I bought Arabian Oud's Saif Al Arab perfume oil blend last week and wore it today. Here are my thoughts after one wearing.
Saif means sword, and the very nice packaging reflects that. The bottle is a removable frosted glass and metal sword which rests upright on a metal stand. To apply the scent you unscrew the metal sword handle and lift the attached metal applicator, like a thin sword, out of its glass sheath. If you want to see what it looks like have at look at this website:
http://www.arabianoud.co.uk/flash.php
Click on Traditional Perfumes and go to Page 4 and you'll see a link for Saif Al Arab.
The note pyramid as given on the website is:
Topnotes: Cyclamen, Cotton Flower, Indian Rose
Midnotes: Jasmine, Geranium
Basenotes: Sandalwood, Oak Moss
I had to look up several of these ingredients, the cyclamen and the cotton flower. About all I could find was that cyclamen has a citrusy scent and cotton flower is kind of musky. I have no idea how Indian Rose differs from Damascus Rose or Istanbul Rose or Taif Rose or Bulgarian Rose or any other kind of rose.
I enjoy the opening of this fragrance very much. It's sweet, but also light and soft and airy. The overall smell reminds me of jelly beans or gummy bears or some sort of semi-hard candy rather than of flowers. But the rose comes through, and I can detect a bit of citrus (cyclamen?), which lingers in the background, giving a backbone to the proceedings. There's also some light muskiness, or diffuse softness (cotton flower?), which keeps any one element from dominating. Overall, I find the opening very fresh and appealing.
As time goes by the cyclamen and rose become a bit stronger and the jasmine and geranium make their presence known. The whole becomes a little less sweet, and I get whiffs of something more earthy, perhaps indolic (jasmine?). Something like mild salt or seawater also begins to waft in and out (geranium?). The overall effect remains soft, fresh, airy, and very well integrated.
As even more time passes the citrusy, eathy, and salty aromas become even stronger before gradually yielding control to the sandalwood and oak moss, which enter gently. The whole becomes slightly sweeter again, and loses some of its airy lightness. But the drydown still seems light and soft, just not so much as before. I love the soft, gentle, incense-like sandalwood and oak moss base, and it lasts all day. Maybe I'm just a sucker for sandalwood, but this is my favorite part of the scent.
Saif Al Arab is a winner for me. While it doesn't appear to be very complex at first, there's enough going on to make it interesting. I'd still call it a relatively simple fragrance. But I think that all the elements are very well put together, and its overall softness and airiness make it most pleasant. And that sandalwood drydown smells so good!
noggs
Saif means sword, and the very nice packaging reflects that. The bottle is a removable frosted glass and metal sword which rests upright on a metal stand. To apply the scent you unscrew the metal sword handle and lift the attached metal applicator, like a thin sword, out of its glass sheath. If you want to see what it looks like have at look at this website:
http://www.arabianoud.co.uk/flash.php
Click on Traditional Perfumes and go to Page 4 and you'll see a link for Saif Al Arab.
The note pyramid as given on the website is:
Topnotes: Cyclamen, Cotton Flower, Indian Rose
Midnotes: Jasmine, Geranium
Basenotes: Sandalwood, Oak Moss
I had to look up several of these ingredients, the cyclamen and the cotton flower. About all I could find was that cyclamen has a citrusy scent and cotton flower is kind of musky. I have no idea how Indian Rose differs from Damascus Rose or Istanbul Rose or Taif Rose or Bulgarian Rose or any other kind of rose.
I enjoy the opening of this fragrance very much. It's sweet, but also light and soft and airy. The overall smell reminds me of jelly beans or gummy bears or some sort of semi-hard candy rather than of flowers. But the rose comes through, and I can detect a bit of citrus (cyclamen?), which lingers in the background, giving a backbone to the proceedings. There's also some light muskiness, or diffuse softness (cotton flower?), which keeps any one element from dominating. Overall, I find the opening very fresh and appealing.
As time goes by the cyclamen and rose become a bit stronger and the jasmine and geranium make their presence known. The whole becomes a little less sweet, and I get whiffs of something more earthy, perhaps indolic (jasmine?). Something like mild salt or seawater also begins to waft in and out (geranium?). The overall effect remains soft, fresh, airy, and very well integrated.
As even more time passes the citrusy, eathy, and salty aromas become even stronger before gradually yielding control to the sandalwood and oak moss, which enter gently. The whole becomes slightly sweeter again, and loses some of its airy lightness. But the drydown still seems light and soft, just not so much as before. I love the soft, gentle, incense-like sandalwood and oak moss base, and it lasts all day. Maybe I'm just a sucker for sandalwood, but this is my favorite part of the scent.
Saif Al Arab is a winner for me. While it doesn't appear to be very complex at first, there's enough going on to make it interesting. I'd still call it a relatively simple fragrance. But I think that all the elements are very well put together, and its overall softness and airiness make it most pleasant. And that sandalwood drydown smells so good!
noggs
