Ta'if
Ormonde Jayne (2004)

I'm replacing my previous short review, where I found Ta'if too sweet. I've reconsidered. Ta’if is an ambery rose but not heavy. The rose note feels medium pink, not red or white. The sweetness of date is in evidence but I've started to like it for what it is. It makes a nice change to the usual blackcurrant pairing as I’m not a fan of blackcurrant in perfumes. Saffron is also nice here, not too much. Despite the date and saffron, this isn’t what I’d consider gourmand. Overall the feel is light rather than dark, sweet but still airy (the Elixir version is a bit darker and denser in feel). Thankfully I don’t get any scratchy or overpowering woody aromachemicals.

Ta’if is definitely an “oriental” rose but a friendly one. It doesn’t really smell like anything else I know. For me it feels more daytime and suited for cooler temperatures, but I could also wear it on a night out in summer. I have the older bottle with square shoulders, which I think is so much better than the new shape. Elegant and hefty.

Ormonde Jayne is hit-or-miss brand for me. Some of their perfumes are also problematic in that I’m either partly anosmic or noseblind to them. It’s probably their use of iso e super or ambroxan, molecules I can smell barely or not at all. I can smell Ta’if fine and it has good sillage, but I do wonder if others can smell me even more, so I’m careful with spraying.

Velvet pedals open up Ta'if, feeling someone drier than a typical rose, feeling almost like one that has been pressed into a book and revisited after a week or so, which I can appreciate. The dates and dried fruits follow, lending a bit more dynamism, getting a bit spicier and more ambery in its development.

However, its dry down has this quality to it that nags. It has a persistence to it that may please certain noses, but my humble, yet temperamental nose finds it a bit too starchy and acrid, oddly enough. However, I am glad that I could sample it.

Like many others, I find this is very much along the lines of Coriandre or Rose Anonyme, a spicy/patchouli rose. I prefer this one to both of those, since there seems to be less patchouli--I know it is not on the listed notes, but I still get something--and the rose is stronger. I finished a 5mL decant of this, and would consider repurchasing, but I need to finish my Coriandre first.

At first sniff i loved this fragrance. Unfortunately i have grown not to trust my first sniff as it has been often deceiving. The first sniff is sometimes like the supermodel who is good to look at but sucks in conversation. in the long run you need someone you can have a conversation with.

similarly with perfumes, after the initial wow factor dies down, how the fragrance fades and becomes one with your skin, and puts a smile on your face and makes you feel good on a long term basis is what differentiates the great ones from the good ones.

moreover, just like what your friends think about your gf effects your better judgement, what other basenote reviews speak about the fragrance, also effects your final buying decision.

as such, ta'if has been on my mind for a long time. i have sampled it maybe a dozen times. The opening is a blast of rose and spices, typical but not overly sharp as many rose and spice combo behave. but also not my favorite part of the fragrance.

As the fragrance develops, it transforms into a beautiful silky creamy tone, which could be described better as a texture than an actual smell. This is my favorite part of the fragrance and the longest lasting segment as well. in fact it remains so for the rest of its life. they say amber in the end but i cant distinctly smell it, so it plays more of a supporting role perhaps.

A lot of Ormonde Jayne fragrances have that silky creamy middle note. Im wearing Ormonde Man today and its a similar vibe.

Ta'if is not daring, nor different, nor loud, nor even long lasting. Its a really subtle creamy rose, which remains close to the skin during its breif lifetime. yet each time i sampled it, i fell more and more in love with it. to the point that despite several reveiws about how ordinary it is, i finally plunged in and got a full bottle.

Sometimes you just dont want to make a statement. Sometimes you just want the best of what is ordinary! And Ta'if does a damn good job at making 'ordinary' feel good.

A dry dusty rose, very faint and restrained.

When I read Turin's description of Ta'if as a "peppery floral," I was expecting something along the lines of Perles de Lalique or Coriandre. In those the pepper and patchouli drew the rose center down to deep, dark realms.

I find Ta'if, for my nose, to resemble the scent from roses that have dried and are either on their way to potpourri or to be tied with a ribbon and hung from the rafters.

I get none of the other notes listed, just a dry, dusty rose. Nice, but unremarkable.

Ta'if is one of those fragrances where I seem to be experiencing something completely different to everyone else. People use the words “rich”, “dark”, and “exotic” to describe it and suggest a texture as heavy as velvet – close to Lyric Woman or Portrait of a Lady even – whereas all I experience is a sheer peppery floral layered over a musky, dried-fruit base. Even the praline/date note is sheer and sort of dry.

I don't even experience the rose in this as straight-up rose but as a big, blowsy peach and orange blossom chiffonade, with only brief flashes here and there of something that might be interpreted as a tart, green rose swimming in the murk. The peachy, powdery feel of the fragrance makes me think of something cheap and functional I used to use when I was a teenager - the Impulse O2 body spray perhaps, or a deodorant spray, I don't know. So each wearing of Ta'if comes with a huge helping of nostalgia and wistfulness that clouds my judgment of the fragrance itself.

The dry down is a slightly powdery musk with a streak of dates running through it – a very pretty end, and also quite a deliberately “perfumey” one, I think. It doesn't tilt you too literally in the direction of any one particular note, but bathes you in a pink-tinged miasma of musk, fruit, orange blossoms, and caramel that reminds me of some of the prettier dry downs in designer perfumery, such as Coco Mademoiselle, or Elie Saab.

So, not the rose of my dreams, or even a rose at all (to my nose), but it sure wins on the account of being a winningly pretty peach and white floral. Its popularity goes to show that you can market what is basically a designer perfume to people at niche prices if the marketing is pitched right and if its appeal is broad enough (for which read, a universally-appealing charm).