A'arab Zaraq

[Vampy]

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.

Very rich, and very sweet.

In the bottle, musk, sweet, spice.

First impression on skin was spice and sweet resins - amber and myrrh, maybe? Then a woody scent came out, but I couldn't identify the wood for certain - probably a mix, then, I'm guessing, maybe sandalwood and cedar. Then a rich darkness came out, almost like chocolate. Then it all settled down into a very sweet, heady musk with a touch of something like good pipe tobacco - it's almost a little too heady for me, because though it's pleasant smelling, I can only take so much musk before I get a headache. I think it's a blend of several musks, because it gives me several impressions; it reminds me of both the musk in Coyote (though that could just be from the tobacco I seem to be picking up) and the red musk in Anne Bonny.

This scent morphs a lot on me, more than most do. It's very sweet, but not in a girly way at all. It's pretty unisex, bordering on masculine.

Visual impression: Dark, glowing red and orange on a black background.

I tried this straight immediately upon getting it out of the mailbox, and thus the oil was kinda warm from the summer heat - I'll have to try it again later to make sure it behaves the same way when cool. Current verdict is, I like it quite a lot but will have to be sparing with it to avoid musk-induced headaches.


eta 8/17/07 - Went a while without using this again, as I had so many new things to try, but I came back to it today. I was thinking that maybe my chemistry was wonky when I first tried this, because the musk in everything was flaring up overbearingly, even my standard favorites. (It didn't help that when I first tried this, I unintentionally slathered it all over the back of my hand...) It's still very musky, but not quite so overbearing. It's also spicier, prickling in my nose, and though still quite sweet, not quite as sweet as when I first tried it. I like it better now - I may like it even better than my Golachab, which is kind of sad, seeing as I have two 10mls of Golachab and only an imp of this... Edited September 17, 2009 by Shollin

[tartchef]

A spectacularly generous frimp from Dark Alice

 

Ooo. Mmm. Myrrh & frankincense, with a leafy patchouli/tobacco & maybe the barest trace of vetiver... There's a drop of something else in here, too, faintly powdery & perfumed... maybe dark Indian musk? Tuberose? It's that kind of dirty-sweet perfume, and it's going to drive me batsh*t because I know this smell... Waitwaitwait, is it daemonorops? I see earlier reviews mentioning dragon's blood, but I think it's the stems & leaves of the plant, not the resinous root... there's a hint of decay, like the patchouli & tobacco & daemonorops leaves have decomposed ever so slightly.

 

The inhale is amazing - I can taste the sweetness, like breathing in flavored tobacco smoke... but there's that deep, almost decaying leafy note that keeps this faintly... uncomfortable. And yet I can't stop sniffing it!

 

Now it's dried down, the sliminess is abating, and I'm getting a spicy note, maybe carnation & a dot of opium? The frankincense is smoothing out the edges bit by bit, but the bittersweet patch/tobacco maintains a shadowy presence...

 

The throw! The throw is wild. Up close, there's still the faint perfumey, leafy scent, but the throw from about 12 inches is caramelised pipe tobacco Aaaalmost foodysweet, thick, smoky & absolutely irresistible.

 

Criminey, this is good! I hesitate to say this, as A'arab Zaraq can't be easy to find, but for my money, this trumps Black Lace. On my skin, they are very similar, but AZ delivers a much bigger sweet tobacco & musk punch, without BL's problematic cotton note... The daemonorops & musk also echo Anactoria, but AZ is much, much darker

 

Nyomnyomnyom... Pardon me while I huff my arm for the rest of the day.

 

 

[zankoku_zen]

Okay, this definitely has patchouli, tobacco and musk. On wet, I get a big slap of dirty patchouli - its almost gritty. As it dries, I get more of the tobacco and musk mixing in. And yes, there is a touch of spiciness there that I want to say is carnation.

 

Not my kind of blend, but goddamn, this is fabulous.

[manusdei]

oh, my god.

*picks self up off floor*

okay.

 

yes, there has to be frankincense and/or some kind of myrrh (opoponax? is that you? ). the top is sweet and smooth and resinous - maybe there's amber in it, too? i get a touch of something a little powdery, could be amber or a light floral or something.

and underneath it is smoldering, that is the only word to describe it. the patchouli/tobacco/musk comparisons are just dead on. there's something dark and smoky and wonderful in there.

it's very similar to scents such as midnight mass and temple viper on me... but this is... darker, a little less cloying. it's sexier, that's for sure.

all of the sephiroth/qliphoth scents blow me away at how evocative they are of their inspiration, and this is really no exception.

i've been wanting to try zaraq for quite awhile, and now i'm almost sad i finally got the chance, because i am going to have to torture myself hunting it down. more pls!

yep, amazing and totally my kind of scent. love it.

[Penance]

Origin:

 

5mL from tartchef

 

Preconceived notions:

 

This sounds perfect for me. I love wood, spices and resins.

 

First sniff:

 

Sweet, resinous and woody. There could be some tobacco here, too. It's in the same general scent family as Anne Bonny, but sweeter.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Sweeter still. Not in a foody way, though. It's sweet but resinous. I'm thinking there must be some frankincense or something similar here.

 

Dry down:

 

This has to be one of the most bizarre and unexpected scent morphs I've come across. I put a dab of A'Arab on to test right before I started reorganizing my BPAL cabinet. I kept smelling something sweet and unusual but oddly familiar and couldn't figure out what I was smelling.

 

I sniffed around and it turns out it was A'Arab and it smelled exactly like a perfume I wore in high school called Angel Water. No idea what was in it and I'm not turning up any results on the interweb for the specific brand I wore. It was a weird, mostly opaque white perfume that came in a round bottle with a silver triangle label. It was supposed to be made from holy water of some sort and it had a scent that's practically impossible for me to describe. It was sweet, ethereal, slightly resinous. It smelled white in some weird, synesthetic way and it really did make me think of what an angel might smell like.

 

So needless to say, I would never in a million years have expected A'Arab to smell similar on me. The concepts are polar opposites, but that's the wonders of body chemistry for you, apparently.

 

The bottom line:

 

Totally different than I would have imagined based on reviews and the scent in the bottle, but I'm positive that my skin chemistry is doing something crazy with A'Arab. Luckily, the out of left field scent I get from it is one I like, so it all works out. It's kind of nice to have a BPAL version of a nostalgic scent.