The Wars of the Roses were a series of bloody civil wars for the throne of England between two competing royal families: the House of York and the House of Lancaster, both members of the age-old royal Plantagenet family. Waged between 1455 and 1485, the Wars of the Roses earned its flowery name because the white rose was the badge of the Yorks, and the red rose was the badge of the Lancastrians.
I have given this title to the review even if, in reality, with Bade'e Al Oud Amethyst, it is more The Marriage of the Roses between the Turkish and the Bulgarian families. I am a big fan of roses, whether single or mixed with spices, leaves, mosses, woods or foods. All these combinations offer a different and unique interpretation of this flower. And while roses are the most prominent and dominant note, Amethyst is not a rose-centric scent. However, the two rose qualities go so well together. Amethyst is a lilac variety of quartz and is the beautiful colour chosen for the bottle.
Bade'e Al Oud Amethyst has a salty and amber scent with touches of flower petals and vanilla. A forked rose that exhibits both dewy and jelly-like appearances. Modern, ambiguous, and salty, a perfume unheard-of and intoxicating. From the first notes, I perceive a nocturnal white jasmine-based bloom with a cascade of amber. An avalanche of pink pepper mixed with floral notes with a fresh citrus undertone. Overall, I feel something warm, sweet-floral, with a tenacious smell of fruity jasmine. Something with an elegant and transparent floral note of jasmine with a medicine-like vibe. However, it is no longer heavy, solid and intoxicating as the indolic and narcotic jasmine. It's smooth, calming, and relaxing. For an instant, I seemed to catch that mothballed aspect typical of the rose-saffron blend, but it was like a flash, instantaneous, almost imperceptible. Very close to the skin, I pick a barnyard oud nuance, which does not dominate or shatter the concoction but enforces its Oriental character.
When the perfume loses some of its initial arrogance, I perceive roses intertwined with precious amber in the foreground. The roses' aroma is intoxicating, but not in the wrong way. Jasmine lingers in the background, with a somewhat musky and tea undertone, while the two qualities of rose used here give it both a dewy and gelatinous facet. Turkish Rose brings a subtle velvety honey sweetness with its red petals, while darker Bulgarian Rose adds spicy edges with a lemony and leafy undertone. For Amethyst, the nose opted for the rose-amber combination, which gives a slightly salty & rosy aspect to the fragrance and maintains a trend toward the masculine. It's a pleasant combination of roses, petals and buds, jammy, sweet and candy, not saccharine, gourmand, or too feminine.
The dry-down is where the saltiness of the amber gives the best. Vanilla is there to sweeten the roses, but I don't get a gourmand slant. Likewise, oud is there to darken the roses, but I don't get a big blast. The oud note always remains contained, almost sedated, never too harsh or raunchy. The oud doesn't come through until dry down and is more of a supporting note. Instead, amber, or better ambroxan, dominates the final stage with its somewhat woody nuance akin to cedar, salty and animalic like the ambergris.
If you have experience with the roses of Montale, Mancera, and Tom Ford, then Bade'e Al Oud Amethyst is a fragrance apart. Miserably, it does not have an excellent projection, sillage, and longevity, at least on my skin. Quite a few sprays on the pulse points and clothes for roughly half a day. This isn't the first time my experience has come across as below average, particularly with Lattafa perfumes. But it doesn't matter because the quality is good, and the low price allows me to repeat the application at will. I can't see this as offensive to anyone, especially if you spray lightly. Ideal if I want to put it to go to the office or any other closed place in contact with people. Also suitable for an evening event. It would also be a pleasant scent for cold seasons, maybe annoying on hotter summer days.
I'm basing my experience and review on a bottle I've owned since January 2023.
-Elysium
P.S. Regarding performance, I have to retract my assessments. I sprayed the perfume a dozen times and went out to run some errands. After more than three hours, I went to see a friend with a cold. To my amazement, she told me, "What an extraordinary perfume you have, I can smell it even before you enter the house! And to think that I'm also cold." So, it definitely needs to be solved with my sense of smell getting used to the fragrance too soon.
