Amber Oud White Edition Eau de Parfum 60ml

Al Haramain Amber Oud White Edition Eau de Parfum 60ml is the gentlest bottle in its line, and it is the one to reach for if the rest of the range has struck you as too much.

Bergamot and orange open it, the bergamot clean and bitter, the orange rounder and sweeter, and neither hangs about for long. What follows is a full floral heart. Jasmine is creamy and full, rose is cooler and more transparent, freesia is peppery and soapy with a bright lift to it, and cyclamen is the watery, faintly green one that keeps the other three from closing in. Four flowers is a great deal to hold together in one place, and they are blended rather than stacked one on another.

The base is soft and slightly dark. Musk gives a laundered skin warmth, vanilla a smooth sweetness that never becomes dessert, patchouli a damp earthiness and vetiver a rooty, bitter dryness. That last pair is what stops the whole thing from being merely pretty, and it is why the scent holds up on an adult rather than reading as a first fragrance.

Ten materials, eau de parfum strength and a 60ml bottle. In wear it is moderate, close to the skin after an hour or two and good for most of a day. Spring and daytime suit it best, and it works in an office where something heavier from the same shelf would be a problem for everyone sitting nearby. It is sold to women and there is nothing in it that would look odd on anybody else.

The house behind it started in 1970 in Makkah and Madinah, where Kazi Abdul Haque traded from a few small stores. His son Mohammed Mahtabur Rahman turned the perfumery side into the main business, and Al Haramain today manufactures and retails across the Gulf.