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Elyscents · Made in the UAE
The Notes Library
Every material we use, what it actually is, and which of our fragrances it sits in. If you have ever wondered why oud costs what it does, or what amber really means on a label, this is the honest version.
Woods & resins
What a fragrance stands on. These are the slowest materials in the bottle — they are still there hours after the citrus has gone.
OudAgarwood
Resinous heartwood of the agar tree
Agar trees only produce oud when a mould infects the heartwood; the tree floods the wound with resin, and that resin is the perfume. Wild oud is among the most expensive raw materials on earth, which is why so much of what is sold as oud is an accord built to resemble it. It reads as warm, animal and slightly sweet — the smell most people mean when they say a fragrance smells Gulf.
Sandalwood
Creamy heartwood, traditionally from Mysore
Soft, milky and almost edible. Sandalwood does quiet work: it rounds off sharp edges and it is one of the best fixatives in perfumery, meaning it holds lighter notes onto the skin for longer than they would last alone.
Cedarwood
Dry wood, pencil shavings
Where sandalwood is creamy, cedar is dry and clean. It sharpens a composition and stops sweet notes from turning syrupy.
Patchouli
A leaf, not a wood
Damp earth, dark chocolate and something faintly medicinal. Patchouli has a reputation it has largely outgrown — used in small amounts it adds depth and a shadow rather than the heavy note people remember.
Vetiver
A root
Cut grass over wet soil, with smoke underneath. Vetiver is bitter in the best way and keeps a rich fragrance from becoming sweet.
Oakmoss
A lichen
Inky, green and slightly damp. Oakmoss is the backbone of the classic chypre, and it is a large part of why some fragrances smell expensive and old-world rather than modern and bright.
OlibanumFrankincense
Resin tapped from Boswellia trees
Harvested in Oman, Somalia and Yemen by cutting the bark and letting the sap harden into tears. Smoky and faintly citrus — the smell of incense in a stone room.
Found inCrystal Pear
Labdanum
Sticky resin from the rockrose shrub
Leathery, ambery and slightly sweet. Historically combed from the coats of goats that had grazed through the shrubs.
Spice
The heat. Spice notes sit between the fresh opening and the heavy base, and they are what stop a warm fragrance from smelling flat.
Saffron
The stigma of a crocus flower
Three threads per flower, picked by hand, which makes it the most expensive spice in the world by weight. In perfume it is not culinary at all — it reads leathery, honeyed and faintly medicinal, and it pairs with oud so naturally that the two are almost a single idea in Gulf perfumery.
Pink pepper
A dried berry, not true pepper
Brighter and rosier than black pepper, with a fizz to it. It has become the standard way to open a modern masculine fragrance without reaching for citrus.
Black pepper
The true peppercorn
Dry, sharp and a little dusty. A small amount at the top of a heavy fragrance makes the whole thing feel lighter than it is.
Cardamom
Green pod
Cool and aromatic, with a eucalyptus edge. The spice in Gulf coffee, and it carries the same association of hospitality.
Cinnamon
Inner bark
Warm, dry and sweet without any sugar in it. Cinnamon makes a fragrance feel like cold weather.
Flowers
Not only for women. In this catalogue flowers are mostly used in the heart, where they soften spice and stop wood from turning severe.
Rose
Damask and Turkish varieties
It takes roughly a tonne of petals to produce a few hundred grams of rose oil, which is why real rose is rationed. Paired with oud it becomes the most recognisable accord in Middle Eastern perfumery.
Jasmine
White flower, picked before dawn
Jasmine is picked at night because the flower releases most of its scent in darkness. Rich and heady, with an animal quality underneath that keeps it from being pretty.
Orange blossom
Flower of the bitter orange tree
Clean, soapy and slightly green — the same tree gives neroli from the flower and petitgrain from the leaves.
Lavender
Aromatic herb
Herbal and cool. Lavender with oakmoss and tonka is the fougère — the structure most classic men’s fragrances are built on.
IrisOrris
The root, aged for years
Iris root is dried and rested for up to five years before it is usable, which is why it is one of the costliest materials in perfumery. Powdery, cool and slightly like fresh dough.
Found inMidnight Pulse
Fruit & citrus
The first thirty seconds. These evaporate fastest — they are the handshake, not the conversation.
Bergamot
A bitter citrus grown in Calabria
Too sour to eat, which is the point: it gives brightness without smelling of lemonade. Bergamot opens more fragrances than any other single material, and it is also what gives Earl Grey tea its flavour.
Apple
Green and red facets
Crisp and watery. Apple is used to make a heavy fragrance approachable in its opening minutes.
BlackcurrantCassis
Berry and bud
Tart and slightly sulphurous, which sounds unappealing and is exactly what gives it bite next to rose.
Plum
Stone fruit
Darker and jammier than the citrus fruits, and it bridges neatly into saffron and oud.
Found inObisidion
Lemon & grapefruit
Cold-pressed peel
The sharpest openings in the catalogue. They burn off fastest of anything in the bottle — usually inside fifteen minutes.
Sweet, resin & skin
The trail. These are the notes people mean when they say a fragrance smells like you rather than like perfume.
Amber
An accord, not a raw material
Worth knowing: amber in perfumery is not fossilised tree resin. It is a blend — usually labdanum with vanilla and benzoin — built to smell warm, golden and slightly powdery. Every house makes its own.
Ambergris
Produced by sperm whales, now recreated in the lab
Originally found washed up on beaches after years at sea. Modern perfumery uses synthetic equivalents, which are both kinder and more consistent. It smells of salt, skin and warm air, and it makes a fragrance radiate.
Musk
Historically animal, today entirely synthetic
Musk is the reason a fragrance still smells like something at the end of the day. It is soft, clean and skin-like, and some people cannot smell certain musks at all — a genuine quirk of genetics.
Leather
An accord built from birch, labdanum and smoke
There is no leather in the bottle. The smell of a new jacket is recreated from tar-like and resinous materials — a technique that goes back to perfuming actual leather gloves in the seventeenth century.
Vanilla
Cured pod of an orchid
Hand-pollinated, then cured for months before it smells of anything. Vanilla rounds a fragrance off and makes it comfortable to wear.
Tonka bean
Seed of the cumaru tree
Almond, hay and tobacco, from a compound called coumarin — the material that effectively started modern perfumery in 1882.
Caramel & toffee
Gourmand accords
Sweet, buttery and warm. Used sparingly against wood and spice they read as richness rather than dessert.
Honey
Sticky, golden, faintly animal
Honey is sweet but never clean — there is always something a bit feral underneath, which is what makes it interesting next to oud.
Found inDesire Ignis