Asad Eau de Parfum 100ml

Lattafa Asad Eau de Parfum 100ml is built on a collision most houses would not attempt at this level: cold fruit on one side, hot coffee and tobacco on the other.

Black pepper strikes first and it is dry rather than warm, a crackle that lasts a minute or two before the pineapple arrives. That pineapple is the hook. It is thick and slightly candied rather than tart, and it keeps the top bright while tobacco creeps in underneath with its dry, faintly cured sweetness. The middle is where the fragrance earns its following. Coffee comes in dark and roasted, bitter at the edges, and iris lays a cool powdered gloss across it that stops the roast turning into dessert. Patchouli sits beneath both, earthy and a little damp. The base is deliberately rich: vanilla smooths everything over, benzoin adds a resinous depth that borders on syrupy, labdanum brings a sticky darkness, and amber ties the whole thing together.

Projection in the first two hours is considerable, so this is a two spray fragrance rather than a six spray one. After that it settles into skin and stays put for the rest of the day, and it will still be detectable on a shirt collar the next morning.

Released in 2021, it is aimed at men and worn mostly in cold weather and at night, where the coffee and tobacco have room to work. In summer heat it can read as heavy going. If you like the dark sweet register and want a full 100ml rather than a decant to test it with, start here, because the opening is not the whole story and the base takes an hour to show properly.

Lattafa Perfumes works out of Sharjah and trades on a Made in UAE identity. Its founder arrived in Dubai from Pakistan and learned the business behind the counter of his uncle's perfume shop before starting his own line, and the company built its reputation on attars and concentrated perfume oils alongside fragrances cut in a French style.