This is a wow! from me. Animalic but smooth oud dominance but with traces of roses and opulent musk. The oud character itself carries the whole thing starting with a mild cambodian cheese or real civet smell opening instantly diffusing into dark woody resinous tones. Al Hareem is mainly oud to my nose but the rose does develop as it dries down, never quite going what you'd call 'sweet' though. As someone who has a few oud attars this is familiar, powerful but no where near the most animalic or potent oud you will smell. This is clearly of great quality (not sure if all Pasha's oud comes from Ensar?) and when you are in the mood for it, just perfection. Superb.
Classified as a oriental floral
Released in 2015
Nose behind the scent is Sultan Pasha, a self taught attar perfumer based in London, UK.
Top: Butter, Rose and Iranian Saffron Heart: Turkish Rose and Sandalwood Base: Hindi Oud, Hyrax, Musk, Ambergris and Tobacco.
Two very different experiences on each wearing.
First experience of this scent was mind blowing, I got this heavy animalic musky, leathery hyrax, with a touch of funky Hindi Oud. It was a daring and challenging scent, but it blew me away and I absolutely loved it. Second wearing was more of classic rose Oud, very bright and floral sweet rose, with a gentle funky Hindi Oud base.
On subsequent wearings I got that animalic musky leather in the opening, but it eased as the scent developed in the heart, due to this sweet floral rose. Now the rose in this is very floral, its sweet but not due to gourmand notes such as vanilla, it's not a jammy rose. As the scent dries down there's a touch of the Hindi Oud, which gives a faint woody touch and aids the funkiness present in the scent. It's to me in the dry down this incredibly sexy animalic musky and subtle leathery scent, it has this sweaty human skin feel, with a touch of smooth and sweet rose. Glorious, complex and undoubtedly high quality, the rose especially feels incredible natural.
Projection is moderate on this scent, pretty strong for the first hour, but then becomes more moderate. Longevity on my skin was around 6-8 hours.
Overall rating for this one is 5/5, I love animalic scents, and this one was one of the best I've come across so far!