I’ve been a bit annoyed by the lack of Frutiger in my toolkit of late, and I’m not sure which flavor I want to license to remedy that. Currently leaning towards either Neue Frutiger (Linotype = Monotype) or Fact (ParaType), but I’d love to hear y’all’s takes.

A few factors I’m weighing:

• Fact is significantly cheaper than all of Monotype’s offerings.
• Adrian Frutiger himself was not happy with Frutiger Next; he did not draw the calligraphic italic and found it inappropriate.
• There is a spectrum of language/glyph coverage here. Across the upright of the Light weight: 394 glyphs in the OG Frutiger, 487 in Neue Frutiger, 703 in Fact (adds Cyrillic), and even 1819 in the massive Neue Frutiger World (adds Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Thai, Georgian, Armenian).
• There are tradeoffs in weights and widths. The OG and Neue have two widths (regular, compressed); Fact has six (compressed, narrow, condensed, regular, semi-expanded, expanded), while Neue World has only one. There is a Neue Paneuropean with fewer scripts than World that retains the compressed width, but I’m not really considering it due to the price tag.

Which flavor(s) have you chosen and why?

Y’all ever choose a fragrance to wear based on the knowledge that you’re going to be in a situation where the ambient air smells less than pleasant? If so, what’s the situation? Is there a particular fragrance you wear for it?

For me, it’s riding in a certain friend’s car. Lovely human to spend time with, but the car… I can’t. It’s musty. If I know I’m going to be in this car, I try to choose something on the stronger side to drown out its smell. Incense notes have proven effective.

I recently got an email from a project manager asking if I could send them a headshot and blurb for their website. The idea seems to be to show prospective clients some of the real people who have been working with the agency for a long time, in order to inspire confidence in the fact that there are real, skilled humans handling this work, so I imagine folks on the agency side have been receiving queries along the lines of "How do I know you're not just going to put my file into ChatGPT and hand me the result? What am I really paying for?" They provided some examples of the kind of blurb they're looking for, which consisted of confidence-inspiring copy along the lines of "When I translate a book, I always strive to preserve…"

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't totally hate the idea, but I feel like I should get some kind of compensation for this beyond the vague promise of people maybe choosing the agency in the future because I appear on its website. I also recently accepted a full-time position outside the language services industry, so translation is strictly something I do on the side now because I enjoy it. I haven't yet broken the news about the full-time role to the agency, for what that's worth, although the volume of work I get from them these days is such that I don't expect to have to decline all that much anyway.

Any of y'all ever gotten a similar request and/or have thoughts about how to handle this?

Since getting into fragrances a couple months ago, I’ve been lurking here a bit. What I expect will be my last order for a while arrived just the other day, so I decided to share my story and opinions on what I’ve bought so far.

Background

Before April, I didn’t wear fragrance at all most days. If I did, I was choosing from a handful of designer fragrances I received as Christmas/birthday gifts over the past decade or so. That changed after I saw a video from Saeed al-Nuaimi, the Emirati founder of The Scent Library, on Instagram. Saeed is big on using social media to teach the world about the Gulf’s approach to fragrances, and seeing how applying fragrance is a self-care ritual and a means of personal expression there struck a chord with me.

After flipping through his IG posts for a while, I headed to Reddit and Google to explore Khaliji fragrance houses and figure out how to get my hands on their products. There are some posts on this sub that make great starting points (try searching for “gulf” or “oud” and you’ll find several). Depending on what you want and where you live, you may have the option of ordering from the brand’s official store, ordering from a fragrance retailer in your own region, or ordering through a foreign reseller.

Where I shopped

I placed a total of six orders from the following places:

• Luluat al-Musk (Michigan, USA): This shop stocks a nice variety of Gulf brands, plus a handful of their own products, including bakhoor. They’re very active on social media, where they post about new products, sales, and so on. The name means “pearls of musk” in Arabic.
• Khaleeji Brand (Illinois, USA): As the name suggests, this shop specializes in Gulf fragrance brands. There’s naturally some overlap with the brands at Luluat al-Musk, so you might check both to see if one is offering a better price on something you want.
• Arabian Oud (Saudi Arabia / USA): Arabian Oud is one of the rare Gulf houses that has a small presence of its own in the States, so it also has a US-based warehouse for fulfilling online orders.
• The Scent Library (UAE): I had to, right?
• Olfactory Factory (Indiana, USA): I saw a lot of folks recommending OF in this subreddit, and I picked up a couple of Western fragrances for myself while doing some gift shopping for others here.
• eBay (global): There are Gulf-based eBay sellers offering a variety of products that can be difficult to find outside of the region. If you live outside of the Gulf and are interested in an item you can’t find anywhere else, there may be a seller who has listed it or can get a hold of it for you.

What I bought + what I think

• Black Carbon Diamond (Ibraq): A very nice, rose-forward fragrance that’s still quite unisex. Some gentle fruit and spice as well, supported by a sandalwood base that’s warm without feeling heavy.
• Blue Diamond Aqua (Ibraq): Very fresh without relying heavily on fast-fading citrus. Long-lasting saffron and marine notes. Over time, a slightly smoky bakhoor accord slowly comes forward, which I find really enjoyable at the end of the day. BDA is easy to overspray and can be overwhelming for the first few minutes after you apply it, so be careful and give it some time to settle before you head out the door.
• Misk ash-Shams / Sun Musk (Ibraq): Gourmand-leaning with vanilla and spices, but not cloyingly sweet and softened by musk. I feel like this will be exceptional in autumn, but I’m enjoying it already on cooler days, sometimes layered with another fragrance.
• T19 Oud Intime (Taif al-Emarat): Fruity, leathery oud with great longevity that doesn’t overwhelm. Someone on Fragrantica called it a less screechy version of Crivelli’s Oud Maracujá. I haven’t smelled the Crivelli fragrance, though the reviews I’ve read for it suggest it’s polarizing and too much for some folks.
• MBZ (The Scent Library): A very fresh, grapefruit-forward fragrance. Bright enough for summer, but with a vetiver and ginger dry-down that I don’t think will feel out of place later in the year, at least not here in coastal CA where it doesn’t snow anyway. Eminently layerable.
• Tayar (The Scent Library): The Scent Library generously sent a full-size bottle of this with my order as a gift. This has a fruity opening that slowly gives way to something more floral and musky. As a guy, I like to layer this with citrus or woods.
• Sehr Kalemat (Arabian Oud): Complex and a bit heady out the gate, with basil, frankincense, amber, vanilla, and a touch of oud. Some people complain that the atomizer on this doesn’t dispense much per spray—and it doesn’t, but I like to think that’s the fragrance warning me not to go ham. Settles down very agreeably after a few minutes.
• W (Arabian Oud): Crisp, herbal, with a lavender-forward opening and a touch of spice. Oakmoss comes through later for a softer, earthier dry-down.
• Cedro di Diamante (Perris Monte Carlo): I was attracted to this because its blend of citron, lemon, and lime stood out as something unique in a landscape dominated by bergamot, and the price at OF was very reasonable. Incredibly refreshing, and the verbena in this allows the citrus fruits to fade out gracefully into something sweet and herbal instead of disappearing abruptly.
• Santal Blond (Atelier Materi): A Swiss Army knife, really. Lovely on its own, but incredible for layering because it works well with so many fragrance profiles. The sandalwood is the main character, and it gets a little support from clean, spicy, foresty hinoki that seals the deal for me.

Bonus round: Oils and bakhoor

• Special Cambodian Oud (دهن العود كمبودي خاص) (Arabian Oud): Sweet, spicy, leathery goodness. I took advantage of AO’s Eid sale to buy a half tola (6 ml) of this stuff, so it can be my go-to oud.
• Royal Musk (مسك ملكي) (Arabian Oud): A very clean and floral musk that I expect to reach for a lot in warm weather. I’m excited to use this to brighten up some heavier fragrances for continued wear in the summer.
• Siufi Oud (دهن العود سيوفي) (Ajmal): A more earthy, foresty oud with a hint of… mint? I really enjoyed discovering the greener side to this oud.
• Royal Trath Oud (دهن العود رويال تراث) (Ajmal): I, uh, don’t actually have this one yet because it shipped from Kuwait and they had a huge shipping backlog due to airspace closures associated with recent events. Will update when it arrives!
• Bakhoor Oud bil-Oud (Luluat al-Musk): I decided to give one of their in-house bakhoors a try. This is a mu’attar-style product (small oud chips with fragrance oils added to them). The primary additions here seem to be rose and saffron. I like to use this on weekends while preparing for a day out and about—my clothes can be scented as I’m getting ready, and then the whole room also retains a pleasant aroma that I can still detect a couple days later.

Now that I’ve assembled a small army of variously sized bottles on my dresser, I think I’m gonna give my wallet a break and just enjoy my new collection for a bit, though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t already have my eye on some potential future purchases from these and other houses.

Khaliji Redditors: How am I doing? Any personal favorites you’d like to recommend for future purchases?

Fellow Western Redditors: Anybody else out there enjoying fragrances from countries your friends can’t point to on a map? Which houses have you tried so far, and which do you want to try next?