Aurum d'Angkhor  
Sultan Pasha (2014)

This scent is almost painful to talk about: its beauty is not only beyond my ability to express but beyond my power of comprehension. This is easily the most elegant and lovely floral that I own. Incredibly masculine but not in a macho way. Whenever I reach for it, I have to decide whether I can stand to lose anymore precious drops of this attar. I ask myself: Is the occasion equal to the scent?

The best part of this fragrance is that it has hidden elements that sneak out and delight you. Sometimes it kicks up an oud, sometimes it kicks up smoke. But always it displays a regal, crystalline clarity that I've never smelled anywhere else.

This is well reviewed for very good reason.
It's accord draws across my mind with a similar titillation of pleasure to the resonance produced by the bow across the strings of a cello.
I believe it bears a resemblance to the carry off of Jasmine, Rose, Patchouli Lapidus Pour Homme sublime tune.
The cast of first-rate ingredient fill out the the canvas to vivid,textured
herbal gaseous expanses. Some references to the vetiver games of Pregoni.
It is all heavily mounted with Sandal, Ambergris butter rendering the whole luxuriously succulent.

Do you look at a Van Gogh painting and scrutinise the brush strokes and the myriad hues used by the legendary artist? Or do you simply enjoy the wonder of the experience? Very much in the same vein ask not what Aurum d'Angkor smells like for surely there are no words that do it justice. It is the scent that time itself forgot, of trees and roots so ancient they lived through the rise and fall of mighty kingdoms, of blooms and secret tinctures of such grand opulence they once graced the skin of monarchs and heirs of royal lineage.

All these from a single drop of perfume?
Mind: BLOWN.
Now excuse me while I pick up my jaw from the floor.

Now the oil on first application I noticed was thick as I applied it to my wrist and rubbed the scent onto my other wrist. The first note that greets you is a woody incense rose with the rose smelling luxurious and deep red. As the scent unfurls other opulent notes like saffron, ambergris, jasmine, tobacco all dance around this main rose accord. It smells very beautiful and fit for Royalty, the ingredients are breathtakingly beautiful.

After about two hours the scent transforms into a dark resinous woody accord and this is where the magic happens. The Oud has come out to play and It's like your smelling a fragrance in 3D, you have dark resinous woods that are radiating spices. At the same time when you smell it you get the uplifting fruity aspect at the top end with the honey aspect and the back end with the resinous spicy woods at the centre. And because you are smelling all of the above at the same time it gives the Oud a multidimensional aspect to it's nature. Wow!

To digress a little I was given a incense stick on a Sandalwood order from Pure Incense and was given this incense stick called Oud Safi and it had the same multi dimensional aspect to it. It had a uplifting candy sweetness on the front end and a deep resinous woods on the back-end but when you smelled it you smelled it all at the same time giving the scent that 3D depth effect. I hope you get my meaning.

Anyway other notes start to come and go like a bloom of Jasmine, saffron out of the resinous multi dimensional Oud and it smells amazing. Eventually it transforms again and you have a swirling melange of soft spices, and this is where the Mysore Sandalwood enters centre stage and takes a bow. This swirling symphony of exotic notes mixing in with the creamy mysore is heavenly to the nose. Really holy grail material and the best smelling fragrance I have smelled in my life. And as a fragrance enthusiast it has been a honour to smell the the highest form of fragrance art, if this scent was a painting it would be a Rembrandt, if it was a musical composition it would be one of Beethovens symphony's, you get the picture.

Anyway eventually the dark resinous woods come back to the forefront and dominant.

A amazing achievement and absolutely gorgeous and even mystical like. Wow, I have enjoyed every moment wearing this and will guard my 1ml bottle like it's a precious rare diamond.

double thumbs and toes up...this is a bona fide masterpiece...yes, i do get individual notes , but they are so expertly and exquisitely blended , that this comes across to me as one constantly mutating and evolving accord...i'm mostly focusing on and catching hints of tobacco, saffron , rose and some of the smoothest ouds completely devoid of any barnyard or cheese flavors...honey/beeswax adds a nice feel and semi-sweetness...again, i give up on talking about notes...suffice to say this is a multitasking fragrance that encompasses the best of a large variety of notes and crosses lines to touch on everything from an Oriental to a chypre...well done Sultan....hope to smell you for a long time...

Aurum D'angkhor is the fragrance from Sultan Pasha that holds the status of 'icon' from his house, and it's not hard to see why. Aurum D'angkhor is truly kaleidoscopic and regal in every aspect of it's being - two elements that I think can be described to every fragrance from this house - AD boasts the finest expression of a lot of core ingredients found in the truly shocking width of fragrances the house offers - from its floral, oud, spicy oriental, classic french masculines/feminines, etc. AD can be described by it's intense saffron, just as it can by its luscious and juicy rose - by dark woods, intensely fruity and slightly green Oud, just as its bold, herbal and crisp Jasmine - the waxy, sweet, animallic honey, just as the endlessly creamy and woody sandalwood. Truly, I could go on and on when it comes to the quality, variety, and beauty of the near-endless list of notes present in the incredible Aurum D'angkhor - but I imagine it would more helpful to try and describe what this perfect attar is like.

This fragrance changes, and the more you wear it, the more you become certain of specific elements, but the more you are surprised by elements now expressing themselves in new ways. To me, more often than not the fragrance opens with a mouth watering saffron/rose combo with the rose in full bloom, so juicy, warm and full you could swear it was the rarest treasure this world has to offer. The saffron here makes you wonder aloud as to why you don't have more saffron-centric items in your life - it's bittersweet quality is perfectly attuned to the heavenly rose beside it for the saffron truly is as it should be: sweet and leathery while maintaining the rich and acrid tones that it infuses into the juicy rose.

The oud is here from start to finish is an intensely fruity yet simultaneously warm, smoky and dark woody note which has patchouli and sandalwood facets, occasionally turning green or blasting full volume with a dark berry or fig-jammy like quality - this note also every once in a while smells edible, as if alongside the rose the two produce an effect so perfect in its opulent and gorgeous in their presentation that one almost feels as if they should be consuming it alongside wearing it - perhaps as the most expensive and delicious adult beverage that you have ever put to your lips.

It's unnerving as it is so immaculate one feels anxiety about it disappearing as well as not being able to experience the totality in all the ways it should be that the user is drawn to use it in any way they can. There are for sure still waves of deep, dark honey, luscious creamy jasmine, and spiced somehow with a magnetic fusion of the spicier elements of saffron and the crisp accord from the bergamot. The jasmine seems to be sitting directly alongside the rose, as if they are a rare breed that accidentally joined to one flower more precious than the largest chunk of the rarest ore. The jasmine here occasionally feels like gardenia pre-bloom, or perhaps a more tame tuberose - it is crisp, green and spicy all while maintaining the overall 'white floral' feeling.

Tobacco and Orange Blossom creep in every once in a while to add a spicy or sour (respectively) tinge the overall immaculate waves still hitting the user. All while the while the shamama at work here brings a truly joyful, spicy and sweet patchouli/hena/sandalwood combo which generate this creaminess that truly warms the soul, as if the light of the most gorgeous orange light cast upon ones most favorite and rare text as a snowstorm brews outside - you are drawn in, and heated as if sipping your favorite warm beverage which draws you into the text with each sip. The patchouli here is a landmark of splendor in ones olfactive journey - it is indeed a spicy and yet crisp and slightly dark patchouli, whose spicy facet is reflecting back the slightly animalic, earthy, vegetal henna all while the soft, warm, and milky sandalwood swirling the notes together, and the labdanum with it's slightly dark and resinous, animalic yet sweet and dry. The honey and beeswax here are dark, sweet, intoxicating, and every once in a while as if a waxy finish on a Donald Judd sculpture - simply flawless and transcendental.

There's a wet-hay like accord and a benzoin accord in all of its warm and heaviness while yet somehow retaining its crystalline effect radiantly shining in the background to cast a burnt orange hue to the overall composition. Alongside this development, one finds that the orange blossom has grown in size, and indeed is projecting its sensuous and orange-honey radiant glow atop the jasmine and rose, who are still intermingling, and seem to be approaching the orange blossom, as if to add to the already gorgeous fusion. Yet, while all this is happening, the oud, and frankincense (which is another trademark note of Sultan Pasha's - one which is infinitely dark, spicy, and warm - one which calls more to mind that of omani hojari green frankincense rather than the generic 'incense note' found in most mainstream perfumery) that started off next to the rose have continued in their shape-shifting performance throughout and now alongside the majestic resisns and spices which come across as dark and golden - maintaining the reflection of quality which the whole fragrances projects in its every aspect: reality, holy, immaculate, and precious. This alongside occasional green qualities, which I believe to be coming directly from the oud itself, as well as the mouth-watery jam (which seems to be coming from some vague berry unlisted in the notes, and alongside the juicy rose.) As it dies down, you might smell a wisp of tobacco, as well as a salty-sweet brush with ambergris.


There simply are not enough words to describe the endless character than comes with even a single swipe of AD.


LONG LIVE SULTAN PASHA!


10/10

YT: Jess AndWesH