Pharaoh II Eau de Parfum Oud Sandalwood 50ml

Nothing about the first two minutes tells you where this fragrance is going. It opens on rosewood, lavender, cinnamon and crisp apple, which is a bright and almost gentle start, and it ends on oud, sandalwood and amber, which is not gentle at all. The distance between those two points is the reason to own it.

• A deceptively light start. Apple and lavender before anything heavy arrives.
• Flowers in the middle. Rose and lily of the valley over cedar.
• Oud and amber to close. The last hours are dark and warm.
• An evening in winter. This is not a daytime proposition.

The Journey It Takes

Most heavy fragrances announce their weight immediately. This one spends its first half hour sounding almost polite, then the rose and cedar move in, and by the time the oud arrives you are wearing something entirely different from what you sprayed. Anyone who tests it for five minutes and walks away will have met the wrong fragrance.

Rosewood at the Top

Palisander rosewood is a warm, faintly sweet timber note, and putting it in the opening rather than the base is unusual. It bridges the apple and the cinnamon and quietly prepares the ground for the woods that come much later, so the fragrance never feels as though it changes its mind. It grows into itself instead.

How Much to Use

One spray is genuinely enough in most situations and two is the ceiling. Compositions built on oud and amber gain very little from a third spray except distance, and distance is not usually the goal at a dinner table. Start with one, wait twenty minutes, and add the second only if you meant to.

One on Cloth, One on Skin

Skin gives a fragrance its development and its warmth. Cloth gives it hours. Putting one spray on the throat and one on a lapel or a scarf means you get the full arc from the skin and a long quiet tail from the fabric, which is the closest thing there is to having both at once on a heavy composition like this.

Questions About Pharaoh II

How strong is it? Considerable. One or two sprays is the working amount rather than three.

Is the opening representative? No, and deliberately so. The oud arrives much later than the apple and lavender.

What season suits it? Winter, and evenings in particular.

Can women wear it? Yes. The rose and lily in the middle make it less masculine than the note list suggests.