The Index · Perfumer Profile
He Wrote Pegasus.
He Fled a Revolution.
He Overdoses
on Purpose.
Hamid Merati-Kashani has roughly a hundred and sixty fragrances to his name and almost nobody can tell you which ones. He learned the job in a German factory town, not a French school, and he will tell you exactly what he does differently. Fourteen of his compositions are here as decants.
Perfumer Spotlight
Ask somebody what Pegasus smells like and they will tell you. Ask who made it and the room goes quiet. Parfums de Marly does not print perfumer credits, so the man behind one of the most imitated almond accords of the last fifteen years is effectively anonymous in the place it matters most. His name is Hamid Merati-Kashani, and he said it himself in an interview: his first niche fragrance was Pegasus, for Parfums de Marly, in 2011.
He is German-Iranian, born in Germany to an Iranian father and a German mother. He explains the name better than anyone else could: Merati means the mirror maker, and Kashani is the city his grandfather came from. Kashan is one of Iran's rose capitals. His own childhood memory of perfumery is a little further south, in Isfahan, among family friends who distilled rose oil.
In 1979 the family left Iran during the revolution and settled in Holzminden, Germany, where his mother had been born. Of all the towns in Europe to land in as a refugee child, Holzminden is the one that makes fragrance for a living. It is the home of Dragoco and Haarmann & Reimer, the two firms that later became Symrise.
“Iranian in education, and German in organization.”
In 1984 he started an apprenticeship at Dragoco, on the chemistry side, and came up through the company's own perfumery school under Robert Calkin, co-author of Perfumery: Practice and Principles, which is one of the standard texts. No ISIPCA. No Grasse. No Givaudan school. Twelve years at Dragoco, then Firmenich from 1995, where he still is, now as a Principal Perfumer at dsm-firmenich. Nine years in Cologne, six in Brazil, a spell in Geneva, and then Dubai from around 2010, where he opened the regional office as its only perfumer.
That move is the hinge. He dates his entire fine fragrance career to it. Pegasus arrived the following year.
Now the useful part. Most perfumers describe their work in weather and memory. He describes his in technique, and he has said the same thing to two different outlets three years apart:
“I do a lot of overdosing when it comes to my formulas.”
That single sentence explains more of this list than any note pyramid will. It is why Pegasus does not smell like almond so much as it smells like a lot of almond. It is why the ambrox in Dynasty is set where it is. It is why people who are sensitive to a material tend to find out on his work first. He also says he deliberately pairs materials that are not normally used together, and he credits that habit to Gulf consumers rather than to anything he was taught in Germany.
One more thing worth knowing before the bottles: he is not only a hired nose. He co-founded Fabbrica della Musa with his wife, Barbara Adelmann, and composes the entire catalogue himself. Four of those are below, and they are the closest thing here to hearing him without a client in the room.
Parfums de Marly
A note on sourcing, because we would rather you knew. Parfums de Marly publishes no perfumer on any product page. Pegasus is his because he says so on the record, and Althaïr is co-credited to him and Ilias Ermenidis by the fragrance press. The two Exclusifs are widely attributed to him in the perfumer databases but have never been confirmed by the brand or by press, so treat those two as strongly likely rather than settled.
Pegasus
2ml $8.99 · 2011 · His First NicheAnise and bergamot over almond, cypress and violet leaf through the middle, ambrox and vanilla and sandalwood carrying the finish. This is the almond fragrance most people mean when they say almond fragrance, and it does the job better than the things that copied it. Nothing about it is surprising now, which is a strange thing to say about something this influential. The ambrox pushes hard.
Almond · Anise · Violet Leaf · Ambrox · Vanilla
Pegasus Exclusif
2ml $10.99 · Widely CreditedMarzipan meets oud smoke and neither one blinks. Pink peppercorn and cardamom sharpen the almond, lavender and orange blossom keep the middle aromatic, and oud and guaiacwood stop it well short of dessert. If the original read as cloying to you, start here. If you loved the original for its comfort, this one is colder.
Almond · Cardamom · Lavender · Oud · Guaiacwood
Layton Exclusif
2ml $10.99 · Widely CreditedBergamot, pink peppercorn and cardamom up front, lavender and lavandin for the aromatic lift, then oud, leather and patchouli somewhere considerably darker than the original. Drier and more serious than the flagship, trading vanilla sweetness for wood. Projection is smaller than the price implies, so wear it at night rather than expecting it to carry a room.
Lavender · Cardamom · Oud · Leather · Sandalwood
Althaïr
2ml $8.99 · With Ilias ErmenidisVanilla with the windows open. Bergamot, mandarin and elemi keep the opening bright, cinnamon and cardamom warm an orange blossom heart, and bourbon vanilla with praline and guaiacwood finishes it sweet without going heavy. One of the rare vanillas that stays legible in heat, because the elemi and citrus never let the praline settle. Collectors wanting a dense resinous gourmand will find it thin.
Bergamot · Elemi · Orange Blossom · Praline · Bourbon VanillaFabbrica della Musa
He founded this one with his wife and writes all of it. If the overdosing remark is going to show up anywhere undiluted, it is here, and it does. These are the loudest, least compromising things on the list.
Obsidian Gold
2ml $12.99 · Thirty Five In StockBergamot, lemon and crisp apple open almost casually, then lily of the valley and powdery heliotrope take a sharp spike of clove through them. The base turns opulent: creamy sandalwood, smoky guaiac, patchouli and caramel. The first ten minutes read as fresh citrus and the last six hours read as gourmand wood, which is a wider swing than most extraits attempt. Sillage is the weak point.
Apple · Heliotrope · Clove · Guaiac Wood · Caramel
Opera Infernal
2ml $12.99Juicy pineapple and Calabrian bergamot open loud, Egyptian geranium and magnolia turn it floral and faintly metallic, and Haitian vetiver with praline finishes sweet and earthy. The pineapple and praline pairing is the whole idea, and it either lands for you or it does not. Sillage is generous well past the opening. This is not a subtle choice and was never meant to be.
Pineapple · Bergamot · Geranium · Praline · Haitian Vetiver
Île Bourbon
2ml $12.99Caramel and Somalian incense open sweet and smoky, clove and Guatemalan cardamom add a green spice, and chocolate over Bourbon vanilla absolute makes the base. The incense is what keeps it out of dessert territory, running through every stage instead of sitting politely underneath. It is still sweet, and nobody sweet-averse is going to be converted by it.
Caramel · Somalian Incense · Cardamom · Chocolate · Bourbon Vanilla
Dynasty
2ml $12.99A neo fougère. Ginger, bergamot and mandarin snap open beside cypress and melon, tea and neroli and lavender build a soft floral heart, and patchouli, sandalwood, nutmeg and cashmere wood take it down warm. Fresh at the top and considerably heavier by hour two. The ambrox is dialled well up, which is the overdose habit in plain sight, so sample before you commit if that material bothers you.
Ginger · Cypress · Neroli · Lavender · Cashmere WoodSix Houses, Six Briefs
The range here is the argument. A six hundred dollar New York oud and a seven dollar tropical fruit from the same pair of hands, within a couple of years of each other. Working across that spread without sounding like a different person each time is the actual skill.
afirewithin
2ml $28.99 · Strangelove NYCHe took over Strangelove's oud series from Christophe Laudamiel, which is not a handover many perfumers get offered. Vanilla, apple and cypress open unusually fresh for an oud, carrot and chamomile and geranium fill the middle, pink pepper and incense and agarwood carry the base. The apple and chamomile are what make it worth trying, keeping an otherwise dense oud legible. Priced steeply enough that a decant is the only sane way in.
Apple · Chamomile · Carrot · Incense · Agarwood
Opus XV, King Blue
2ml $16.99 · With Alexis GrugeonMandarin and blackcurrant thrown against incense, amber, sandalwood, oak, patchouli and dark oud. Bold and intentionally dissonant: tart fruit flashing over smoky leather and dense wood. A modern oud with colour and bite rather than reverence. Amouage names no perfumer on its own page, so this credit comes from the fragrance press rather than the house.
Blackcurrant · Frankincense · Amber · Silver Oud · Leather
Mariya
2ml $12.99 · OmanluxuryBergamot, mandarin, orange blossom and coriander, then Taif and Bulgarian rose together with geranium, into coffee, vanilla, patchouli and caramel. Rose dressed for dessert and still somehow elegant. The coffee and caramel deepen it rather than turning it to candy. Omanluxury credits him by name, which makes this one of the cleaner attributions on the page.
Taif Rose · Bulgarian Rose · Coffee · Caramel · Vanilla
Calle Ocho
2ml $14.99 · Fulton & RoarkCinnamon and a rum accord over bitter chocolate, then night blooming jasmine and tobacco leaf, out through tonka, sandalwood and musk. Boozy and unapologetically warm, and the jasmine is what stops it being one more tobacco vanilla. Loud in a small room and considerably better after dark.
Rum · Bitter Chocolate · Night Jasmine · Tobacco Leaf · Tonka
Drunk Lovers
2ml $10.99 · BorntostandoutBergamot, lemon, grapefruit and red berries open sharp, then brandy, ginger, pepper and clary sage warm the middle, with cedarwood, sandalwood, vanilla and benzoin carrying the rest. The boozy turn arrives fast, which is the whole appeal. Most of the wear happens in the woody vanilla base, so buy it for that rather than for the citrus in the first ten minutes.
Grapefruit · Brandy · Ginger · Clary Sage · Vanilla
Fruit du Paradis
2ml $6.99 · Sasva · The Cheapest Way InLime and Kamala orange open sharp, mango and pomegranate and jasmine take the middle, and powdery sandalwood with vetiver stops the fruit turning sticky. Tropical fruit usually means a shampoo accord, and the vetiver base is what saves this one. Loud and unserious in the best way. It will read young if you wanted a formal fruity floral.
Lime · Mango · Pomegranate · Jasmine · VetiverHow to Start
- Pegasus and Fruit du Paradis, together, for under sixteen dollars. One is a modern classic and the other is a seven dollar mango. Wearing them back to back is the fastest way to understand what a working perfumer actually does for a living.
- If you already know his famous work, go to Fabbrica della Musa. His own house, no client, no brief. Obsidian Gold is the most interesting of the four and we have thirty five decants of it.
- If you are ambrox sensitive, read the notes first. He overdoses by his own admission, and Pegasus and Dynasty are both built on it. Better to find that out from a two millilitre decant.
- Everything here is a decant, not a factory sample. Hand filled from authentic bottles into 2 mL atomizers. Final sale, so sample widely and commit once.
Fourteen decants.
Ten houses.
One nose.
Every Hamid Merati-Kashani composition we carry, from a seven dollar mango to a Strangelove oud, in one place.
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