You know when a fragrance instantly transports you like a time machine to a very specific and actually quite insignificant and innocuous moment in your life. In fact the smaller the event the more you marvel at the complex workings of the human brain and how it stores, and more importantly accesses memory. Ta'if took me to a Sheffield dry ski slope some 25+ years ago... so weird. Anyway... I've decided that Taif roses are very interesting smelling and aren't really very traditionally rosy. They are heady and floral but powdery and more like dried pot pouri petals, definitely have a quality of tea leaves to them, reminding me of tea chests, (something else you don't really see anymore) wow this fragrance is really making me reminisce! There's spice to this too from pink pepper and saffron which are definitely big players, with a warm ambery base. I don't really like it, nor would I wear it but Ormonde Jayne is a quality brand and the line interests me greatly. I must say this is a unique fragrance at least to my nose and definitely polarising I'd say. If you go into it with the mindset you're getting a rose based fragrance you will but not in any traditional sense, to me this isn't rosy really.