Khaleejia said: Authentic Arabian perfumes are made only from natural ecologically clean ingredients and don’t contain alcohol. It’s not a secret that natural oils have therapeutic effect and may soothe or revitalize human feelings and emotions.
Beautiful bottle design of Arabic perfumes is a masterpiece! It’s a unique Arabian style where gold, wood, crystals, gems etc are used depending on a class of the perfumes.
Traditionally Arabs use aromatic oils as a base for perfumes. It’s called attar from the Arabic word “itr” “عطر” which means aroma. Essential oils are extracted from natural ingredients by distillation method. Master perfumers from Oman, UAE and Egypt keep many secret blends of attars. These are distinguished by very intensive highly concentrated fragrances.Arabic perfumes have woody, oriental, flowery, fruity bases with sensual notes of musk, ambergris, cedar, spices, frankincense, citrus, sandal and cashmere wood.
A small drop of Arabic perfume is enough to make aroma last for about 10 hours. When it comes in contact with water it responses with a renewed scent strength. Concentrated oil perfumes have a peculiarity- they “sleep” till the person starts to move. With a changing body temperature aroma reveals itself more intensively.
Bukhoor is tiny pieces of wood soaked in fragrant oils. Bukhoor is burnt to make a house and clothes smell nice from it’s smoke.Gulf Arabs burn bukhoor before visitors come as it will make the house smell pleasantly. And as their guests are about to leave the host brings in a bukhoor burner and passes it to the guests so that the aroma lingered on their abayas and kanduras. Some burn bukhoor every other day because they enjoy the good smell and there does not have to be a special occasion for that :) In the GCC you can also see small electric Bukhoor burners which are used in the cars.
To burn bukhoor you need to lit a piece of coal and put it into a special incense burner. And on top of a coal place some bukhoor.
There’s also oud- pieces of agarwood tree which are not scented by any oils as the wood emanates fragrance itself when burnt. Oud is very costly.
Wow thanks for this post Khaleejia, very informative. I can't wait to visit the Middle East so I can come buy some Oud :-)
ReplyDeleteHey washi! Thank you for commenting! Insha'Allah you'll love shopping in the Middle East! Usually the perfume stores in the malls burn some bukhoor to attract customers with sweet scents! It's so specific for the Middle East!
ReplyDeleteI bought some bukhoor when I was to abu dhabi smell so amazing mashallah!!! I wanna go back there ... :(
ReplyDeletewow!!I absolutely love bukhoor and attar I am an addict, and what I love about it, is that it is safe to put on your skin.
ReplyDeleteGreat work khaleejia!
ReplyDeleteI love using attar... and want to learn how to make can u help where I can learn in dubai....
I amazed to the arabian perfumes because the bottles looks elegant,fabulous! Interesting scent I really like it so much.
ReplyDeletecletsey
Salam sister,
ReplyDeletea while ago I am following your beautifull blog. Now I came across this post as I am recently interested in everything about arabian perfumes. I am preparing to launch an online perfumery in Germany with arabian perfume.
I hope you don't mind I took the second picture of this post for my last post: /livingatthewrongsideoftheworld.blogspot.com/2010/10/possible-career-plans-ii-part.html
As for the picture can you pls tell me which perfume it is in these wonderfull bottles with that amazing tassels, love them soo much.
May I ask you to take a look at my last post and give any suggestions?
Salams
Nazima
This is a really amazing collection of perfumes online in Dubai. Will love to have all of these in my collection.
ReplyDelete