Maahir Black

Peppery and dark from the outset, with black pepper and pink pepper joined by saffron and its dry metallic sting. The heart is the unusual part: cade oil, which is essentially smoky juniper tar, sitting alongside labdanum, gurjan balsam and a flash of tart rhubarb. That combination smells like burnt wood, warm resin and something faintly animal all at once, and it is not a polite fragrance. The base settles into leather, cedar, guaiac wood, patchouli, moss and musk, dry and smoky and slightly dirty, and it hugs the skin far more closely than the opening suggests it will.

The reference here is Orto Parisi Terroni, and this is one of the more widely corroborated clone claims in the Lattafa catalogue. It captures the tarry, earthy, smoke-and-leather character of the original well, though it is thinner and less pungent. Terroni is famously brutal and this is a more wearable reading of the same idea. If you have been curious about Orto Parisi's style without wanting to spend niche money, this is the sensible way to find out whether you can actually handle it.

Performance is strong, with seven to ten hours typical and heavy projection in the first hour that settles into a tight, close trail.

Cool weather and evenings only. In heat the cade and animalic facets get louder and considerably less pleasant. This is a challenging fragrance and the ratings show it: 3.88 out of 5 from around 1,600 Fragrantica users, a low score by Lattafa standards, and it reflects that people either find it addictive or find it filthy. Buy it if smoky, tarry, leathery compositions genuinely appeal to you. Skip it if what you want is compliments from strangers, because this one divides a room. It is also a useful reference point for anyone trying to work out whether they actually enjoy the niche smoke-and-leather genre or simply like the idea of it, and at this price finding out costs very little.