Verde
Ajmal (2020)

Oh man, it’s amazing… amazing!

I have no idea how sometimes Ajmal swings such fantastic creations at these prices. Most of them are bad, some are good with a select few hitting it right out of the ballpark. Verde is one of them. Mainly because Ajmal was slick and decided to insert some oud but not even that, the blending is on point and nothing rings as synthetic.

I’ve worn Verde for months straight just to figure it out, plus for the fact that I’m floored with it and fell in love instantly. It just smells incredible, and very easy to wear. Not too strong, not too soft, lasts a whole day on the skin. People seem to like it a lot as well. Quite rare for an Ajmal. I was fascinated from the very first whiff. I think I’ve finally found a signature which only took 20 years!

I have not sampled Tom Ford’s Noir Anthracite to compare. By deciphering the Ajmal, I have a good grasp. Both scent’s pyramids are nearly identical. Obviously this was intended as a carbon copy. With Verde, I’ve pinned down how Ajmal replicated Noir Anthracite without even sampling it.

Anthracite is supposed to recreate ebony wood, or macassar wood which I’m certain comes across as very synthetic. Verde reeks of real ebony wood with all of its stinky, funky glory. In fact, the funky part is eerily similar to Perris Monte Carlo’s Oud Imperial that uses genuine ebony wood oil in its base. Ebony is used heavily in Rochas’ Macassar too. I’m very familiar with macassar wood. I’ve smelled the real thing, up close and once upon a time had a love affair with Macassar.

Verde is basically agarwood roots and white agarwood oil blended seamlessly with creamy sandalwood, dry cedar, galbanum and soapy jasmine flowers that someway, somehow smells of ebony wood. It’s fantastic! The highly pleasurable, beige-green-brown, complex, oudy funk right from the onset that dominates well into the far down is something else. The feeling is narcotic, calming, deep and dreamy. An overall fuzzy, pleasant and soapy wood all the way. It simply becomes better and better as it dries out which is usually the case with genuine oud. Dry down 12 hours later is straight funky wood that resembles Ajmal’s Dhan al Oudh Lujain. Sadly a stellar oud that is long gone discontinued years ago.

I own a couple of necklaces made from oud wood beads. I’ve had these for years and they’re still very fragrant. One of them is made from aqualaria roots. These particular beads have a deep, hypnotic, complex funk to them that keeps you coming in for more and more whiffs. Verde smells almost the same as these oud beads in the dry down.