Touaregh (2003)
by Il Profumo

Yeah --- I remember this -- was looking for something completely different at the time, but the top notes just hook you in -- a sort of spicy pot-pourri and I succumbed. It's a bit like cds -- always have the best and strongest track as the first. I soon got pretty bored with it though -- a linear spice bomb that wore me down.

Fascinating… Dramatic… A spicy treat with florals, palmarosa, and a touch almond gourmand that captures something not often offered in fragrances: An aromatic elixir making gorgeous use of palmarosa, nutmeg, cinnamon, and bay. I love the spices and I particularly love the palmarosa, but Touaregh seems to be a one accord wonder. It loses its sillage and strength so quickly, and with the loss of its strength, it loses much of its identity - its attractiveness. It does manage to last as a close-to-the-skin scent for two or three hours, but that is merely anticlimax - disappointment. Touaregh’s drydown has settled down to a transparent and too light vetiver, palmarosa, and cinnamon accord. It was fascinating and dramatic at first, but then just too quiet and short lasting…

I disagree with Joe_Frances that this was too feminine for a guy just because there is some rose in it. The heavy flowery (and maybe femine) note of yellow rose is balanced with a decent portion of nutmeg on a woody background. Anyway - who cares?

Yellow rose and nutmeg - for me these are the outstanding ingredients here - strange but intriguing!

It is easier to get this scent than to let this scent get you. I had tested it three or four times at the perfume shop before finally buying it. At first I thought it was quite nice. Then it appeared to me as a toned down version of Montale's Black Aoud and therefore unnessessary. Still I wanted to smell it the next time. I did not like the bitterness of the nutmeg. Then again I wanted to test it because it was so exceptional.

Finally it occured to me that I had become familiar with this fragrance and simply felt at home with it.

Longevity is OK and the scent develops rather linear. Aoud is not listed as ingredient but there is some subtle similarity, maybe due to the other woody components

Yellow rose and some wood, this is a soft somewhat sweet mellow floral that is absolutely lovely. Lovely, I think, for a special lady, like Katherine Hepburn, who wears trousers, drinks Famous Grouse, and smokes. For a guy? A close thing, but in the final analysis, I think not. I wear my samples in the evening when it is soothing and rich and works with a dressing gownt, but only then. Thumbs up for ladies and a neutral for the fellows. Try it if yellow rose fragrance intrigues.

not an easy scent to get hold of - smells very nice though- not as long lasting on my skin as id have liked- but sure beats all the routine scents that everyone seems to wear these days .you can almost bet no one will know what youre wearing