A'arab Zaraq

[zillah37]

A'arab Zaraq

 

The Ravens of Dispersion.

Rampant lust, self-indulgence, covetousness, lost chastity.

Governed by Ba’al, Lord of the Eastern Kingdom of Hell.

 

A'arab Zaraq א'אראב זאראק

 

In the bottle: Spicy and woody. It smells almost like Jupiter.

 

Visual: It's a dark, reddish amber colour.

 

On the skin: It's woody, but with a soft spicy scent. Something a little musky as well. Not unpleasant, but definitely masculine.

[sarada]

Mmmm, rampant lust.

 

I'd think that red musk could be in something like that but I don't smell it -- however this has a lovely color, as zillah37 pointed out.

 

It is like....wood shavings, I agree, but with a bit of spice and musk to it. The color makes me think of dragon's blood but I don't really smell any. A powerful, dominating blend. If you're expecting something like the catalogue blend Lust, it's not like that, but it's a very appealing and authoritative masculine blend. Again, not really a scent you'd wear to perfume yourself but it is a warm and sensual scent. The woodiness fades pretty quickly though and I am left with something that feels like the scent of a flickering red-orange flame, as the spice grows in power.

 

The spice never quite takes over, it just stays close enough to your skin so you can sniff it if you pull in close. It doesn't have nearly as much throw as the others in this series that I have tried so far.

[nineveh]

This one is all thick, sweet wood on me with a hint of fresh greenness. I think there's frankincense in here. It reminds me of a less spicy, less salty Anne Bonny.

[LittleGreyKitten]

Very nice. It is spicy, warm, inviting. I think it's quite sexy. On me it isn't masculine at all. It's sweet and resiny. My only gripe that it's not incredibly unique- there are other GC scents that are quite similar. However this is definitely a nice scent.

 

As strictly a perfume, I'd call this a 4 out of 5.

[Lycanthrope]

Wahah! Rampant lust. Yeah... none of that in me. My first Qlipoth blend... it makes me a bit uncomfortable to use a blend that is so focused on, well, evil concepts, but here goes!

 

This oil is an orange amber in the vial, of moderate viscosity. From the vial, I smell a warm, sweet resinous aroma with hints of cedar, possibly patchouli and some kind of warmer musk. This isn't sharp or biting at all, present, but not acrid. On my skin I get a hint of woodsiness that retreats behind a mildly powdery incense musk, and I can see how the past reviewers stated this isn't 'masculine.' At least, it's not as masculine as it started out seeming from the imp. There's perhaps some spikenard in this, or something similar to Tzadikim Nistarim, and it dries down sweet and very red on me.

 

It's definitely a slightly twisted incense aroma. Not bad at all.

[aidenraine]

Woah there big musk assault! I nearly got knocked on my bum by the woody component of A'Arab. There was no gradual approach of the different elements in this oil- everything lined up to smack me in the face.

 

*shakes head to clear out sinuses*

 

I swear, I do generally love the woodsy, earthy blends but I think this might be too much for me. Conversely, the fragrence, after its initial rush, has vanished into my skin and I am now straining to find it. What's left is very incensey, somewhat sweet. I could guess that there's myrhh in here, maybe a hint of dragon's blood, maybe some frankincense.

 

Phew!

[cupide430]

Dark, heavy, a touch woodsy. With an almost cola-like note hiding in there somewhere. This is another one that is fading quite fast on me. As it dries, it does seem to be warming up a little bit and picking up some sweetness.

[PurringPulsar]

A'Arab Zaraq

 

In the imp: cedar! Lots of cedar wood, with a hint of something sweet, but mainly wood.

Wet on skin: sweet cedar and now, red sandalwood comes into the scent.

Dry on skin: mmm, this is nice! A lovely mixture of cedar and warm red sandalwood, dry woody notes, polished off with a very light coat of a resin-maybe frankincense or myrrh? I think I also get hints of patchouli in here, and maybe some vetiver or tobacco smouldering underneath, perhaps some musk too. there's also a subtle sweetness here. This is a warm, earthy, solid and dry scent, this would also smell lovely on a man, but isn't too masculine. It's also a very subtle scent on me, not loud and showy, this also hasn't got too much throw.

After a while: it's not long before the scent becomes all sandalwood. Lovely, warm, red sandalwood, pure and simple. I get hints of other notes (little bits of incense here and there, a sweet note) but it's mainly all sandalwood.

And then, it becomes soft sandalwood on top of a light musk. Very pleasant and surprisingly gentle.

The final stage is a soft, powdery sandalwood scent, still warm and slightly smoky.

Verdict: I like this a lot! It's a warm, dry, woody blend with a hint of sweetness and a little bit of incense smoke. At first, it's cedar wood, but then this transforms quite nicely into sandalwood…delightful red sandalwood, comforting and fragrant, with hints of other notes like musk, and maybe some patchouli or a very light vetiver, and some incense notes. It's a very unisex scent, I think. At times, the scent is almost like a sandalwood single note, but at others, it is enhanced by very slight hints of other notes. The only problem with this scent is that it is so soft, it doesn't have much throw. But I like it enough to keep the decant.

Emoticon rating:

[slave1]

In Bottle: Red patchouli

 

On Skin: This screams patchouli at first… dirt and ick on me. There is a resinous sweet note in the background but it doesn’t seem to be saving this scent for me. It’s a bit like Dragon’s Blood resin… sweet and plasticy. After about 10 minutes this is pure plastic on me, not really appealing. There is also a slight spice and the lingering patchouli as well as a sweet woody note, maybe cedar or sandalwood. It is a light scent with low throw and a short lifespan.

[Ryvre]

In the imp: Cigarette butts? I'm not sure what's in this, but it's not something I want to smell like.

 

Wet: Cedar and cigarettes. This is very masculine.

 

Dry: Still cedar and cigarettes, just fainter.

[Little Bird]

I have a hard time picking out any individual notes in this one. Sniffing it in the bottle, the only word that comes to mind is 'sweet.' It's very faint.

 

On me... still that faint sweetness. I'm definitely not getting any of the cedar or patchouli that other reviewers have mentioned. Perhaps some dragon's blood. The closest that I can come to comparing this to something else would be to say that it smells similar to the way that Dragon's Milk smells on me. If Dragon's Milk were much lighter and had a darker, smoky edge to it.

 

Very nice.

[LiberAmoris]

Mmmm, A'arab Zaraq is a sweet musky skin scent, subtle but smoldering. It's dark and light at the same time, like a drink I had once at a college party: mead and coke (coca-cola).

 

This goes on the short list!

[Diva Urd]

I get mainly musk with a little woody undercurrent from A'arab. To my great surprise, it's a little fleety - it's gone after only a few short hours. While it was there, it was definitely masculine, although a little bit on the generic-cologney side for me. Not bad, but I probably won't need more.

[Nachtwulf]

I didn't get any cedar from this, or patchouli (thank god). It is, however, a very dry, dusty sort of scent; I'd call it 'sage' over cedar. It reminds me strongly of Coyote, although I think Coyote is sweeter... this is the scent of the desert at high noon; dry, sere, baking in the heat. It appears to be a combination of woods and resins, combined to give a very dusty quality (without any actual dirt notes, which would seem 'damp').

 

I do like it... but given that I LIVE in the desert, I can smell something like this by going outside in the summer. ^__^

[grrrlennyl]

at first: very dark patchouli and opium.

on: lots of patchouli, which is a good thing for me.

2 hours later: all patchouli, all the time.

3 hours later: all patchouli.

overall: i really like patchouli, but this bordered on being a bit much, even for me. however, it would be divine layered with other oils.

[gingersnapp]

Woods and sweet spices. When I first applied this, it was almost overbearing in its heaviness. But it's lightened up quite a bit as it's dried. I think there is a bit of patchouli in this, but it doesn't take over the blend like it normally does. I wish I could tell what the sweetness comes from, because it's a very pretty note, whatever it is, and I'd like to find other blends with this particular note. It's very soft and feminine, which is interesting in contrast to the heaviness of the spices and the rich wood note I'm getting.

[provocateur]

In bottle: Very smoky and slight hinting of dragon's blood?

 

On skin, wet: Cedar? There's definitely a woody note in here. Very smoky.

 

On skin, dry: A very rich and warm smoky wood. I'd like to guess sandalwood.

Conclusion: It would figure, given the meaning, that I would be so enamored

with this.

 

Rating: 4/5

[edenssixthday]

A'arab Zaraq - I can't say that I care for this at all. In fact, when I first apply it, it's all patchouli on me and it stinks. The scent of cedar soon becomes entwined with the patch, making it even more unbearable. As it dries down, it takes on a really sweet note in addition to the woody notes -- I think it's vanilla. The vanilla definitely tempers the harsh woodiness if the other notes, but it's still a scent that doesn't appeal to me in the least. I could see some men I know pulling off this scent very well -- it's highly masculine and "outdoorsy". The throw is fairly light once it has dried, although the staying power seems about average.

[Diana]

wet: woodsy/patchouli, i think. there's a faint sweetness to it too.

 

dry: much the same as wet. It's a nice sweet & woodsy blend. nothing super different or special for me, though.

[themerrybaker]

AZ starts out as all oily cedar but develops through a powdery stage (amber?) then briefly an oily dark citrus and finally back to oily benzoin-vanilla? powdery.

 

These changes are really interesting to sniff. AZ is like a nostril journey, because it has very little throw, morphs radically, and the ravens take their oily wings and flit away with some sense of urgency.

[supremegoddessofall]

Spicy. I'm getting a lot of dragon's blood and perhaps a smidge of myrrh or honey. It's very potent and rich.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Dark, dark, dark. I can’t tell if it’s a resinous dark or a woody dark, but it’s seriously dark. (Also, I’ve been quite lucky not to get any decapitated imps so far – this is the first one I’ve run across [ordered in August, yes I’m really that far behind on reviews].)

 

Wearing: Dark and warm and a little bit carnationy-spicy. Nice, but not a huge standout.

[filigree_shadow]

The oil is a medium orange color, if that tells you anything about what could be in it.

 

A little woody, and really sweet. Possibly frankincense. Smoky. I don't think there's anything like flowers or fruit in here, it seems like it's all wood, resin, and incense. Probably some musk. Usually with blends that have those kinds of notes in them they're either dry and sweet or they're dark and smoky. On my skin, this one is of the dry, sweet variety. When the oil is dry, the scent kind of rounds out and becomes smoother.

 

I really like patchouli a lot, and I'd love to smell that in this scent, but I'm concentrating really hard and I can't smell it. Other reviewers have mentioned dragon's blood -- my nose is very familiar with that note because I wear DB blends all the time, and I can't smell even a drop in this. I will say that I think A'arab Zaraq smells better in the imp than it smells on my skin, so I think maybe my skin's having problems with it. From the imp sniff I thought there'd be some citrus in this, but I can't detect any when it's on my skin.

[shadesong]

In bottle: Very light. Cedar?

 

On me: A nice light slightly-spicy wood. Like an old pantry long-since cleared of the spice rack.

[forspecial_plate]

The other reviews are pretty accurate. Dark and woody with some smoke. As it dries a bit of powder comes out. The only thing I would add is that I believe I smell something like hazelnut or cocoa. Or, more likely, tobacco. It reminds me of A Bold Bluff, at least the mood of it if not the actual notes. But this isn't quite as sweet as that blend.