Tawaf
AbdesSalaam Attar Profumo (2012)

The opening is pure jasmine sambac with a touch of turpentine (not in a bad way). The rose opens a bit for me but not much, and the opoponax can be smelled in the bottle like an old friend whose face you can't quite remember.

I love this fragrance but wished it lasted longer. I find myself dumping this all over myself only to not remember if I even put it on an hour later.

I had imagined being enveloped in thousands of jasmine petals. I thought I would be choking on the rich scent of rose interacting with jasmine and melting into myrrh.

I feel left out of the joyous experience that so many have participated. Why can I not smell this? I purchased my sample thru TPC, and I don't have any reason to think they sent me the wrong thing, but I thought this was an attar, and it seems much more liquid than I expected...so perhaps this is wrong??

I am truly sad. I went into this test with the highest of expectations. I don't understand.

All the stinkiest facets of jasmin gather in the opening of this fragrance: a thick, milky sourish oil note, like freshly crushed green olives, pungent nail varnish and hot plastic, and a dose of indole that seems more likely to make insects flee away in terror rather than attract them... After this chemical feast- chemical not in the sense of synthetic of course, but in the sense that all these bizarre smelling natural molecules seem to have their five minutes of fame here- the fragrance settles on a very natural, rich and smooth jasmin. It stays then quite linear, pretty and rather well mannered like a jasmin shrub in the sunshine, slightly radiant with a now toned down dose of indoles, eventually getting sweeter and more resinous in the drydown. (As a side note, how curiously olfaction works: I couldn't detect the opoponax accord properly until, while reading about a monastery in Kefalonia, Greece, I suddenly recognized the warm, sweet, powdery note remebering the smell of another church I visited last year).
After an hour or so, smelling very close, I could detct quite clearly the narcissus note, with its interesting horse manure undertones, complimenting and amplifying both jasmin and sweet resins. A really gorgeous fragrance, with a single, predictable flaw in its lasting power.

So first notes heavy Middle Eastern spice and smell with a LOT of Jasmine... Not a big fan of Jasmine. As sillage softened I smelled more rose. I see reviews about the longetivity not being strong, smelled it all day into next norning. Same with anything new, give an hour or two so mellow out and then it was fabulous!!1

Easily my favorite jasmine scent, Tawaf just might be my favorite floral fragrance. Super rich, complex, indolic, natural jasmine essence is dominant, with a very realistic rose note in a supporting role. The oppoponax is almost not there--just barely enough to anchor the composition, and not a drop more.

No laundry list of lab made molecules here, Tawaf features just a few carefully chosen naturals, blended with an artist's touch. Wow! Outstanding.

Pros: best jasmine out there
Cons: short lived (3-4 hours for me)

5 stars

The Tawaf's hyper realistic golden jasmine/rose combo is by soon as much pure (such like inhaling real vegetal pollen-nectar) to appear somewhat honeyed, romantically indolent, languid, soapy and Victorian. One of the veritable dreamy and romantically indolent fragrances of the worldwide market. Enjoying La Via del Profumo Tawaf is like walking along the tracks of an english nobiliar garden with on the side a white laced clothed cultured young mademoiselle under a celestial soporific afternoon sky. Pink roses and brilliant (lacteous) sambac jasmines shine under sun and your heart beets of innocent joy for an upcoming new summery love. The floral "miasm" is typically (but barely) dirty in undertone as normal for purely natural floral absolutes but the remote fecal (stale flowerpot water-like) spark disappears by soon in order to leave the stage to a marvellously honeyed floral concert. Rattles and hums resound around in the "populated" afternoon celestial air. The powerfully odorous narcissus contributes to enhance the stunning (and incessant) floral valzer while soft balsams, waxy honey, light myrrh and faint musk soothen the indolic aroma leading it down the way of a pure rosey lacteous silkiness. The note of myrrh is not deeply resinous or heady but just accessorial to Queen sambac jasmine and gently soapy as perfectly joined with the general softly "chyprey" soapy/powdery radiant dry down. The aroma lingers as an obsessive ghost over your "shade" despite you can't detect it anymore after a while. Don't worry, people around you will detect this "aereal/molecular" holy potion unfolding incessantly its melody by your skin.

I didn't get this fragrance until I read its description on the AbdesSalaam website: "Tawaf is the spiritual rite of seven circumambulations around the Ka'abah, the stone building in the court of the Mosque at Mecca. A bath of purification and lavish use of perfume begins the rite. Tawaf brings together the trails of Jasmine pilgrims wear, the rose water poured from buckets to wash the marble floor and the oppoponax attar spread by the handful over the corners of the Ka'abah. It is a spiritual fragrance."

Tawaf is a potent jasmine-soaked fragrance, strong from beginning to end, opaque in its denseness. Its passionate insistent jasmine, rose and opopanax drone is a little intoxicating, sort of mesmerizing one into a spiritual space. It represents the passion of devotion. It might be the fragrance I would bring on a spiritual pilgrimage, but I'm not sure it's widely wearable. But... a fragrance for passion in one's life, by all means.

This is masculine jasmine, made of relatively 2 simple accords: jasmine and opoponax

It opens up very potent, with the blast of the 2 accords in their full strength, smells rich, voluptuous, but unusual, jasmine changed the gender and colour, its brownish here, indolic parts of jasmine sambac are underpinned by animalic sweet opoponax, but overal feeling is like oily sticky , rich

The lasting power is 2 hours on me, i don't mind since this combo although beautiful but not most original how i initially thought, cant be my genuine love. I like jasmine to sing high C notes, ingredients are all natural . earthy,floral, muddy ,indolic, masculine jasmine, without animalic notes, compares to Chaldee, where opoponax accord smells more animalic, thiner and powdery!


If not for poor longevity would be thumbs up

Extreme jasmine; green, sharp, metallic, loud & high-pitched. lndolic in the "magic marker" sense, rather than dirty or animalic. l get just a hint of narcissus, & then a couple of hours in, it smells to me like a deadringer for Jardenia, with its green, lightly peppery vibe. From here it doesn't develop to my nose, but simply fades, & five hours in there's still no sign of any opoponax.
l don't get any of the "mud" note that l've read about, but l confess to being rather disappointed with this one. l so wanted to love it, but it doesn't have the dirty jasmine or the warm opoponax l was expecting. l will revisit it when the weather turns warmer though, in the hope that it'll bloom for me then.

Disgusting! My first thought was this smelled like a sink where chlorine was poured down to clean it up. Reading the notes list now, I have to say I love jasmine and opoponax in particular big time, but not that anything stood out to me. The drydown revealed an animalic base, the sweetish wee-wees civet base I so strongly dislike. I'll stick to the art of French Haute Parfumerie for as long as it survives.

Tawaf opens with an extremely strong jasmine that smells quite dirty with a claylike undertone that comes off as almost animalic. The dirty jasmine remains in the heart where it is joined by a very natural dark rose that emerges briefly but never quite can keep up with the jasmine onslaught, quickly succumbing and disappearing entirely. All this leads to an oppoponax infused short-lived dry-down with the dirty jasmine finally receding to a now supporting role. Projection is average and longevity is below average.

I know this one is getting a lot of fanfare on Basenotes, but I just did not like Tawaf at all. The jasmine might be quite realistic, but maybe I prefer mine a bit toned down than the stuff here. The clay-like near animalic undertone was extremely off-putting and it really drew my concentration and enjoyment from the rest of the notes in the composition. The rose, while certainly nicely done was way too short-lived and was completely dominated by the jasmine, never allowing it to temper the dirtiness the jasmine presented. Finally, the much lauded oppoponax quite frankly was an additional disappointment due to the jasmine completely overpowering it like everything else. The bottom line is Tawaf may be an accurate presentation of dirty jasmine, but is that really something one wants to wear? In the case of this reviewer, if it smells like the stuff in Tawaf the answer is a resounding "No". Tawaf is not a terrible scent, but this minimalist composition disappointment earns a below average rating of 2 stars out of 5 and an "avoid" recommendation from me.

I would describe Tawaf as a Religious Jasmine scent; from beginning to end I can detect a very linear and austere jasmine note. It reminds me of jasmine oil that I got from a friend who went to Makah and bought me some Surrati perfumes while he was there.

The jasmine is heady strong and very potent with excellent longevity and sillage; I like it for evening wear and would choose to wear it while outdoors in summer time.

I think that the scent might be better suited to arabic/mediterranean audiences.