Nabeel
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
A crisp assault of candied apple meets black pepper and petrichor—wet stone and overripe stone fruit colliding in the first moments. The marine notes add a saline quality that feels almost mineral, whilst mint provides a tingling edge that prevents the composition from announcing itself as purely sweet.
The fruit gradually recedes as freesia and rose lokum emerge with delicate presence, supported by a creamy Indian sandalwood that acts as a stabilising force. Osmanthus adds a subtle apricot-jam quality, whilst jasmine sambac prevents the florals from becoming too diaphanous, adding a faint animalic warmth that grounds the composition.
Tonka bean and vanilla provide expected sweetness, but the white musk and patchouli lend an almost grey, skin-like quality rather than the typical gourmand embrace. Cedarwood lingers with subtle incense-like dryness, leaving a vaguely powdered, slightly soapy finish that feels more like the memory of fragrance than its presence.
Nabeel's Ajyal reads as a candied fruit preserve caught in suspended animation—neither fully gourmand nor purely fresh, but something deliberately caught between seasons. The opening salvo of candied apple and plum arrives with an almost jammy intensity, immediately undercut by petrichor and mint that suggest rain-dampened orchard paths rather than dessert plates. Asghar Adam Ali has constructed something genuinely clever here: the citrus notes (grapefruit, lemon, lime) don't brighten so much as they acidify, preventing the composition from sliding into cloying territory.
The heart unfolds with deliberate restraint. Rather than the floral chorus overwhelming the fruit, notes like freesia and rose lokum maintain the fruity DNA whilst lily of the valley adds a slightly bitter, green edge. The Indian sandalwood emerges as a crucial pivot point—creamy without warmth, it prevents the heliotrope and osmanthus from reading as powdery. There's a peculiar luminosity here, almost aqueous, as though the florals are floating rather than sitting heavily on skin.
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3.6/5 (82)