sultan Mehmed II  somewhere around 1470 . You are sitting in the large domed diwan, where some bakhoor (Hindi oud, myrrh, frankincense, and opoponax) has been burning for a long time at low temperature. Long enough that they have turned the air of the room sweet and smoky. You are sipping some Persian saffron-flavoured tea whilst wearing a blend of medicinal Chinese, incensy Cambodian/Vietnamese and resinous Assamese ouds. Smell of dry herbs and spices wafting from Büyük Çarşı. It is autumn and the air is crisp and cold. So when the sun warms up the area, you get all those aroma whilst sitting there enjoying your tea with some dates and other dry fruits. Dewaniya (2017) Dewaniya opens with a big and regal smell of ouds. It smells like a composition of mostly pure aged ouds from different regions - incensy Cambodian/Vietnamese and subdued leather and mildly sweet resinous and incensy Assamese, and bitter and me...

A Mini Review Malik Al Taif (2018) by Russian Adam (of Areej Le Dore ) is an olfactive orchestra of rose (Taif and Indian), oud and deer musk. The scent progression on skin is far more complex than on clothes than I expected. It starts off with a very spicy and sparkly rose. Few months ago, whilst it was slightly windy in the mosque, I could clearly smell deer musk - very similar to a deer musk grain maceration in sandalwood that I made, but it is lot deeper and less sharp er - followed by some resinous and incensy facets of Indian oud. The oud on me is always dignified, never too loud. One can make MAT loud by wearing 3-4 sprays though! The oud part was a revelation to me - I first thought that someone else was wearing the oud! In later stages, rose becomes almost like a dry down of rose absolutes with some rose lokum like facets - sweeter and ambery. I cannot yet detect Cambodian oud in it - mainly because I have very little experience with ouds of that region, and/or, it is used i...