Safari Blend
Abdul Samad Al Qurashi

If you like arabian scents, you'll love Safari Blend. If you are into blends/oils/attars, then this is a must try!

In his category, this mix of wildflowers, vanilla, jasmine, white musk, ylang-ylang, tea leaf and spicy notes is close to perfection.

It is very complex, creamy, intense and luxurious. In the opening the vanilla notes may seem too powerful but in a matter of minutes it calms down and very complex notes are rising like arabian knights on the top of dunes.

The presentation (box and bottle) is absolutely superb. It looks like a gift for a sultan or an emperor.

Longevity - Above medium

Sillage - Medium

Projection - 8/10

I had purchased an original formula flacon of this blind about 3 years ago prior to all of ASQ's perfumes being reformulated into oblivion for the worst due to ASQ 'venturing' off into the Western hemisphere (thank you IFRA). I had purchased this from Mark over at Theworldinscents.com that was the real deal for Abdul Samad al Qurashi perfumes at the time and was disappointed to the max when I had received it. I spent a fat ass chunk of coin on this, it was like 4 bills or something due to this particular flacon being the last original formula one in existence for sale in the world, I'm not even making that up. Mark had included a sample of the reformulation for comparison purposes which was much brighter and even more floral and was macerated for the worst.

This cpo is a ylang-ylang and vanilla bomb with a teeny tiny hint of almost indistinguishable Oud and that was it. It was overtly strong to boot. I wore it once which consisted of a miniscule drop and the outcome was so overpowering which just wouldn't let up that I was being chocked to death for hours and had to scrub after about 4 when at that point, the sillage was still overwhelming. On top of that, the sweetness level from the vanilla was making me feel ill, not even exaggerating. From that point on I now highly dislike vanilla due to that experience, not that I really liked it before but now I hate it. This cpo is for women and that's it. Smells like a super strong women's floral on steroids.

I couldn't find the appeal in this at all. The presentation sold me but in the end I was disappointed and sold it off but glad it's gone because to my nose, the overall effect of this perfume on me is that of sickly, nasty sweet, yellow floral that's entirely way too powerful, verged past the point of being wearable.

From my experience, all of these cpo's are too much... too dense, too much nuclear sillage and are the perfect candidates for olfactory fatigue from hell that are way too easy to over apply to begin with. All that I had ever received was negative feedback when wearing this stuff that my scent was always to strong and I would only wear teeny tiny bits, less then half a drop or less spread out. I sold all of this and don't miss any of it one bit.

It's entertaining to read reviews on these kinds of perfumes where people complain that they're weak, makes me laugh.

The opening is smooth, rich and intense: a bright and light jasmine teams with a beautiful creamy vanilla and a convincing ylang-ylang to form a beautifully, slightly mellow opening. There are wood undertones, which initially are mere backgound support but soon develop further into a pine-centred middle phase. A few brief hints of oud show up here and there, but it hardly registers amongst the ylang-ylang and pine wood.

A slightly fruity and a touch more spicy tones lead into the base, where a light Darjeeling-type tea aroma mixes with musky impressions, whilst residues of the jasmine and wood still remain even at this stage. It never looses that certain intense rich and luscious smoothness that was so impressive at the start.

The performance is very good with moderate sillage, good projection and an excellent nine hours of longevity on my skin. A great oriental winter scent made of ingredients of very high quality. 3.75/5

A sweet, warm blend consisting mainly of, to my nose at least, jasmine, ylang, and vanilla. The opening is very sweet indeed, a big pop of sultry jasmine that shares some of the cheerful grape soda aspects with the jasmine note in Sarassins but absolutely none of the indoles. The ylang and vanilla come in a bit later to join the jasmine, but it never descends into boneless, creamy torpor, because the bright, grape jam-like feel of the jasmine keeps things zipping along in a high, fruity register. I don't get much of the green or spice notes here. Supposedly there is oud in this, although I can't pick it out, so it must be a very tame version of oud or present in minuscule amounts only. I do get some tannic or woody inferences, but I am not sure if this is coming from the tea or the blond woods in this.

It's generally a big, bossomy, big girl's pants type of scent. Very sweet and feminine. I quite like jasmine, but I prefer darker, leathery, and more indolic versions than this, like Sarassins, for example. But I recognize that it's very well done in that round, bossomy, daylight kind of way that some people prefer their jasmine.