* خليجية *

February 3, 2009

Some Advice on Buying Perfumes in the Emirates

Khaleejia said: Arabic perfumes and bukhoor can be a good present from the GCC countries.

In UAE you can buy bukhoor or perfumes from many different shops.

You can visit these most BEAUTIFUL websites: Rasasi, Ajmal -best Emirati companies. Abdul Samad al Qurashi - is a famous manufacturer from KSA (I just love them!).

Products of the following companies are widely presented on the UAE market: Amalia, Al Haramain, Swiss Arabian, Arabian Oud

The price on Arabic oil perfumes varies greatly. You can buy a pleasant scent for AED 35 or AED 45. And there are luxurious oils in beautiful bottles and boxes for AED 500, AED 1,000, AED 3,000 and more.

Some stores have huge glass bottles with oil from which they pour perfume into small bottles and sell to the customers. The perfume stores usually sell beautiful bottles of different capacity and shape. You can also bring your own bottle to the shop.

Oud (agarwood) is expensive and can cost anything from AED1,000 to AED40,000 depending on the quantity and quality.

Bukhoor can cost you between AED 50 and AED500

The Bukhoor burner costs from AED50 to AED500, but you can also buy very expensive ones which are made of gold or silver.

The coal is relatively cheap. The "magic coals" which are the best quality and last for longer cost about AED50 for a box.

Welcome to The World of Arabian Perfumes!

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.

December 18, 2008

WELCOME BACK TO UAE HENNA SALOON

Khaleejia said: i am happy that so many women around the world are interested in the beautiful feminine,natural,tradition of henna decoration. that is inspire me to write one more post about it. Once reading one local forum, i saw these two photo-shots of a magazine article about henna tradition in the Emirates.
I found them pretty interesting as the idea of the article's author was to make it as clear as he/she just could. the text is very readable in zooming. The next pictures i collected to present you some of the newest designs for hand-decorating, which are the most loved by women in UAE.

These on-plate patterns are showed to the clients of the henna saloons to know which design they would prefer to have for certain time on their hands. But it does not mean that the chosen design will be same at 100%. Usually a henna artist fallows the picture very little only to understand the main features and the rest is her own creativity. p.s. If you understand something in henna drawings,then feel free to ask the artist for exact details you wish to see on your hand painting.