Widian / AJ Arabia
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The bergamot arrives with citric precision, but the coriander-nutmeg combination immediately complicates matters, introducing a subtle spiced warmth that undermines any freshness. Within two minutes, you catch the first wisps of smoke—not barbecue smoke, but something drier, more abstract, like incense ash in a draught.
The oud emerges fully now, its woody-animalic character meeting the sustained smoke to create something almost resinous and ceremonial. The patchouli grounds the composition's middle register, whilst ambergris adds a grey, mineral quality that prevents the fragrance from becoming either too sweet or too dark. This phase is where the fragrance's true character reveals itself—complex, slightly austere, deeply woody.
Frankincense and white musk take centre stage as the more volatile notes fade, leaving behind a dry, slightly powdery woody-amber base that's almost papery in texture. The smoke lingers faintly in the background like a memory of something burnt, whilst the amber provides a subtle, almost cool sweetness that feels more mineral than indulgent. What remains is intimate, nearly skin-scent level, but possessed of an undeniable quietude.
Widian's Limited Collection 71 is a fragrance that refuses to whisper. Jordi Fernández has crafted something deliberately austere, where the typical sweetness expected in amber-based compositions is replaced by a deliberate severeness—a spiced, smoky meditation rather than a comfortable embrace.
The opening gesture of bergamot and coriander arrives with brightness, but it's immediately shadowed by nutmeg's peppery warmth, establishing that this won't be a cheerful, citrusy affair. Within moments, the heart declares itself with an almost confrontational presence: oud and smoke intertwine in a way that feels simultaneously animalic and incensory, neither traditionally animalic nor traditionally holy, but something caught between. The ambergris here isn't the creamy, salty-sweet version found in many fragrances—it's grey, mineral, slightly austere, acting as an anchor that keeps the patchouli from becoming too earthy and grounded.
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4.2/5 (379)