Al Hajar Al'Aswad Royal
Abdul Samad Al Qurashi

Al Hajar Al'Aswad Royal is a big, bold floral built over an oriental base of sandalwood and musk. The florals here are astonishing - I get a boatload of purple, almost fruity jasmine (not the indolic, night-flowering variety), neroli, bergamot, and also later, creamy, sweet orange blossoms. The initial sweet fruitiness of the florals is intense, but it teeters at the edge of syrupiness without ever falling in, and eventually the white musk dials it all back down to a pretty acceptable level of sweetness. There is a creamy woodiness that rises up from the base to further cushion the fruity floral accords, but it is very subtle and I cannot peg it definitively as sandalwood (although I am sure that it's there, as it's listed). The sandalwood is more of a textural component than a smell in and of itself, which is slightly disappointing to me, as I crave sandalwood.

At one stage, the scent was radiating this sweet, subtle orange blossom and white musk duet that was both delicate and complex - very lovely. It made me wonder why people spend so much money on By Killian's Love (Don't Be Shy), which is a phenomenally popular scent among women, when there is something of this quality on the market. But then I remembered the price tag for this - around $800 per tola was the price I was quoted, although I also saw the price of $699 in an online catalog. Mind you, if you are the kind of buyer who doesn't quake at spending this type of money on a small bottle of perfume oil, then I am sure that another hundred dollars, give or take, doesn't really factor into the decision-making process!

Anyway, let's say money was no object - then this blend is stuffed to the brim with top notch raw materials and smells like a million bucks too. Fit for a princess or a queen who wants to leave a regal, radiant trail of flowers, white musk, and sandalwood behind her as she cuts a swathe through her minions.

I initially thought I'd have loathed Al Hajar Al'Aswad Royal but I was wrong…well, sort of.

A big and extremely radiant, bright fruity-citrusy-floral that moves somewhat in the same territories of Amouage's Homage. There aren't actually many points of contact between the two if not that they're both definitely bright and radiant. Whereas Homage supports the main accord with incense, Al Hajar introduces a woody-musky base (which seems to be the closest thing to a signature for the house). The florals are a mix of sweetish jasmine and more generically floral patterns to which they paired an overall fruity vibe to enhance the brightness. The final result is pretty darned good and once the initial floral blast settles down and melts with the base, what you're left with is a big and powerful exotic floriental that won't leave you unnoticed.

Now, I'm generally not a fan at all of these kind of fragrances and, when I do, I usually prefer more old-school iterations of the main theme but, if you like *big-bouqets* type of florals, give this a chance.

Challenging price tag.