Sultan White Rose: Afghanissimo – Running Low

A tasteful tinge of mandarin, dyed with a citrus-sweet Hojari note around a soft whiff of cardamom, all of which swims deep in an ocean of rare and exceptionally diffusive rose extracts burstingt into full-bloom in this perfume. 

If you love Sultan Red Rose, then imagine that aroma enhanced with a crystalline shot of incense-grade oud that dresses the roses in its fresh gyrinops, mimosa white, a fresh-flower aquatic oudy core that’s beautiful and sooo delectable. 

This sparkly walla tone smells sublime in unison with the exquisite lemony pitch of Ta’if rose, and adds a layer of resinous delight to the composition. 

Then you have the Sultan’s white rose, which may well be the iciest, most crystalline white rose I’ve smelled. Weaving its pristine white petal aroma into the tapestry of those lemony citrus notes is what gives the profile its sublime bright tone. 

If I wanted to only give you a white rose soliflore, I could have just handed you this relic from the Sultan suspended in carrier and called it a day. But the perfume is a bouquet of accompanying aromatics that complement the rose, and those in turn are brought to life by an ensemble of roses.

A trio of the finest Persian ottos beautifully diffuse and lift the Sultan’s rose and give some body to the overall composition with its dense aroma. 

I thought about adding an absolute, but then we’d be veering into EO3 red rose territory, so I went full otto.

We just paid $50,000 and had someone fly into Afghanistan to bring back a stunning otto harvest from the Afghan mountains which is so beautifully bright I don’t have anything to compare it with. While all roses have their unique texture – some are smooth, some sharp, some fruity, some almost see-through – this beauty is intoxicating. And it packs flavor akin to an absolute!

Some roses make great carriers, while some are more tenacious and will impact the other aromatics in the perfume. The Afghani and Taifi roses make fantastic carriers, while the Persian trio adds a beautiful whiteness to the profile. I mention this because of how much oud there is in this perfume…

In fact, Sultan White Rose contains six ouds, one to match each of the roses…

Aged Sri Lankan Walla Patta soaks up the beauty of Ta’ifi petals to adorn the entire composition with its diffusive white-flower-injected-with-aloes soul.

Fine Sri Lankan oud is known for its exquisite mimosa chord that’s just discreet enough to be highlighted – this makes it a fantastic oud to complement this rose bouquet without diverting the fragrance from its pure white rose heart.

To bolster the otherwise more fleeting yuzu-hojari top notes, vintage incense-grade Kelantan oud imparts a pristine incense veneer that manages to also let those top notes linger longer (remember, oud could also be used as a fixative).

While I often choose darker-toned ouds because of their more prominent impact, alongside the ethereal Walla Patta and Malaysian resin, this perfume features an extremely limited harvest of wild Khao Yai oud. 

Why Khao Yai?

Take the signature lemony Ta’ifi note imbued with that fresh tea-rose-like mountain rose and add Italian neroli and frangipani and you’ve got one sensual, creamy fruity chord.

Letting an incense-grade rendition of the quintessential fruity oud ooze along thickens those frangi-citrus notes to make the perfume pop with the whitest rose-oud-iest fragrance this side of the Milky Way.

It was the addition of the Thai oud that led to this next addition:

You’ve heard of Pursat, but have you heard of Kampung Speu? And did you know that miles into the ocean, off the coast of Koh Kong, there’s an island? A tiny island where agarwood grows…

And did you know that if you take those two ouds and add just a dash of Pailin, you get the craziest Cambodian oud trio ever featured in a perfume?Legendary crassnas that come together to exude an incense-laced jammy rouge unlike any oud profile you can think of. And it’s this twangy zest that makes the roses smell even more gorgeous. A subtle smokiness punctuated by a ripe-fruit jam chord that transforms the lush roses and the accompanying ouds into a fragrance unlike anything.

TOP
Korean Yuzu
Hojari Frankincense
Italian Neroli
Green Mandarin

HEART
Vintage Taifi Rose Otto
Persian Rose Otto Trio
Afghani Rose Otto Duo

BASE
Pailin (Oriscent Oud)
Incense-Grade Sri Lankan Oud
Incense-Grade Malaysian Oud
Koh Kong Island Oud
Kampung Speu Oud
Wild Khao Yai Oud
Ambergris
Costus

EXTREMELY LIMITED.