TheBark

I have been eyeing this for a couple of years since I purchased Modern Heritage by Gissah, but I just got around to buying it now. Part of the reason is there are so few reviews of the brand, not to mention most of them are middle of the road. That said, the bottle, not the notes, drew me in, though I had some idea of what it might smell like.

Black Opal opens with a blast of saffron. Actually, my bottle begins with an explosion of fragrance unlike any I've seen before. It comes screaming out of the bottle like a firehose. I'm unsure if it's just something from the pressure change during shipping, but I don't quite like it because it's so concentrated in one area. The saffron, thankfully, isn't hardcore like in Arabian Oud's Resala, which can be a bit of a turn-off if sprayed too close to the skin (better to do it from a distance.)

The saffron is joined by caramel and incense, and the combination in the early stages, which lasts a good while, gives it a smokey appeal. The caramel isn't too sweet; it almost has a burnt characteristic, not quite like caramel corn, but something of the effect. The Frankincense is well-blended and isn't intrusive, giving it an Eastern feel.

Ambergris is listed here, which gives a bit of a salted caramel vibe, and the scent becomes a bit woodier over time. However, to my nose, it's rather indistinctive and not cedar-like though there is a phase mixed with the caramel where the two seem to be in harmony where a cedar-like quality is perceived. The vanilla is also noticeable, though more so after several hours when the scent dries down to a lighter caramel-vanilla scent.

Although this is unisex, I find it leans masculine and wears a little heavier, making it better suited for fall and winter. I'm not blown away with it as I was with Modern Heritage, but it's a cozy gourmand that isn't typically my favorite. The quality is there, and I look forward to wearing it more come fall. A side note: my purchase came in the newer-styled boxes, which feel like a slight step down from the originals, though they do retain nearly the same dimensions and magnetic closure.

EDIT: It's been cooler here recently, so I've been wearing this, and I have to say, it's addictive. It's definitely a cooler/colder weather scent, and it smells and feels like it could very well be a phase of Amouage's Royal Tobacco. No, there's no tobacco here, but if you've experienced that scent, this has a similar vibe to a phase of that fragrance.

I love rosemary in fragrances as it has such an uplifting character to it. The Rosemary plant comes from the Mediterranean region and has evergreen attributes, giving it a bit of a mentholated vibe. It was sometimes burned in ceremonies like weddings and funerals for "ritual cleansing," according to homesick.com, which goes on to say, " Very much like sage, it has a cleansing effect and was once used to fend off witches."

In Oman, it's noticeable at the beginning. Still, it's hard to tell whether the listing of notes is accurate as there's a slight fruity accord not listed (Rosemary often seems paired with Juniper Berry, but your guess is as good as mine as to what's in use here.) The saffron adds a bit of spicy-zestfulness, but doesn't appear to be a main player here. What you get, when paired with the Frankincense and "Vaporized" Oud, is a nice interplay between cool and warm notes which gives the fragrance overall some versatility.

This could be worn anytime of the year, for any occasion as it feels somewhat dressy, sporty, classy, fresh and warm with a slight greenness running through it. I can't think of anything to really compare it to, though it is worth noting that the oud here is more airy than heavy, giving it a base for the other notes to float upon with the Frankincense, which is also aromatic. Interestingly enough, Frankincense often has a Rosemary and Citrus and Pine undertone to it, and a slightly smokey undertone. I have not smelled one of Amouage's latest, Search, but imagine this may feel similar minus the strong citrus opening that particular fragrance has.

Overall, this is another great addition for the house of Taif Al Emarat and the turquoise color of the bottle is both striking and fitting of the fragrance within.

I held off purchasing this, waiting for reviews that never came, save one buried way down in the YouTube search results in a foreign language that couldn't be translated. Nevertheless, from what I could gather, it was the person's favorite of the three they reviewed. The lack of notes, a marketing trend from a few years back that thankfully didn't last long, had me wondering if there was more to this, as "oriental notes" is rather ubiquitous and nebulous within the house.

I waited several days to give it a full wearing as temperatures swelled over the 80s here and from sampling it on my hand, it seemed by far the woodiest of the 10 or so Taif Al Emarat fragrances I have and about 10 others I've sampled. To my surprise, it has facets that smell like Arabian Oud's Mukhalat Dewan Al Sharq, which makes sense considering both are amber-oud fragrances. Dewan Al Sharq has a blend of three ouds, Indian, Cambodian and Borneo, whereas Taif T14 has Vietnamese, all in the same ballpark, so to speak. Both have a certain sweetness to them and a fresh spiciness.

Upon giving Taif T14 a full wearing, I was surprised yet again that it didn't come across as dense feeling as a single spray to the back of my hand. This could be from the tendency to small the back of one's hand up close, whereas when it is applied to pulse points, you get more of an aura, which was the case here. It was a bit airier, and the sweetness there from the start. It's here that it also reminded me of a superior version of Halston Man Amber, with a good dose of oud, though my nose also detects some cedar at times (it even has the same gold-plated look of Halston Man Amber.)

The amber isn't thick and chewy but has a resinous feel. Overall, the combination keeps morphing and revealing different smells, including something almost chocolatey in wafts I'm getting from time to time, rather than having distinct phases of development (top, mid, base.) It wouldn't be correct to say it's a linear fragrance when, as Dewan Al Sharq does, it reveals different characteristics from moment to moment while still maintaining an overall impression of the main components of amber and oud.

Overall, this is very well done and a pleasant surprise to wear after sampling it a bit. If you like the idea of an upper-scale Halston Amber Man or have found Dewan Al Sharq too pricey, this may be right up your alley.

This one feels like it came out of left field. The notes are all familiar, but the end result is quite enchanting in a unique way. At first spritz, I thought, "This isn't what I expected." I could smell some light citrus and iris and some sweetness, but after a few minutes, a depth came. Though it remained somewhat ethereal, the lighter, sweet notes hovered over the deeper, earthier notes like a fog a foot or two off the ground. It's never too light or heavy like fog stuck between the warmer earth and cooler air above it.

As typical with Taif Al Emarat, the notes tend to differ depending on where one looks, though these listed here are the same as in the small pamphlet that came with it, except that it also mentioned cherry blossom, which is interesting because there is something here that smells "cherry-like," which turns perhaps almondy-ish later on, which cherry blossoms tend to smell like amongst some other delicate florals. If I had to make a comparison, which would seem almost unforgivable as I don't like the scent, it's as if somebody took Bogart Pour Homme from 2004, the one that supposedly smells like cherry tobacco, and made it with ingredients that cost 1,000 times more and stripped the tonka bean from it.

BPH is, to me, headache-inducing, thick, and a tonka-overload in its base notes. it's heavy and oppressive, screechy and obnoxious, but I can see where some people may get the impressions of both tobacco and cherry. And guess what? It has some of the same notes as GCC: Lavender, Bergamot, floral notes, and perhaps water lily substituted for Lily of the Valley. With GCC, and this was noted on the German-version of the website, which carries different reviews, one person remarked it smells of dry fruits, powdery tobacco, and incense, and I can understand that, though I'd say the tobaccoish accord is more on the dusty side and perhaps the result of lavender and something else, oak moss? (The Taif website, in the narrative above the notes, also lists oud, but who knows.)

In short, this is everything something like Bogart Pour Homme could only dream of being. It's made with much, much, much better quality ingredients and better blending, and there are hints of sour fruits, like cherries, that waft in and out. This isn't heavy like Boadicea the Victorious Bodacious, nor is it all that comparable; rather, it's something of the antithesis in that it's lighter and airier while retaining some depth. To me, this could be worn year-round.

I've had this fragrance for four months and have worn it around eight times, and each time I feel like a mystery is unfurling before my nose. Fragrance marketing is a strange thing, usually driven by notes and accords, but even then, they often need to be more precise and accurate. In this case, the top notes listed here are mandarin and rose. On the company's website, it's pink peppercorn and tobacco. To my nose, it opens predominantly with frankincense. Unfortunately, I don't get a spicy peppercorn, nor is there anything remotely fruity akin to the orange family.

Reading further from the company's page, it lists the middle notes as incense and mandarin rose. At first, I was hard-pressed to smell any familiar type of rose and had never smelled nor heard of a mandarin variety. As it turns out, its origins are in Western China, and its petals are said to be fragrant. But, again, having never smelled one, I can say this is no typical rose here. It's not jammy, syrupy, bright, or gothic, yet, the nose, knowing it's "Mandarin Rose," instead of mandarin and rose, now seems to pick up a dusty, warm, soft, and an almost creamy element of a rose present, just not one that this brain can grasp in its library of scent profiles under "rose." So, is it really a rose, or is my mind playing tricks on me based on marketing?

Whatever the case, there is a point after the frankincense levels off that the fragrance has a sense of a sweeter component where the sandalwood also starts to come in. It's here that the scent reminds me of old sandalwood and rose hand soap from decades ago in my grandparent's house. The tobacco here is also "mysterious" because it's not your typical spicy, leafy, pipe, or raw tobacco most western-style perfumes are comprised of. If you came to this fragrance expecting to find something akin to the tobacco in Tobacco Vanille or Herod, you'd be sorely disappointed. Instead, it's more in line with Taif Al Emarat's note use in their Year of Zayed; it's subdued, refined, and laid back, playing a secondary role to the incense, sandalwood, and rose.

There is also oud listed here, but it's not pervasive and, again, its mixture with sandalwood here is reminiscent of its blend in Year of Zayed; I'm very tempted to say these fragrances are siblings, not in that they smell alike - they don't, necessarily, but the DNA is undoubtedly there, the amber and coffee (listed in Zayed's packaging) stripped away and replaced with the mysterious "Mandarine Rose."

Overall, I like it, although I can't wrap my head around it. It's definitely of high-quality ingredients and unlike anything else I've smelled, but it wouldn't be a hit with everyone as it is heavily focused on frankincense. The marketing from the company's website states, "A fragrance that will transport your mood to new depths of passion. Top notes of tobacco with mandarin balanced with agarwood and fumigated frankincense notes to create an inspiring mood." It does have a sense of spirituality to it, no doubt with the sandalwood, oud, and frankincense, but whether it lives up to putting one in an inspiring mood is ultimately going to be determined by individual tastes.

EDIT: not even a month since I posted this review, the notes on the brand's official website have now changed and are listed as Top Notes: Cambodian Oud - Tobacco; Heart Notes: Amber - Incense; Base Notes: Oriental Spices - Sandalwood - Olibanum. This is probably more in line with what I smell, as it's nevertheless incense-heavy.