Beauty Care: Alghabra Labyrinth of Spices Perfume Review

Alghabra Labyrinth of Spices has a more bombastic spice-filled opening, full of clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg, that then includes cardamom and anise, so it went from spicy, sweet, and smoky to earthy, nutty, and green with a citrus hint. After an hour, the anise and the cardamom won out in the spice duel, joined by earthy, mossy woods that made the scent feel cooler and lighter. The drydown saw more warmth and subtle sweetness as creamy sandalwood and dry cedar came through.

top notes: Turkish coffee, pineapple, galbanum, tobacco
heart notes: clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, lavender, tonka beans, cardamom
base notes: amber, sandalwood, cedarwood, vetiver, oakmoss, woody musk

The opening was a symphony of nutty, aromatic coffee, smoky, sweet tobacco, and warm spices. There was an undertone of tangy sweetness–pineapple–and a touch of spicy-sweet bite from anise, amplified by heavy clove and cinnamon. It was aptly named as the spices wove in and out oscillating between earthy, nutty, and almost green with a sharp citrus overtone to warm, spicy, smoky, and ambery.

There was a murmur of musk that ran below the many spices that emerged after a half hour. It was joined by earthy, mossy woods and seemed to enhance the anise and cardamom on my skin (relative to the clove and cinnamon) and minimized any lingering sweetness from the pineapple nearer to an hour in. In this phase, the fragrance felt cooler and a marginally softer, and it continued for two and a half hours.

The drydown saw the addition of warm, resinous woods, a hint of smokiness merge with the cooler spices for the remainder of the wear, which felt drier and more grounded with sandalwood seeming to be the more dominant wood note.

Application

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.

Longevity

It lasted for six hours until it was a skin-scent and about 10 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate with the sillage dropping faster than the projection after two hours of wear.

Personal Thoughts

Oh, this was an intoxicating one for me… but only for the first hour! I love winter spices like clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and then paired with all the nutty elements along with amber and woods? It was divine! There was no restraint on the spice, and there were many and while the journey was filled with spice, what spices came forward the most at a given moment changed throughout. If this had lasted longer, I’d be so very tempted, but it ended up cooling down and losing the clove/cinnamon intensity.