Areej Le Doré Attars – Part III: Layering Attars With Western Fragrances

Vintage Shalimar, Opium, and Lagerfeld cologne, modern Salome, Ambre Precieux, Tom Ford‘s Tobacco Vanille, eau de parfums versus eau de toilettes from all eras — these may not seem like automatic choices to combine with Indian-style soliflore attars from Areej Le Doré‘s new History of Attar Collection, but that is what I did. And the results were fascinating! In fact, they were significantly better than my experiences in layering various Areej attars with each other — to the point where I’ve discovered a few new fragrance loves.

Based on my experiences, I’d strongly argue that layering the Areej attars with Western mixed or blended fragrances is successful in a way that layering the attars with each other is not. I think the latter is a mistake whereas the former demonstrates how the attars can either fix major structural and raw material problems in a bad scent formula, provide positive olfactory additions to a good fragrance, significantly improve the concentration and body of lighter scents, or some combination thereof. Today, I’ll share with you my various experiments in both genres.

Photo: my own.

Areej Le Dore History of Attars Collection. Photo: my own.

Continue reading

Areej Le Doré Indian Attars – Part II: Gulab & Motia

Gulab rose attar and Motia jasmine attar will be the focus of Part II of my look at Areej Le Doré‘s Indian Attar Collection. As a side note, for the sake of time-management, length, and brevity (to the extent that I can muster such a thing), I’ve decided to move the scent descriptions and results of layering four attars, three attars, and various duos into a separate Part III to be posted another day.

Kannauj attar producers in India. Source: bbc.co.uk

Continue reading

Areej Le Doré Indian Attars- Part I: Tuba, Champa, & Genda

Areej Le Doré has released a five-piece Indian Attar Collection, each focusing on a single flower combined with Mysore sandalwood and prepared in the centuries-old Indian bronze pot method of distillation.

Today, in Part I, I’ll provide a broad introductory overview to the collection, cover the particular methodology and raw materials that were used, then share an olfactory description of three of the attars. They will be the tuberose, champaca, and marigold attars. Part II in several days time will describe the rose and jasmine ones, Gulab and Motia. Part III will cover different attar layering combinations, including with Western fragrances, and what the result smells like.

Areej Indian Attar Collection. Photo: Areej Le Dore. [Photo cropped by me at the top.]

Continue reading

Amouage: Rose Aqor, Oud Ulya & Vanilla Barka Attars

Rose Aqor, Oud Ulya, and Vanilla Barka are three of six new attars that Amouage has launched recently in an attempt to straddle the richness, glory, popularity, and complexity of its old legends and the increasingly draconian restrictions placed on perfumery in the eight or so years since IFRA forced Amouage to retire its original olfactory beauties. Do the new additions live up to the greatness of old? No. Do they come across as real, authentic attars? Also no, in my opinion. Are they terrible? Well, it depends on which ones you try and your personal tastes. Are they worth the money in question? That answer, like most things involving perfumery, cannot be anything but purely subjective and individual, but I will tell you that I personally have a lot of issues with these new “attars.”

Amouage attars via Amouage’s booklet on them. Photo of the photo: my own.

Continue reading