Ruh (2015)
by Pekji

Well designed blend of notes that I wouldn't quite expect to meld well together. None of the notes overwhelm the other - bits of spice, bits of floral, bits of bitter coffee.

I will caution on Ruh - this is a perfume that changes dramatically with body chemistry. On my skin this takes on the faint scent of fecal matter from a breastfed baby's diaper. As I'm still changing diapers, I know that scent all too well. I had the same issue with Cuir de Russie by Chanel, so perhaps there is something else lending to that odd undertone.

But on someone else - vastly magical and intoxicating. This one I will have to sniff from a paper strip or perfume stone.

Stardate 20170324:

Take note perfumers - This is how a saffron should be done.
It is the main player with rose and spice supporting it.
Unlike other reviewers, I dont get much coffee here.
This is a great saffron scent.

Quality!
This is the first thought that comes to my mind when the opening blast hits my nose mainly with a dominating saffron, a pleasant cardamom and a rose impression. The saffron is not light and bright like in, for instance, Comptoir Sud Pacifique's Sultan Safran, but darker, richer and more intense.

The rose is quite dark, smooth with just a modicum of glowing booziness. The coffee component is neither standing out nor particularly prominent - this is quite different for more directly coffee-dominated products like L'Eau de Navigateur. On my skin, the coffee permeates the opening triad and, infused with a hint of weak black tea, is part of the olfactory fabric in an unobtrusive manner.

Towards the base a restrained and slightly raisinous ambery aroma is added, with hints of musk, dark hesperidic glimpses and woodsy impression; all this is smoothly intertwined to form a multilayered fabric of olfactory artwork.

I get moderate sillage, excellent projection and an astounding - for natural ingrendients - ten hours of longevity on my skin.

Quality!
This sums up this oriental-gourmandish autumnal composition, as the most outstanding feature is the amazing quality of the natural ingredients. Some fragrances sport two or three dozens of notes that end up resulting in a disjointed mess. This scent, supremely skillfully pleated from comparative few and as such fairly standard main chords, does the opposite in a convincing manner. 4.25/5.

The name is correct: This creation has spirit.

ruh is the classic 'grower' - at first not really distinguished from the plethora of rose-spice-wood trendoids floatin round these days, but within a few short minutes you know something different is going on.... besides the full, tart rose of top quality, the saffron AND coffee take this on a detour far away from woodyville. repeated wearings really assert ruh's singular status, apart from the pack while remaining first and foremost an exceptionally wearable, warm quasi-gourmand rose oriental. great work!

Finally something on my tunes. Ruh is a new singular interpretation of the classic rose-saffron combo (usually resinous or powdery but in here at the beginning sharply aqueous, apparently fruity, than veined by a toasted coffee presence, slightly dirty and floral-vegetal). Ruh is a really simple but modern and structured bizarre combination. Saffron is soon heady, liquid (due to a freshly fluidy tea-like cardamom), vaguely (ostensibly) berrish and leafy (an initially botanic-green and finally soapy rose). Coffee pervades all the elements, anyway I get not a perfumed and rounded ground coffee but more properly a toasted bunch of dark coffee beans. I suppose sandalwood (may be patchouli) is included in the blend too. The fruitiness is afforded by a spicy-fruity "tea-like" accord enriched by rose, dried fruits and herbal notes. The "tea accord" is probably the main trait of the juice, hardly paired by a yet present (and encompassing) coffee aroma. Saffron is still present along dry down, lingering and pungent, connected with rose in to a spicy-dirty-animalic accord conjuring me vaguely the central Histoires de Parfums Rosam's accord. Along the final part of development it seems catching a sort of acid-"ammonial"-dirty and virile ambergris presence (vaguely a la Costume National Scent Intense- a tea/floral/ambery accord- despite all the notable differences). The aroma, in its structure, is not properly complex but warm, spicy and attractive (most of all original and sensual). Surprisingly chic-dark dry down with a faint suede-like nuance.