Purple Rain: Papuya

When you’ve got access to the most exquisite aromatics on Earth, making perfume can drive you up the wall.

It’s a constant game of holding back – you could use that vintage jasmine extract and add Purple Kinam to it. It would smell out of this world, and no other perfume on the market would come close to matching it for the sheer quality of ingredients…

But it’s not a marketable ‘product’. You’d end up with only a sample or two you’d keep and maybe whip out to let close friends smell what most of humanity is missing out on. 

But a curious thing happened.

Instead of people just chasing brand names, fragheads have begun to look past marketing claims and superlatives. They’ve started to realize that every time they read about the ‘rarest ingredients’, they have a right to question that claim because those ‘precious’ aromatics being peddled bear little resemblance to what they’ve smelled neat – ‘oud’ being the most obvious example. Not only have you learned more, but your nose has also become more refined (snobbish, perhaps?) in the process.

None of us have smelled perfume like this until a few patrons suspended their intellects and got me to hang up my senses as well. Even with bespoke perfumes, which perfumer will put vintage sinking-grade oud oils on the table? Who will give you access to orris root from a hundred years ago to use along with a decades-old jasmine extract that only exists because it was locked up all these years in the Sultan’s treasury?

This is a new step in perfumery, where perfumer and perfume lover team up to not only create a perfume together but also give each other a full-access pass to indulge to their noses’ content. 

You know all the ‘Royal’ this and Royal that… ‘Royal’ Malinau, ‘Royal’ Assam, etc. 

The word ‘Royal’ has become…… cliche is an understatement. The word has become a joke, through overuse, by folks who have zero claim to it. And zero right to use it.

Purple Rain contains genuine Royal ingredients. Not ingredients made for a king, but ingredients made by a king for a king.

If I could showcase a bespoke edition of Iris Ghalia made exclusively for the Sultan himself, this is what I would have sprayed him with. 

You could easily see how any other house would charge in the thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars for a fragrance of such provenance. Bespoke perfumes with little to show inside the bottle have, and do, sell for fantastic amounts (there are purely synthetic ones that cost $30,000). So, imagine access to aromatics that make your head spin, and the chance to use them without discretion…

This edition contains two grams of Papuya, an unreleased Oriscent distillation that injects the the iris profile with piercing Papuan resin to give everyone the Iris Ghalia they’ve been dreaming of – but a cranked-up, Papuan rendition to boot.

Papuya was distilled from giant live-tree New Guinea gyrinops, Oriscent-style, and imbues the IG profile with exquisite Papuan incense. Because of the substantial addition of Papuya, its presence isn’t merely an echo. Along with the added vintage orris, Papuya’s soulful resin flows through the entire scent, starting with the signature IG purple opening that now smells thicker, entangled with wafts of New Guinea’s cool incense. And if you enjoy studying how a perfume winds down, Papuya becomes even more prominent during the drydown when you smell the Oriscent oud emerge from the iris dripping and exposed.

Purple Rain isn’t just an incredible bespoke: It’s an exchange and vision shared between myself and fellow perfume lovers that was impossible to be realized until now. And now, that collaboration is yours to share in. The purplest drops of narcotic kinamic nectar brought to life, bottled, and now available to anyone who’s wondered what it must be like to go overboard…

Extremely limited.

Reviews for the previous editions…

Purple explosion!!
Purple Rain attar came in today. Couldn’t help but swipe it. The volume on this one is turned up full blast. Iris, Rose, and Purple Kinam all in your face. Just in time for an extra fragrant Friday tomorrow. Ensar Oud has really put on a show with this one. I’m not very good at giving full reviews, what I will say about this is the Iris and Rose are beast mode and are dancing in the purple rain.

—Abu Naeem A. / USA

I have found the holy grail. I love it. It’s so sexy.

—Danial D. / USA

Received a sample drop of this purple beauty today with an order and a was … mind blown!

—Acainc M. / Canada

Spray of Friday: The Ineffable aka PURPLE RAIN.

God has created enough for everyone to enjoy. It is only man’s imagination that puts limits to the blessings and creates FOMO.

Hope y’all have a blissful Friday and a wonderful weekend ahead!

—Acainc M. / Canada

What can really be said without understating the beauty of this heavenly fragrance. It is not enough to say the most stunning orris/sandalwood combo I have ever owned, however the addition of decades old sublime jasmine sambac and Royal Ta’if lovingly combined with the entrancing Purple Kinam… there really is no way to put into words. I do feel like royalty when it comes to wearing this priceless jewel my wonderful husband Monsieur Oud blessed me with. The joy of this experience can not be over stated. Thank you, Ensar, for creating this beautiful work of art! This fragrance lifts my spirit and brings peace and serenity to the soul. Of course adding Purple Rain attar to this perfection takes it over the top!

—Jennifer M / USA