Sultan Pasha Attars Turath courtesy of the perfumer
Lester Burnham: So… you gonna tell me? What do you want?
Angela Hayes: [softly] I don’t know.
Lester Burnham : You… don’t know?
Angela Hayes: What do you want?
Lester Burnham: Are you kidding? I want you.
[lightly stroking her cheek]
Lester Burnha: I wanted you since the first moment I saw you. You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
[kisses her forehead]
Angela Hayes: You don’t think I’m ordinary?
[he kisses her alongside her eye]
Lester Burnham: You couldn’t be ordinary if you tried.
[kisses her cheek]
Angela Hayes: Thank you. I don’t think there’s anything worse than being ordinary. – Scene from the film American Beauty (1999)
Woman lying on bed of roses, image via pexels
NARRATION: (Mahler playing softly in the background) “Imagine her on a bed sprawled with roses. She breathes heavily, eyes half-closed against the lamplight, and the flowers rise and fall on her breast. Desire is thick and close. Imagine her within reach. Imagine her perfume; velvet and secret, like the center of each of those roses as it gives up its scent, the musky smell of her sweat. Now the room: The air is warm and lazy, oxygen sucked by wanting; roses, sex, fur and something smoky, ashen, sweet, like the end of a Sobranie … “ (sound of record screeching to a halt)
Ok, this American Beauty-inspired mise-en-scene was going to be my introduction to Sultan Pasha’s rose-oud fragrance, Turath, but in my zeal to try this baby, I pulled out the stopper rather too quickly, causing large drops to fall on my wrist and shirt cuff. This is an attar, mind you, meant to be applied with the tip of a hatpin, not splashed on like Jean Nate. Suddenly, my bedroom was filled with a psychedelic barrage of the most intense aromas: bushels of roses, barnyard, spilled medicine, furry animals, hookah smoke, melted cream and unleashed desire. Oh yeah, my bedroom smelled like a trippy orgy had just taken place, crashed by a bunch of farm animals and woodland creatures. I had been headed out the door to run errands but suddenly had visions of dogs chasing me down the street, prey drive in full alert, and neighbours backing away from me in stores. I stayed home for a while. Which, it turns out, was a good thing. It gave me the opportunity to experience an attar from a distance for the first time, and smell it unfold in all its glorious excess.
Sultan Pasha, image courtesy of the perfumer
Turath, which means “heritage” or “legacy” in Arabic, may be Pasha’s magnum opus, the result of a years-long quest to produce the quintessential rose-oud attar. And he may have just pulled it off: Turath is a seriously opulent, gorgeous – and thank to a generous dose of civet and musk accord, skanky – “beast” (to use his own descriptor) that blends two high-quality Hindu ouds, three rose absolutes, and of whole lot of naughtiness. As it snakes through the air, it is an amalgam of winey blooms, cracked wood, smoke, and carnality: Claudia Cardinale, Aldonza, the goddess Al-Lat, and Maria Callas all morphing into one. And, oh my word, this has got to be the sexiest perfume of the year.
Taif roses, image via Shutterstock
The next day I calm down and decide to try a tiny drop on my wrist. Instead of the explosion of civet I got from my first go, the roses dominate immediately. An entire bouquet of roses opens in slow motion, all ripe fruit and satin. For the next half hour or so, there are roses turning in a kaleidoscope of odors ranging from blood orange and raspberry to milk, stem, and spiky, carnation-like spice. Stealthily curling into the roses are complex aromas of oud; crackled wood, wet Band-Aids, damp earth, smoked hookah pipe. In a sea of artificial ouds these days, it is easy to forget how complicated and addictive the real thing can be. The two ouds Pasha employs hold their own against the roses without taking them over, and the result is a seamlessly rich fragrance.
The late Egyptian singer/superstar Umm Kulthum, stock photo
But Sultan Pasha Attars Turath is just getting warmed up as it heads into its second act, which brings a brilliant civet-musk accord that adds a patina of vintage. Narcissus and tuberose come out to play, bringing creamy, fleshy, silkiness and amping up the floral quality of the composition. As the animal smells meld with the roses, Turath seems deeply female, and I hear in my mind the wine-soaked, heart-shaking voice of the great Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. In bigger doses, as I discovered on day one, Turath’s bodily, animal odors can erupt into a sexual skankfest that you would probably want to share only with an established lover. But applied sparingly, it is so sensual and erotic that it makes me want to put on wine-coloured lipstick and some serious stilettos, even if only to prowl around my living room.
Drying down, which, let me tell you, takes time, Sultan Pasha Attars Turath glows. The animalics, now tanged-up with the sweat-salt of labdanum, make way for some vanillic benzoin and incense in the base, and the rose and oud coalesce into a classically beauty, even refined, accord. If you try only one rose or oud perfume this winter, make it this one. Sultan Pasha couldn’t do ordinary if he tried.
Notes: Taifi rose otto, Salvadora persica essential oil, damascena rose absolute, centifolia rose absolute, bourbon geranium absolute and oil, jasmine grandiflorum absolute, jasmine sambac absolute, orange blossom absolute, tuberose absolute, mimosa absolute, peach, narcissus absolute, deer musk accord, boyah oil, Hindi oud, Hindi oud nasha, ambergris, benzoin, olibanum, labdanum.
Disclaimer: bottle of Sultan Pasha Attars Turath generously gifted me by Sultan Pasha. My opinions, as always, are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Sultan Pasha Attars
Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Sultan Pasha, we have a 3 ml bottle of Sultan Pasha Attars Turath (£ 399) for one registered reader anywhere in the world. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please tell us what strikes you about Sultan Pasha Attars Turath based on Lauryn’s review and where you live. Do you have a favorite Sultan Pasha attar? Draw closes November 2, 2022
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