Shaal Nur (1997)
by Etro

The journey through the house of Etro has been a largely frustrating one. There have been flashes of inspiration, but these have often been unfulfilled due to poor execution. I am happy to report that Shaal Nur bucks the trend, and is by a couple of galaxies their most engaging and satisfying pruduction to date. From the beginning it is a moving mass of notes, woody,dry and herbal, and awash with intimated ingredients awaiting arrival.I swiftly conceded defeat in trying to target individual notes, and simply enjoyed Shaal Nur's puissance and blending of diverse energies.

As it dries down, it warms and sweetens considerably, losing the earlier tics and spasms. The sweet and happy ending is not quite as convincing as the previous divergence, but I remain delighted to have found an Etro I can embrace.

31st October, 2011. (Last Edited: 7th November, 2011.)

Etro SHAAL NUR opens with citrus but soon becomes a strong and dark incense perfume with big sillage and excellent longevity. This thick and warm oriental composition is best suited for cold weather, worn under sweaters, and could be worn by both women and men, although I find it more masculine than feminine and would be surprised if it were not being consumed primarily by men.

I do not find SHAAL NUR very subtle or complex and layered, but the strength of these sorts of perfumes lies in their sheer insistence, given the quality of the notes. This woody oriental reminds me somehow of a log cabin in a dense forest of evergreen trees high up in the Rocky mountains.

2nd July, 2011. (Last Edited: 9th July, 2011.)

Excellent ethereal combination of citrus, floral notes, spicy incense and balsams (resins and creams), on a woodsy foundation (musks and cedarwood). The outcome is a dusty, spicy effluvium which arouses a sense of sumptuousness and eastern opulence but with a touch of modern, western sophistication. An important role is played by rose that expresses its potentiality since the beginning and  along the way, accross a spicy heart and till a woody-musky base. I wish there had been a much more developed incense in the composition in the way to enhance the mysticism of the smell, pushing it more towards the eastern, oriental side. Anyway still a great creation by a marvellous, marvellous brand.

18th March, 2011.

I'd read enough about Shaal Nur to know not to judge it by the somewhat harsh (and to my nose very masculine) citrus/herbal topnotes, and they faded pretty quickly anyway. Next up was a beautiful version of vintage Emeraude, but with the addition of some really nice incense making the composition a bit more exotic than Emeraude. I don't detect any of the herbal notes once the initial blast fades, and the spices are very soft. The vanilla is detectable but not obvious which is fine with me. It's clearly very well blended - I have a difficult time focusing on any one note for more than a moment. Overall, I'd call Shaal Nur a comfort scent, soft and warm and cuddly, but it's quite sultry....like black cashmere.

It feels intimate to me, and it wears very close to the skin. I'm okay with that, but it fades much too quickly. I get woods and vetiver at one stage, and it reminds me of Chanel's Sycomore...that's a very good thing, but the longevity is so disappointing. It's only seems to last about an hour on me.

I really like Shaal Nur. I find it very beautiful and alluring and even a bit mysterious. Despite it's fleeting nature, I give it a thumbs up.

23rd January, 2010.

Not a promising start: Shaal Nur lands on the skin clothed in alcohol fumes and a harsh citrus accord. Luckily, this opening lasts only a minute or so before it’s engulfed in a cloud of incense smoke, resins, and sweet spices that firmly aligns Shaal Nur with dark oriental scents like L’Air du Desert Marocain, Fumerie Turque, and Jubilation XXV. Prominent vanilla and opopanax bring to mind Shalimar as well, but Shaal Nur is at once dryer and less animalic than Guerlain’s archetypical classic. Lack of civet and conspicuous doses of cedar and frankincense may account for the differences.

Shaal Nur projects well but never to the point of being distracting or oppressive. It grows more powdery as it develops, and eventually settles into a very soft-textured vanilla, opopanax, and cedar drydown. The composition and development are very conventional examples of the spicy oriental genre, but where Shaal Nur excels is in its delicately tuned balance and well-judged proportions. Nothing is out of place, nothing grates, and nothing is garish. (The latter a great danger in this sort of scent – think Opium.) My only criticism is that in a family of scents known for persistence, Shaal Nur is surprisingly fleet in fading. Perhaps a limited lifespan is the cost of avoiding gaudy excess in so rich an oriental.

12nd December, 2009.

Etro Shaal Nur

One of my favorite incense fragrances is Etro's Messe de Minuit. There is a dry austerity to that fragrance that really connects for me when I want incense, most of the time. Then there are times when I want a more rounded incense expereince and when I am seeking that I don't have to move out of the Etro section in my wardrobe. The 1995 release Shaal Nur is a more lush incense experience as it adds citrus, rose, vanilla and amber to the mix to create the antithesis of Messe de Minuits chilly incense and instead create an incense that feels like a Snuggie.

The top of Shaal Nur begins with a bracing combination of lemon and coriander with rosemary lurking in the distance. The incense is also present right from the beginning and the resinous nature of the incense versus the tart feel of the lemon would be jarring without the presence of the coriander to create an almost bridging note between the two. As a result the top comes off as something quite enjoyable. The heart is supposed to be a mix of four floral notes but the only one that really awakens on my skin is the rose, and this combination with the dry incense is really nice as the spicy aspect of rose complements the incense at the core of this scent. The base is where this turns towards the comfortable notes of vanilla and amber and this is where Shaal Nur becomes like a blanket of soft notes to be pulled tight around you and enjoyed.

Shaal Nur has average longevity and slightly above average sillage.

There are times when I want my incense to be dry and austere but for those times when I want to just feel warmth and comfort along with my incense Shaal Nur is where I will turn.

11th December, 2009.