Elkhaldi Ambergris Nicotina (2025) "Duet Between Dark Mission Figs and Ambergris" #elkhaldi #cologne

Summary

Highlights

• The topnote of Ambergris Nicotina is an exceptional fig sensation, vibrant with Mediterranean vibes 🍇.
• Beware of its intense color; wearing black is a pro-tip to prevent wardrobe mishaps 😎.
• While its fruity and sweet fig and plum notes are captivating, the dry down might leave you yearning for more 🌙.
• Despite the complex formulation, the ambergris acts more as a background player, providing subtlety 🌟.
• Exploration-worthy for artisanal scent lovers, especially those fascinated by rich, creative fig notes 🎶.

Key Takeaways

• Ambergris Nicotina's fig opening is like an aromatic journey through the Mediterranean 🌿.
• Wearing black is essential when using this dark-hued fragrance due to potential staining 🎨.
• The perfume offers a stunning interplay between figs, plum, and oud, blending fruity with earthy notes 🍑.
• Though enchanting, the dry down fades to a softer scent closer to the skin, leaving some desiring more oomph 🌬️.
• Ramsey appreciates the artisanal quality but hopes for a stronger tobacco and oud presence in future iterations 🚀.

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Elkhaldi Ambergris Nicotina In this chapter, Ramsey introduces a fragrance by the Elali house called 'Ambergris Nicotina.' Ramsey mentions that this is a new brand for him to review on his channel and notes the creator of the fragrance as an emerging figure in the artisanal fragrance industry. He provides the website eli.store for viewers who may want to explore more about Elali. Ramsey mentions that 'Ambergris Nicotina' has been his scent of the day.
• 00:30 - 02:30: Fragrance Characteristics and Caution The chapter discusses the characteristics of a particularly dark fragrance, highlighting its intense coloration. The narrator mentions wearing black clothing to avoid staining, as the fragrance leaves a noticeable mark if sprayed on lighter fabrics. This serves as a caution to users about potential staining when using this darkly colored scent.
• 02:30 - 04:30: Opening Notes and Fig Imagery The chapter discusses the imagery and significance of dark tones in clothing and fragrance. The speaker emphasizes the importance of wearing dark clothing when using certain types of perfume to avoid staining. The advice is practical, warning against spraying directly on the shirt, instead advising to spray on the skin to prevent discoloration. The theme of darkness is reiterated through the description of a fragrance that has an intensely dark appearance.
• 04:30 - 07:00: Dry Down and Ambergris Description In this chapter, the narrator describes their experience with a new fragrance. They wore it to bed on the first day and continued to use it as their daily scent for the next two days. The chapter highlights the opening of the fragrance as particularly impressive, especially the fig scent, which stands out as one of the narrator's favorites. The narrator emphasizes that the first one to two hours are the best part of this fragrance, offering a rich, fruity fig scent that distinguishes itself from other fig leaf fragrances.
• 07:00 - 10:00: Oud and Tobacco Notes The chapter 'Oud and Tobacco Notes' starts with a comparison of Fig Leaf fragrances and their characteristics. Fig Leaf fragrances are described as green, leafy, and ethereal, possessing a slightly transparent quality. Some popular fragrances with these qualities include Marc Jacob Men (2002) and Dipti Felicos (1996), which are frequently discussed within the fragrance community. The narrator notes that while those fragrances go in a different direction with a different focus, the discussion will shift to a distinct focus on 'Oud and Tobacco Notes.'
• 10:00 - 15:00: Carob and Other Ingredients The chapter titled 'Carob and Other Ingredients' centers on various ingredients, highlighting the mission fig, which is presented as a focal point. It discusses the Mediterranean qualities of the fig, emphasizing its rich, dark, plum-like color and slight boozy aroma, reminiscent of plum wine. The discussion seems to infuse a creative, sensory experience by suggesting the vibrant wine color and the inclusion of plum flavors in the mix as well.
• 15:00 - 21:00: Conclusion and Personal Thoughts The chapter titled 'Conclusion and Personal Thoughts' reflects on the complex nature of a particular sensory experience. It dives into an imaginative and vivid depiction of tasting notes, particularly highlighting a 'Mission fig note' that evokes thoughts of a deep purple, fruity darkness. This fig note is described as astonishingly captivating, leading to a rich daydream about a Roman Emperor from ancient times. The imagery continues to paint a picture of the emperor enjoying figs brought from the Mediterranean by his people, in an opulent setting, emphasizing a connection to history and the depth of sensory experience.

Elkhaldi Ambergris Nicotina (2025) "Duet Between Dark Mission Figs and Ambergris" #elkhaldi #cologne Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey guys Ramsey here welcome to another video today we have a revieww of an elali fragrance and this is a house that I've never done a full review on on the channel um and this gentleman I believe is kind of a upand cominging star in the um artisanal space if you will you can check out his work at eli. store if you want to kind of check out his work there's how you spell elal down there on the bottom and this is ambergris nicotina nicotina um so I've been wearing this as my scent of the day
• 00:30 - 01:00 for the last few days and you notice I'm in black and there's a reason for that I specifically wore black yesterday and I wore black today because this was my scent of the day and this is one of the darkest fragrances as far as like juice goes I've ever seen let me show you what it does to my hand when I spray it on so a lot of you guys have been asking for me to spray on camera and this one I have to do because look at that if you spray that on a white shirt you are absolutely just screwed for the day because it's going to look like you
• 01:00 - 01:30 spilled something on your shirt or sweat it all over it or something I don't know but um it is it is dark and it does not get any better you almost have to rub it in to kind of make it um to make it not look like your skin is is sort of blotched if you will so spray this on skin do not spray this on your shirt I'm warning you and that's why I wore black when I could wear this as my scent of the day so um just real quick a couple words about the frag look at that can you see that it is dark dark dark dark
• 01:30 - 02:00 um so I wore this to bed the day that I unboxed it and then for the last two days I've been wearing it as my scent of the day the opening of this is stunning um probably one of my favorite fig openings I think I've ever smelled um the first hour or two is the meat of this scent for me personally my favorite part of the scent is the first hour or two and it's absolutely nothing like the Fig Leaf fragrances which are completely different this is a allout fruity fig
• 02:00 - 02:30 opening whereas the Fig Leaf fragrances go more green um you know it has that leafy ethereal aspect to them you know slightly transparent and if you have smelled fragrances like Marc Jacob men from 2002 or dipti felicos from 1996 both of those are fig Leaf fragrances that get a lot of talk in the community completely different this is a true you those are good fragrances I'm not bashing them I'm just saying they go in a totally different direction a totally different Focus those focus on
• 02:30 - 03:00 the Fig Leaf I mean just look at that I mean crazy um whereas this focuses on the actual fruit itself the mission fig is kind of what this is focusing on and it's very Mediterranean feeling okay it's that rich dark plumy color you know if you can imagine like plum wine there actually has a little bit of a booziness to this um concoction and if you can just imagine this wine color they're actually is plum in here as well now that I'm
• 03:00 - 03:30 thinking about it so there is plum um and there's this Mission fig note if you will and it it feels very dark purple in opening uh fruity dark and that fig note is just amazing I just imagine like a Roman Emperor thousands of years ago sitting on this lavish setup eating these uh figs brought in from the Mediterranean by his army his people in the Mediterranean and just many moons ago having this go down and I actually
• 03:30 - 04:00 really like figs um we don't get very many fresh figs here in Texas and when we do they're us I don't know if I've ever had these actual Mission figs before but really ties in perfectly with this backstory as I'm pretty sure the gentleman who owns El caldi is of Arabic descent um I um I think it ties in perfectly with his kind of backstory if you will but that fig note in the top I will tell you what it is stunning it is probably my favorite part of the fragrance I'm not going to lie the the
• 04:00 - 04:30 dry down is not as impressive to me as the top of the fragrance um it's not that it's it's not that it's bad it's just that I want more kind of oomph you know I want more animalic more oomph more hit more punch in the dry down this goes a little softer into the dry down and you know what for something that's listed as ambergis I guess I understand that amberr is a very ethereal um sometimes it can be very ozonic it can have this sort of uh feeling of focus it can have
• 04:30 - 05:00 this sparkly Shimmer and you know you do get some of that in dry down and if you focus you know it's still there it's not that the fragrance goes away 7 eight hours in it just becomes very very close to the skin now this is an x-ray from my understanding I mean if this is an x-ray I don't know what the hell is but I'm pretty sure this is an x-ray um and and so you know it's um it's it's really something that I feel like once he begins to do more and more work if he can learn to balance that top the
• 05:00 - 05:30 amazing top that he created here with something more in the base I think um I think he's got he's got something special as the years go on but the Fig note in the top stunting one of my all-time favorite fig notes I think I've ever smelled and um if you can just imagine here's the image of um amberr nicotina if you can just imagine hundreds and hundreds of fig trees in the Mediterranean um and you know with figs all over the trees with various levels of ripeness in the figs right so you have some that are still green and
• 05:30 - 06:00 not ready to eat yet some that are perfect and some that have that mushy you know they've been sitting for too long they're starting to become really soft and dripping um some of the juices you know there's sort of holes in them where birds have pecked at them and insects are sort of flying in that's that's the image right this fig field fig leaf tree or fig uh Mission fig tree field if you will and um the insects buzzing are almost brought to to it like moths to a
• 06:00 - 06:30 flame you know there's this narcotic addictive sweetness from from the fuess here um and like I said the birds have kind of pecked holes in some of the figs but just imagine that image of the Fig like drawing insects and Wildlife to them like like a moth to the light if you will you know the figs and the plum note in the top add this beautiful pull value to the scent to me personally um I think that's one of the big selling points of the scent if you will now everything moves very quickly because even right now
• 06:30 - 07:00 I'm getting the nicotine the the tobacco if you will but I'm also getting the oud um and it all happens very quickly there is not like a citrus top note there's really very little introduction the note it just bam it hits you you know um like here I am here here's what here's what I stand for as a fragrance and We're Off to the Races so there's very little sort of introduction in this uh there is a lynen blossom note and lynen Blossom um sort of adds this floral honeyed like imagine this lemony floral honey like
• 07:00 - 07:30 smell is what lynen Blossom smells like but um lynen Blossom because of that honey like consistency to the floral smell you know it keeps the theme of the Mediterranean going you have this land of like milk and honey and and the decadent figs and all of this stuff now very quickly you will notice that um the other stars of the show enter the party one is this tobacco note which is like a tobacco hay combination ACC cord that he built um that he basically created the other is the oud and the Amber Gris
• 07:30 - 08:00 which I kind of put together I would say 99.9% of people if you're being just honest are not going to sit up here and say I smell Amber Gris it's just not going to happen not in that fashion here there are some fragrances where maybe they focus on the Amber Gris to the point where you can really pick it out because everything else is taken away you know so it's a very um it's a singular type smell this is not that at all this is very multifaceted there's a lot of different things going on and if
• 08:00 - 08:30 there and obviously he wouldn't say there's Amber Gris in here if there wasn't but um the Amber Gris is not allowed to sort of shine on its own I think it works as more of a secondary agent you know it it shines a spotlight on some of the other notes if you will is the way that I think about it so first the tobacco um and I don't know if I agree there's a line in his little write up which says well the the write Up's pretty short so I'll read it to you it says what started as a duet between dark Mission figs and ambergris quickly turned into into a full-on Ensemble
• 08:30 - 09:00 sweet tobacco leaves like a rich cigar mixed with damp hay carob slightly bitter Licorice and the Beautiful Nella flour the result you might wonder if your bottle has a cigar inside now that's the part that I don't really agree with because I don't think that the tobacco was turned up to a point where it feels like there is a cigar inside actually that's one of my complaints about the scent I wish that the tobacco was turned up more where it felt like there was a cigar inside or I wish the oud was turned up more where in the dry now you get more of that heavy
• 09:00 - 09:30 realistic oud dry down it kind of sort of just Withers away you know into the dry down the top is absolutely stunning I've just been reapplying this every like four or five hours I know that's crazy um and but you can see I've given it two full warar and and look you can see I've been I've been doing some reapplications of this scent I also did wear it to bed once so um but the tobacco note I don't really agree that it's strong enough to give you that cigar inside smell the marketing kind of
• 09:30 - 10:00 starter that he's giving is I wouldn't necessarily agree with that maybe some people do but for me what you end up getting is this dry almost like smelling the tobacco leaf around the cigar itself is kind of what it smells like imagine that rolled tobacco leaf around it um which if you let it sit out will become very very dry but it's supposed to be moist and it's not supposed to crinkle in your hands U but if you can imagine in a cigar rolling plant um imagine some of these workers
• 10:00 - 10:30 who are constantly rolling these cigars imagine one of the workers maybe like pocketing a couple of these tobacco leaves and taking it out into some field and rolling his own cigar for himself um which you know the way that the leaf gives the the leaf in a cigar for those who don't know um is what gives the cigar most of the flavor okay so it's the it's the leaf wrapping that gives the cigar the flavor so just imagine this worker taking the cigar out into
• 10:30 - 11:00 the field on a day when you know the grass is very very dry and crinkly and there's hay barrels kind of um mixed in right uh so maybe there's hay barrels for the animals to kind of eat in in the field and going outside and rolling the cigar outside in nature and even though there is like a dryness to the grass and a dryness to the tobacco the hay itself adds this sort of like moist almost um like imagine if hay was wetted um a while ago and Carri this clammy humid moisture inside of it you
• 11:00 - 11:30 know because the hay barrels are very very big so where the grass May dry out much quicker the hay barrels will keep that moisture inside and so you're sort of smelling all of this right you're smelling the combination of the mission fig the amberr sparkle which sort of I think makes that fig really come to life in a way and then you're smelling this tobacco this um sort of haylike field slightly moist slightly dry combination that that sort of comes together and there's a couple other notes in here
• 11:30 - 12:00 which bring the fragrance to life one is carob um which is sort of like a legum it's in the legume family which is a funny word legume um but it's a substitute for cacao and I'm guessing it's the actual KOB legume used and not the blossom is my guess here because the fragrance sort of has this chocy like Aroma about it carob is a cocow substitute that was very popular in the 1970s among like the health conscious movement if you will will um it it has a
• 12:00 - 12:30 caca like flavor but it's naturally sweeter so you don't have to add sugar to it so they thought it was healthier and all this kind of stuff right um so you don't get the bitterness of cacao which I actually really really like but here the sweetness mixes with this ambery bit and as the fragrance dries down you will start to get more of this ambery sort of combination as it goes into the base if you will um just this General warmth you know the tobacco turns into a warmth feeling the Amber turns into a warmth feeling
• 12:30 - 13:00 and that's kind of my complaint into the dry Downs that it just sort of dissolves into this warm you know the the carob is naturally sweet the Amber I think is naturally sweet in a way or this Accord that he built and it just kind of dissolves into that I wish it dissolved more into a tobacco or into like an oud or something but that's just my personal preference being imprinted on this scent if you will um but that's what KOB basically is and it and kro basically
• 13:00 - 13:30 comes from roasting the edible pulp inside of the pods whereas cacao they're fermented and sort of ground into a paste there's YouTube videos you can watch them gr grinding cacao into a paste it's very uh labor intensive but um if it was carob Blossom interestingly enough carob Blossom uh when the trees when the carob trees actually Blossom it's rumored that they're supposed to smell like male semen okay so um I don't get any semen type smell in here uh I get more of the the chocolatey facet so
• 13:30 - 14:00 I'm guessing he's talking about kab the legume and not the blossoms because the blossoms would add a completely different smell to the scent very sexual smell to the scent um but that's as it continues into the dry down you know you have to be uh careful because if you just look at the packaging you'll notice right here it says musk see that and so you might say ah there's musk in here I wonder if it's real musk it's not it's it's actually you have to be careful because of the commas between his you know um his ingredients it's not just musk it's Musk mus root comma you know
• 14:00 - 14:30 so it's muskroot which muskroot is um another word for nard or Spike nard if you will not my favorite ingredient I will tell you that it can have this very earthy unwashed type smell almost like the hair of an animal is how I think of it from time to time um there can be this sort of um spicy like Woody um aspect earthiness there's like an earthiness to to [ __ ] nard that sometimes puts me off a little bit I don't get very much of it here though although it is in the um it is in the um
• 14:30 - 15:00 note listing and uh there's a couple others that come up um and he mentions this uh Nella flower which is supposed to have this sort of like spicy Clover like smell if you will again sweeten syrupy honey Clover like smell um and finally in the dry down you get uh the big three which are the ouds the two types of ouds in the amberr um and
• 15:00 - 15:30 he lists both Hindi oud and um Thai oud okay now I must admit I don't get very much Hindi oud again I would prefer it if there was more Hindi oud I would have liked to see this composition done with an amped up animalic challenging you know fermented Barnyard hardcore Indian oud um it just doesn't shine through it's very very gently dosed here and probably on purpose probably on purpose um I would have liked to see that dial
• 15:30 - 16:00 really turned up to the max you get much more of the Thai oud which is more of the fruity type oud it's easier to digest if you will um and Tai oud Blends beautifully with the sort of um Mission fig top with the plum I was telling you about because Tai oud can sometimes have the slightly floral type smell slightly sweetened you know it has a little bit of a fruity floral sweetened type profile much more easier for um beginners of oud to appreciate Thai
• 16:00 - 16:30 oud than something like Hindi oud let's say um but it does blend beautifully with that opening which is by far my favorite part I'm still getting it and look it's been 16 minutes look at that doesn't even look like it's changed from my from when I sprayed it on originally I just wanted to show you guys how dark this juice is you have to be very very careful if you're wearing a white shirt um and don't think I'll just put it here my shirt won't touch it no it'll drip down it'll touch the collar it'll look I mean I've I've been through that many a times so um probably best to do what I
• 16:30 - 17:00 do and only wear these type of scents when you wear black that's that's my trick to to wearing them so now like I said the issue is I love the first couple hours absolutely love it in fact I would even say this opening is is my I don't know if I've come across a fig fragrance that I've went damn I love this opening so much but because it sits so close to the skin I I feel like maybe even turning this into an odap param where you jack up the alcohol content a little bit to get some more push from
• 17:00 - 17:30 the ingredients might spit this fragrance very well um because it becomes very very soft after the first say 2 to three hours and you know Amber grass as a material is known to add Sparkle you know if you've heard me talk about some of the ensar where he uses a lot of Amber grass he replaces perfumer alcohol with Amber grass tincture I call it the ensar sparkle there's this sparkle to the scent um and you do get a little bit of that in here but it's very very hard to pick
• 17:30 - 18:00 out in a composition on its own you know unless you're smelling ombre suprem by leson demod dablo where they've made the fragrance has been constructed you know you don't get the oo you don't get the tobaccos you don't get the heavier honeyed florals so you can really smell the Amber grass unless the fragrance has been designed with you smelling the ambergris in mind um it's very very hard to to pick that out and and I I would like the animalic turned up a little bit more I would like the power into the dried out you know when you're paying for me um if I can wave my magic wand
• 18:00 - 18:30 and make this a bespoke scent um I would have really liked and enjoyed to smell more of the ouds into the dry down and not this just like generic sort of um warm sweetened bit which is nice I mean the tobacco the warm Warmness of the tobacco mixing with the Amber Gris and all this stuff and the taii oud is nice into the dry down I just want a little bit more you know I want for for I think this goes for 15 Ms this bottle um goes
• 18:30 - 19:00 for $325 I believe I think it's $325 don't quote me on that but that's like $21 per Mill more than $21 per Mill so $21 per Mill uh I just want more into the dry down the opening does it for me it's just the dry down I'd like to see a little bit more work done on but if you have not smelled elali El Cali's work I think it's definitely worth a sniff um like I said he has his own website now alcal store the only thing is I think it
• 19:00 - 19:30 says it's under maintenance but you can buy from other sites as well um Arabian perfumes in the UK I think sells his work um there's a couple other shops that you can check his work out it's funny the picture of this he actually has it set against the backdrop of a back gam game so speaking of sticking with his Arabic Heritage um and uh this is in the ambergis collection or the ambergis set if you will um and and so there there are other fragrances that
• 19:30 - 20:00 use this amberr um you know he calls it amberr Spectrum which the Amber Spectrum ties this line together I have not smelled any of those at all so um just you know I I this is the one that um this is the one that I have the most experience with now and and so I think he's a real rising star in the in the artisanal space um I think he has a long way to go before you put him up there with the Russian atams and the Bops and all that stuff but it's definitely worth your time if you're into this type of
• 20:00 - 20:30 perfumery to check this guy's workout um very very interesting especially that top really really love the top very beautiful stuff but um I would say the dry down could use some work that would be my that would be my official take on it but let me know what you think if you have experience with amberr nicotina I know this is kind of Niche content um and and he actually has another one he sent me called Borneo day which I think I like even more I've only tested this one time but I think I like this even more but we'll see where where where it goes in the future with him and
• 20:30 - 21:00 his work um as always I appreciate everyone watching commenting liking subscribing I like bringing these type of fragrances that other reviewers aren't really talking about to you guys so let me know what you think as always it's an honor and a pleasure to get to do these for you guys cheers and I'll catch you next time bye-bye