Sheikh Abdullah Bin Khalid Blend
Abdul Samad Al Qurashi

ASAQ Sheikh Abdullah Bin Khalid Blend is another resinous woody semi-oriental bomb full of hyper natural seasoned "either dry/resinous" elements and with a tremendously powerful evocative "synergy". You layer the organic oily potion on skin and your senses are instantly conveyed back in to an exotic dimension of desert villages, bas-reliefs, Caliphs' royal palaces, chapiters and silky roads (unfortunately nowadays almost disappeared, brutally occupied and more ideal than real). The aroma starts soon rosey and visceral (the "ambergris centered" spicy warmth is soon heady and encompassing) but I detect in particular oakmoss, dry spices (black pepper, dry saffron??) and woods in this phase (agarwood, cedarwood, sandalwood). The note of rosey oudh is soon smokey, ancestral, more than vaguely bone dry and musky (with its deeply encompassing soapy twist). Unfortunately this fragrance does not develop markedly as usual for many ASAQ's concoctions the most part of which smells endly surprisingly subtle and nuanced (over an initially powerful and "temperamental" opening and central stage). I guess fir resins are included in the blend on the side of dryed woodsy berries. Over a couple of hours the aroma on skin is still woody, dry-smoky and more than vaguely rosey-soapy. In this stage I enjoy a seriously virile and austere piece of exotic sensuality which smells un-sweet, slightly dusty/piquant, mysterious, and arcane as a dodgy trunk forgotten in the mists of antiquity.

Another winner from Abdul Samad Al Qurashi. It is a smooth but potent blend of heavy, aged oud, amber, ambergris, spices, maybe some florals, and certainly some resins. The opening is not challenging at all, but it does have that pungency I now associate with real aged oud - hot, sour, oily, woody - and it is a smell I am starting to find addicting in the extreme. The pungency clears very quickly, and soon the oil spreads out into this creamy, woody, balsamic accord, which steadily becomes sweeter and more rounded as the amber comes in from below. The scent is never sweet, per se - this is a 100% masculine blend, I feel - but there is a natural sweet, balsamic feel coming from the amber and resins that does a nice job of tempering all the austere woodiness. However, there is a salty, "cool" feeling to this blend, coming from, I am guessing, a good does of ambergris oil alongside the amber. The sillage for this blend is extremely quiet and subtle, making it perhaps the best candidate out of all the ASAQ blends I have tested for a professional man to wear at the office. There is a quiet authority to this that speaks to a certain type of male, director or manager, the kind who doesn't have to speak loudly to make himself heard or respected.

It's expensive - about $1,300 per tola. But there is a discreet elegance and refinement to this that I see as making it an attractive proposition to a man (or woman) who rules with a quiet hand in the corporate world.

In the Sheikh Abdullah Bin Khalid Blend, there is amber and there is rose but I swear there is also some sandalwood and there may be some spices but to me this is all oud and sandalwood. In the opening there is some rose and what smells like perhaps some other floral but the oud is on top. There are moments when I get the creamy woody notes of sandalwood, even a touch of citrus, and it's fantastic. Of all the blends I've tried from this house, this is one of my favorites because of the use of sandalwood. Anyone who knows me knows I have a weakness for the stuff and in this blend it just floors me. The note is mild, however, and I could stand a bit more sandalwood presence, but it's still one of the best oud/sandalwood blends I've tried; and the longevity isn't nearly as good as some of the other blends from this house, but I still get a full days wearing out of it and longevity is a shortcoming of real oud oil anyway. An incredible blend to say the least!

Oh what a majestic marvel this is. A powerful – and I mean: powerful in the most Nietzschean sense ever - blend of oudh with a lot – a lot? A *maelstrom*! - of facets and nuances which slowly uncover, arise and vanish, then return, like a Pandora's box. Still, again like for other Al Qurashi oils I've tried, this is as much powerful as not challenging: it is surely quite loud and deep, but it does not "stink" or smell "funny" like one may expect from real oud oils. More than challenging, it is just a proper complex scent that deserves and requires a certain amount of attention and patience to be enjoyed properly. But if you wish, it's also an utterly refined Oriental scent you can wear any evening, then forget about it. Well, anyway, the oil: a sumptuous prominent note of dark, dry aged oud, woody, organic, smoky, slightly salty, with all its mystical, animalic, primitive and ancestral feel, brilliantly encrusted in a Byzantine mosaic of vanilla, resins, flowers, spices. There's not a fixed texture, or a predictable evolution: I am not even that sure all that materials are actually in the composition. It's just a matter of nuances and breezes coming and going depending on time, place, mood. It's basically like sitting in the middle of the desert between two Arabian villages in a windy day, you get all the smells coming and going from every corner, from the houses, the bazaars, the trees... Basically however as I said, it is mostly about oud and resins, spices and flowers, especially in the first hours: after some 4-5 hours it gets increasingly balsamic, then turning into something more "brownish" and dry, austere, smoky and always "woody" in the most realistic and organic sense – again, all the facets of oud. For more than 12 hours. And bear in mind we're talking about real, aged oud: don't really think of your Montale's... Something to admire and love here. Shortly, for me Sheikh Abdullah Bin Khalid is possibly one of the most evocative and pictorial scents I've ever tried. And this one is one of those (among Al Qurashi's) which can marvelously work as a scent itself. Surely the price is evidently much expensive, and I frankly can not "judge" if it's fair or not... Honestly I guess yes, as this level of quality surely implies and justifies high prices. I can only say for sure that it's a totally different olfactory experience any proper "perfumista" shall do once in a lifetime (you can take it as an investment: you smell this, and you'll surely won't be buying Western synthetic ouds anymore).

9/10