Téo Cabanel - Alahine

Warm amber on a self-possessed beauty

The perfume house, Téo Cabanel, was actually founded more than 100 years ago, and revived in 2003. The in-house perfumer, Jean-Francois Latty, has created four perfumes for the house, but the beautiful Alahine is the only one I've tried so far.

Alahine is an alluring soft amber. Captivating and seductive, Alahine will enrapture you with mysterious scents of luxurious oriental palaces.

Alahine is a floral oriental and a must try for all amber fans. The amber smells a little like smoke, as if the resin is being burned on a brazier. There are gentle spices, especially pepper. Amber and spices are artfully blended with a rich rose and both are joined by sweet honey with vanilla and orange blossom.

It reminds me a lot of Serge Luten's Ambre Sultan and Ormonde Jayne's Ta'if - as if the honey and pepper rose of Ta-if was combined with the spicy amber of Ambre Sultan. I tried it though, and that layering combo doesn't even come close to replicating the sweet/warm/spicy yumminess of Alahine.

With Alahine on, I daydream of lounging on multi-colour carpets, escaping the heat of the day behind intricately carved wooden screens, perfuming myself with rose, smelling the spice market on the breeze and burning some amber in a brazier nearby.

House: Téo Cabanel
Nose: Jean-Francois Latty
Notes: bergamot, ylang-ylang, jasmine, Bulgarian rose, spices, orange tree, pepper plant, "honeyed rose of Morocco," iris, cistus, patchouli, benjoin (benzion?), vanilla, sandalwood and musk.