El Nabil
El Nabil
97 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Bergamot's citrus brightness immediately announces itself with characteristic zest, companioned by a soft, dewy rose that feels almost abstract beside the citrus bite. Within moments, this fresh opening begins its retreat, allowing the geranium to emerge with a slight green-peppery character that signals what's to come.
The full resinous beauty reveals itself as geranium and ylang ylang weave through amber's warm, honeyed presence. Patchouli grounds everything with an earthiness that prevents sweetness from dominating, creating a balanced amber composition that smells both creamy and subtly spiced, almost skin-like in its intimacy.
The woody base notes—particularly cedar and sandalwood—become the primary storytellers, their dry, slightly astringent qualities melting into residual amber warmth. What remains is a soft, ambered skin scent with faint incense-like whispers and patchouli's dusty embrace, lasting well into the evening with gentle, undemanding presence.
Amber of Yemen arrives as a study in controlled decadence—a fragrance that refuses the sharp attention-seeking of its designer cousins, instead commanding presence through sheer olfactory depth. The opening bergamot and rose create a deceptively luminous gateway, but this is merely the anteroom to something far more substantial. Within minutes, geranium and ylang ylang emerge with a slightly peppery insistence, their green-floral qualities threading through what's essentially a resinous amber monolith underpinned by patchouli's earthy grip.
This is unmistakably an amber composition—the 100% accord dominance ensures that—but it's rendered with restraint rather than the cloying sweetness that plagues many ambers. The patchouli-sandalwood-cedar trinity creates a woody scaffolding that prevents the amber from becoming a one-dimensional sticky situation. Instead, there's almost a mineral quality to proceedings, a kind of dusty, antique warmth that evokes aged incense or the interior of a spice merchant's shop in Sana'a.
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4.0/5 (189)