Italian indie perfume house La Via del Profumo has launched Tawaf:
Tawaf is the final fragrance in my Arabian series. As the conclusion for this collection I have chosen to compose a fragrance that sings the very soul of the Arab people.
Tawaf is the name of the ritual consisting circumambulations around the Ka’abah, the cube shaped building in Mecca, adorned with black silk. The Ka'abah is the geographic center of the Arabian soul, of it’s spirituality, culture and civilisation. The Tawaf fragrance is the aromatic "melody" of the scents that surround those performing the Tawaf.
It bring together the trails of Jasmine Sambac that pilgrims wear, the rose water poured from buckets to wash the white marble floor and the Oppoponax attar spread by the handful over the corners of the Ka’abah. These are the essences that comprise the new fragrance. Other ingredients meaningful in the Arabic tradition are Narcissus and Myrrh.
The perfume is binary in structure, with a Jasmine accord intertwining with an Oppoponax accord in the same way those chinese silk fabrics display two different colours depending on how the light shines on them.
La Via del Profumo Tawaf is available now directly from La Via del Profumo in 15.5, 32 or 50 ml (€47-148), concentration unknown. There is also a Tawaf Custom Blending Kit, with a 15.5 ml spray bottle of Tawaf and 6 ml dropper bottles of the jasmine and oppoponax accords (€95).
(via profumo.it)
Update: see a review of La Via del Profumo Tawaf.
I got a sample of Tawaf from another perfume blogger but I didn’t have time to sample it yet.
Ok!
It’s near the hajj season, is this coincidence or pure marketing strategy? I bet it’s the latter one. And those descriptions…
Not at all sure that it just launched…might have come out earlier this year.
Oh, this sounds right up my alley. I haven’t had a lemming in quite some time, but I feel one coming on.
Yeah, me too! I love jasmine. The layering kit sounds fun too.
Hmmm…that layering kit would be handy, wouldn’t it?
I cannot wait to try this one! I have a decant of Mecca Balsam and really love it. If I buy myself a bottle of perfume for Christmas, it will probably be MB. Although, this might be a contender!
I also love MB and got a bottle soon after it came out, so I’m easy pickings for a new LVdP lemming! I also like Sharif and Hindu Kush, though, so it’s not clear which lemming will win out. Maybe just a roller ball or one of his larger samples of this one first.
I almost ordered his sampler set last weekend, and *both* of those scents were on my list!
Jasmine sambac is my favorite jasmine by far. And with oppoponax. Sounds stunning!