Nejma One, Aoud-Vetiver-Tabac (Pascal Morabito)

By Andrew

Nejma is a niche line of six fragrances from Pascal Morabito, a house known among aficionados for the brilliant but elusive tobacco-leather fougère Or Black. All six Nejma scents contain oudh, and each is an attempt to express that now-fashionable note in a different manner. Nejma One apparently aims for the woody-spicy interpretation.

The top notes are a piercing, medicinal oudh (in the manner of Pierre Montale), saffron, and a bold, but very fleeting mandarin. The oudh persists while nutmeg and cinnamon join the saffron in a hot, dry, astringent spice accord. The medicinal quality apparent from the opening only grows more intense, and I imagine some might even liken it to a petroleum product or burning rubber.

Little appears to soften this harsh texture until about a half hour, at which point hints of orange blossom and vetiver fill in some of the crags in the scent’s profile. Even so, the overriding impression is stark and unyielding (even chemical) in its absence of rounded olfactory surfaces. Don’t expect a comforting pipe tobacco note from this scent. It is no Fumerie Turque or Back to Black, and Nejma One’s tobacco remains largely subsumed by the aggressively forward oudh. The vanilla, musk, and sandalwood in Morabito’s pyramid don’t have much impact either, at least not until very late in the drydown, which is mostly dry sandalwood and vetiver. It’s too bad, since more forward expression of these notes might have lent Nejma One some much-needed depth and equilibrium.

While I admire it’s bold, grim countenance, Nejma One is not a balanced composition, and it feels disappointingly clumsy on the skin. If the idea of a dark, craggy, and medicinal oudh fragrance appeals to you, you’d do better to explore Pierre Montale’s Black Aoud. For oudh with tobacco, there’s also the same house’s animalic Oud Cuir d’Arabie, and for oudh and spice in two very different, but more complex and fully realized compositions, you could turn to L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Al Oudh or Amouage Epic Man. I can’t deny that Nejma One smells interesting, and the lopsidedness that makes it so hard to wear comfortably might not hamper it as a room spray, but I’m not liable to pay $140 for 3 ounces of room spray.

Year: 2007
Brief: Marie Lise Bischoff and Christian Bousidan
Notes: Nutmeg, cumin, saffron, mandarin, cinnamon, orange blossom, tobacco, oudh, Bourbon vetiver, Mysore sandalwood, vanilla, and white musk