Soleil de Jeddah
Stéphane Humbert Lucas (2013)

Great floral-leather scent that is dedicated by Stephane Lucas Humbert to Jeddeh, the gateway city in Saudi Arabia to Mecca and Medina: A Middle Eastern styled scent proper.

Soleil de Jeddeh ("Sun of Jeddeh") starts out with a juicy lemon and the apricot-like osmanthus blossom, alongside the not-oft-used Roman chamomile flower adding its herbal, sweet-smoky savor that dominates gently over the other notes. Iris is present in a lightly powdery manner here, less the bit of earthiness it presents in other, typical fragrances. Leather comes into the mix to add a slightly smoky-suede effect.

This overall comes across as sensual and terrific! SdJ smells a LOT like SoOud's "Nur" scent (which uses real apricot vs. the osmanthus-derived accord in SdJ, as well as chamomile). Nur is priced well below SdJ, but the quality is not as evident though.

Soleil de Jeddeh is a sandstorm of subtle softness of osmanthus, iris and suede powder. There is a slight lemon fruit opening to an otherwise very dry powdery scent. The notes combine for a very smoothe slightly iridescent sheen to the dry down that takes it out of cozy comfort powder territory and into a dry windswept desert sands realm. The fragrance is a warm elegantly cared for suede osmanthus very light incense. Soleil is related to and possibly is a precursor to the more recent Taklamakan, but still is warmer. These notes are also similar to PG Suede Osmanthe but the lemon in the opening makes quite a difference. Unisex and I rate it 7/10.

The osmanthus is front and center in the initial stages of the fragrance, and there's the interesting contrast between the dry chamomile and fresh lemon, somehow the opening has a sweet fruity tartness to it that's very appealing. The scent gets smokier as it develops, yet I see no smoke or tobacco in the note breakdown (not that it matters anyway). But this ashy drydown reminds me a lot of Rasasi Tobacco Blaze, it's funny I'm the only one picking up the similarity between this and the Rasasi, both have the same fruity opening and ashy drydown, but the Rasasi can be had for 3 times less the price. Nonetheless, this is still a gorgeous perfume in the Middle Eastern style.

Soleil goes on with tomato leaf, complete with its weird bile undertone, as well as blackcurrant bud, with its cat pee undertone, so the first half an hour or so really smells awful. Under all that nastiness, there's a green-inflected fruity smell, like peach (yes, that overused Calyx peach) and berries with green leaves, but the gross pee and vomit is really the focus of the scent for a while.

Given time, the awfulness fades a bit and I'm left with sweet woods and cheap artificial fruit, with the gross undertones living on as a quiet hum of yuck in the background.

If this had started off so ugly and blossomed into something wonderful, I may not have liked it, but I would have respected it and seen the artistry in it, but this kind of feels like a failed attempt at niche-by-numbers that just doesn't really land.