Indu Kush / Hindu Kush
AbdesSalaam Attar Profumo

Sour-vanillic and piney. Ponderosa with the sweetness turned up, the vanillic aspects polished by resinous basenotes. Captures the sun-warmed pine duff with its softly radiant lactones.

A multi-layered masterpiece. Meditative, sensual and arcane. If I had to describe Hindu Kush in colours, I would describe it as a combination of the darker shades of green, brown and grey. Neither too smoky nor too woody, yet all about both of these categories of scent.

After the familiar opening experience typical for AbdesSalaam’s fragrances, which in a matter of seconds reveal the entirety of the perfume (in this case a blast of moss, incense, myrrh, spices, pine and cedar), this perfume settles to a very unique top note of ivy. I cannot be sure whether this is a by-product of a similar-smelling note or a combined accord, but it took me a few wearings to figure out what the first 15 minutes of this fragrance vividly remind me of, and it’s ivy. It is at the same time bitter/sour and sharp, yet also syrupy, reminding me of cough pastilles that contain the extract of said ingredient. While it’s not my favourite note, it is soothing and a very unique top note which screams of quality. It also serves as a wonderful introduction to this incredible perfume.

The ivy-like top fades and transitions into a soft waft of incense so delicately that, for a time, they seem to be one, impossible to pick apart. Eventually though, the incense takes centre-stage. It is a very smooth, almost non-smoky incense experience, possessing all the aromatic qualities without the sharper, spicier effect I have come to associate with frankincense. For this reason, it doesn’t remind me directly of church and religious ceremonies but of solitary meditative moments in nature or its vicinity. An occasional church-like waft does sneak in, but it is in no way a primary feature of this perfume. Every fragrance from Profumo I’ve tried so far that features spices has been exceedingly light-handed and reasonable with them, and this one is no exception. The spices present themselves in the early middle stage as a smooth supporting note that is hard for me to pinpoint and even harder to take apart. Focusing well, I detect pepper most prominently, combined with a very faint note of ginger and an even fainter note of nutmeg. There is also a piney, coniferous air surrounding the myrrh, never in front but also not completely in the back, providing a sense of freshness to the already light incense.

After a while the “typical” dry and medicinal myrrh is joined by a deeper, richer and also slightly sweet note, blending perfectly in it and adding a profound depth to an already deep and complex scent. To me, the notes joining here smell almost leathery, perhaps even slightly musky, while at the same time sweet, resinous and rich. This aspect of the fragrance is very carefully measured though, as it comes to the front only for an hour or so and then fades into the rest of the perfume. In my case that is rather unfortunate, as this is my favourite part of the fragrance. I am not well versed in the various shades of incense, but based on what I’ve read, this could be sweet myrrh? Whatever it is, it invokes a sensual and almost carnal response/feeling in me, an experience that seems to go beyond mere olfaction and registers on a physical/bodily level. This is the first time in my life that I truly experienced a “nose glued to my wrist” experience and while I have experienced other fragrances from this master that smell very nice and I would gladly wear, none have provided this unique transcendent experience.

As the perfume settles into the base notes, the incense blend is slowly joined by mossy and musky notes. I mostly detect oakmoss and cedar in the base, which makes this perfume take another turn, from the serene meditative peace of the myrrh to a slightly sour, at times even a bit bitter mossy fragrance. While again, like the ivy opening, this mossy/musky note is not my absolute favourite, it is very well executed and smells really good. In the deep dry down I can even smell a bit of the ivy from the top, although this is perhaps just an association with the bitter/sour aspects of the moss. At this stage, all the layers of this perfume can be smelled at once, a combined smell which could best be described as standing in a clearing of a coniferous forest somewhere in the mountains, in front of an old log-cabin overgrown with moss and ivy, with a trail of incense coming through an open window. At other times, this stage of the perfume reminds me simply of a slightly dusty, old and very expensive leather sofa. I would recommend this perfume to anyone, regardless of whether you like any of the notes in it, just to experience what a true multi-layered fragrance smells like, beyond the commercial “pyramid”.

The opening is spicy with sweet smoke, a balsamic and meditative incense. It's rich and oriental having also a fresh/green aura like being in a coniferous pine forest. The more you enter in the forest the more you go back in time and more transparent and quiet the scent becomes. Towards the end, I get a dusty leathery feel that sticks with the coniferous pine and the spices.

A powerful blast of olibanum and patchouli greet my nose and hint of good things to come.

However, it practically stops where it begins. I get no spices whatsoever, just the pleasant scent of a Christian Easter service where the blended incense smoke fills both the church and your lungs…or…as someone else here so aptly put it…a sawmill.

There may be some myrrh here, as in all good incense blends, since it does round out with a new warmth, which takes over from the sharp opening about fifteen minutes into the experience. The sawmill experience may be due to cedar or cypress oils.

I get no oakmoss as Turin states in his two word summary, "resinous oakmoss."

All in all, a pleasant incense scent, but rather linear for me and not outstanding or complex, as say Etro's Messe de Minuit.

A blast of pines and hesperidic notes in the opening, fresh and balsamic at the same time as only terpenes could be. This forest on the slopes of Hindu Kush is sun kissed- though high and, hence, cool-rather than misty or shady. The resins glisten and melt into a perfect blend of spices- none particularly prominent but all together conveying a green, peppery, resinous feel.
Under this coniferous top a thick, cooler bed of moss lies, slightly bitter, reinforced with a dark, earthy patchouli. The heart and base of HK play around a rich incense note that stands out among the signature resins blend of AbdesSalaam Attar fragrances.
A superb fragrance, rather simple in its composition yet rich, complex and profoundly meditative. One of the best scents on the forest theme, in my opinion, definitely one of the most beloved in my own wardrobe. Totally unisex, with good projection and lasting power.

Hindu Kush, namely a bit Coze 02, an "hint" chypre classicism, a "touch" Profumum Arso and a tad Cuoio Tartaro and Muschio di Quercia, is a mystical and mossy-luxurious Dubrana's performance surrounded by resinous patterns, rich spices, earthy nuances and oriental elements. I detect by soon sweet spices, ginger and pepper in notable amount in a while joined by barely resinous mild frankincense, oily hesperides, seasoned woods and smoky oakmoss. There is a really musky/grassy aura all around but the aroma is basically musky/animalic, spicy/resinous, smokey, earthy and mossy (in a classically chypre spicy-rooty way). Probably cloves and nutmeg are included in the blend while the note of incense is smokey and possibly rounded by sweet spices, musks, a whiff of balsams and hints of tobacco. The more the aroma evolves the more a sort of musky greenness appears with minimal hints of grass, resins (mild and perfumed), leather and camphor. The pepper (as joined by prickly spices - saffron, cumin?) is in my opinion dominant till the end. Probably a minimal hint of vetiver and amber is appointed along the base. The note of dry frankincense is magistrally appointed. I see the association with the experience of taking a walk in an indian market with the aroma of spices merging with the incensey smoke exhaling by the open doors of temples. Anyway Indu Kush is basically the aroma of the untouched high mountain (green, cool, somewhere steamy), fierce and appalling but is at once able to perform a final (completely opposite and highly "civilized") sort of baroque/decadent high class vibe. Another spicy/carnal performance by Monsieur Dominique Dubrana.