Al Maqam Blend
Abdul Samad Al Qurashi

Al Maqam Blend is a limited edition perfume oil produced to commemorate ASAQ's Diamond Jubilee, and is apparently only available in very limited quantities. However, in my experience, the words 'rare' or 'limited supply' do not necessarily translate to amazing, and this is the case here, I'm afraid. Al Maqam Blend is a perfectly nice scent, but does not reach the exceptional heights that some of the other blends in the ASAQ range do (and when an ASAQ blend reaches exceptional heights, let me tell you, they blow most Western perfumes out of the water). What I get is a mixture of fruity florals overlaid on a base of a sweetish amber-musk base, with a touch of smokey oud that makes a shy appearance in the middle but leaves the stage again far too soon.

The florals up top are very, very fruity, and almost syrupy sweet. The floral notes are hyper-blended, meaning they are mainly indistinct and unidentifiable to me, apart from perhaps a grapey jasmine, syrupy orange blossoms, and so on, a mixture I have smelled elswhere in several of ASAQ's lower-priced female blends. Fruit is not mentioned in the notes pyramids published anywhere for this - neither on Fragrantica, nor on Basenotes - but the smell is extremely fruity to me. So, either some fruit notes have been used or they are simply a facet of the florals used in the blend, from which I can extrapolate that white florals have been used to the exclusion of all other flowers. I cannot smell a rose, nor any of those sheer-fantasy wildflower notes listed over at Fragrantica. I am not a huge lover of white florals, I must admit, nor of sweet, fruity smells, and both have been employed here with abandon. The amber-musk base is pleasant, and 'fuzzy' in texture, but hardly distinguished, and does not do anything to counterpoint the tremendous sweetness of the florals.

Midway through, a smokey, hazy oud note appears, spreading a layer of sophisticated, dry woodiness over the florals. This note is much needed and very welcome when it turns up! The oud does not smell medicinal or rubbery at all - instead, it has that smoked wood smell I associate with oud oil extracted from the wood rather than a synthetic reconstruction of the note. It is the type of smokey wood smell I pick up from Dior's Leather Oud and Guerlain's Songe d'Un Bois d'Ete. It is gorgeous, and I must admit that I almost considered doing a full 180 on this scent for a while, because it tempered the sweetness of the florals perfectly with its smokey, grown-up edge. But then, the oud note floated right out of the scent again, and all I was left with was those sweet white flowers over a pretty generic musk-amber base. Sigh. I want to go chasing after that smokey oud note - now that was gorgeous.