Today, I'm wearing Isra & Miraj. This is from Stephane Humbert Lucas, and it came out to celebrate the seven-year anniversary of this brand. I am a big fan of Stephane Humbert Lucas. I love all of the fragrances because they're incredibly sophisticated, just very layered and nuanced. I knew that for the anniversary, it would be something very special, and it is.
First of all, the look of it is outstanding, just one of the most beautifully ornate bottles I've seen. It's just fantastic. It's inspired by a very particular story. It's the story of the night journey of the prophet Muhammad, where he visits seven skies, and it eventually reaches an enlightenment. It's a beautiful story, and it's a beautiful scent. Stephane Humbert Lucas thinks of beautiful, precious gifts in each sky that he visits, and it's an inspiration for some of the materials that are used in this scent.
So right off the bat, what I'm getting very distinctly is heliotrope. Heliotrope is a flower, and its scent resembles almond a little bit, like sweet powdery almond. So usually, if you see heliotrope in a fragrance, you're going to notice something powdery and sweet. This very much is that. Some of the other notes happen to be spices, like nutmeg and cinnamon, there's a touch of vanilla.
Now, from this description, powdery, almond, spices, vanilla, you might think that this is a gourmand scent. And it is slightly, but I wouldn't really categorize this as a gourmand fragrance. In fact, I would say very much it's an amber. But since ambers have vanilla in the base, usually, this is very fitting and of a classical amber smell.
In the base, you get various different styles of musk, a little bit of leather, and it does list oud in the ingredients, which I don't really discern, except it does have a slight animalic growl to the base, although it's slight.
