Year: 2014
Notes: mandarin, plum, rose, vanilla, moss, sandalwood, musk
Comment: Black II is part of the Black Collection
Established by Ali Aljaberi, and using the expertise of perfumer Jean-Claude Astier (responsible for many of M. Micallef's fragrances), AJ Arabia is a relatively new niche house from the United Arab Emirates. Available as a parfum extrait, Black II is brutally disappointing.
Opening with a jammy fruit and rose pairing, one is immediately hit by the realisation that it smells very similar to a bakhoor concentrated perfume oil... a budget-priced one. Yes, the quality is slightly higher than something from, say, El Nabil, but that's still insufficient to account for its exclusive price tag. As always with this house, there are lashings of white musk and sandalwood, with some vanilla emerging towards the end. Again, sillage is close to the skin, with respectable staying power.
From where one is standing, it's clearly evident that these AJ Arabia offerings are nothing more than half-baked vanity projects, unconvincingly professing to be luxurious and of a high calibre.
Opening with a jammy fruit and rose pairing, one is immediately hit by the realisation that it smells very similar to a bakhoor concentrated perfume oil... a budget-priced one. Yes, the quality is slightly higher than something from, say, El Nabil, but that's still insufficient to account for its exclusive price tag. As always with this house, there are lashings of white musk and sandalwood, with some vanilla emerging towards the end. Again, sillage is close to the skin, with respectable staying power.
From where one is standing, it's clearly evident that these AJ Arabia offerings are nothing more than half-baked vanity projects, unconvincingly professing to be luxurious and of a high calibre.
