Samarqand

Samarqand is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities of the world, and the oldest in Central Asia. Surviving the ups and downs of history it has been at the forefront of traditional arts such as thread and gold embroidery, silk weaving, engraving on copper, ceramics, carving and painting on wood for thousands of years. A city entrenched in culture and tradition of the fine arts.

Samarqand is a city that is a true cross-road of world cultures, the melting pot of different world traditions and cultures- a vibrant city of learning and harmonious coexisting of philosophies, a melodious marriage of east and west.

I opted for the name Samarqand for this composition because it is the balance of strong, opulent and rich ingredients pairing flawlessly with their floral, green and silky counterparts. SAMARQAND is your bottle of world history, stills of the cross road of cultures, capturing the fragrant steps the human civilisation has taken on its journey to modernity. A wonderful painting with varying strokes, shades and textures; working with Patchouli, Vetiver, Bergamot, Oudh and Musk as the main building blocks, Samarqand will sing to your soul and the heart of anyone who smells it on you.

The central Asian hills and planes are home to some of the finest deer musk, and here the tradition is rich in the handling and preparation of the Musk pods. In the olden day’s preference was given to musk pods that were found on fallen beasts. Mature, fully aged, ripe pods that were sumptuous and bewitching in its captivation.

The musk utilised in Samarqand is very much from this old style, a large mature pod, dark brown nearly black in colour, bulging full of grains and the aroma would wake up a dead horse and have it running. Prepared and macerated in a manner that only Al Shareef knows how, then aged for 2 years. Then add thick strokes of wonderful aged Yunnani oudh, Indonesian Patchouli and Vetiver and fined tuned with some of the finest natural ingredients that money can buy.

Opening with Musky myrrh and a touch of minty menthol on the humming background of fresh-post rain earth. A earth pulsating with life and desire to live and grow. This wonderful first rain scent slowly progressing into a heart of nuts, a sprinkle of cacao, a touch of coffee bean, Papua Vanilla caviar, spices with the swipe of Nangarhar rose, slowly settling into a bitter-sweet woody 7 year aged Yunnani oudh, all the while that beautiful lively sweet skank of the musk lingers in the back ground.

Samarqand is the type of fragrance that the great traveller Ibn Batuta would adorn or Marco Polo, it is what one’s clothes would smell like had one walked through life as a fragrant garden. It is the scent of every exploring soul, every keen traveller and adventurer, every spirit that can’t be shackled by the sensibilities around us.