Question:
I am covered in Madini oils and wafting in delight. There are some that I think would be of particular interest to men. These are perfumes in the Arabian tradision, including highly unusual aromas not found in Western perfumery. I will list these unusual, exotic scents--which offer little or no sweetness. I cannot overemphasize how interesting and different these fragrances are. Note: Please do not expect sweetness. Open your mind and be rewarded.
Soulimane is a complex mix of sunny, dry, lemony, fresh ingredients that impress me as clean, soapy, and spicy, similar to the esteemed Etro Shaal Nur, which recalls the freshness of a man's shaving kit. The list of ingredients is long, including artemesia, coriander, citron, cinnamon, jasmine, clove, carnation, amber, and vanilla.
Maderas de Orient is a great cedar fragrance, bittersweet, deep, well-blended, soft and woody. The notes feature Atlas cecdar, Oriental woods, and Moroccan blossoms with hardly a touch of sweetness and very rewarding on the skin.
Hanane smells like nothing you have ever smelled before. The dark, reddish liquid is strong, pungent, deep, salty, mossy, complex, bittersweet, redolent of dried leaves, and very woody. It is described as a Balsamic composition with a long list of ingredients including, galbanum, tuberose, red rose, jasmine, clove, sandalwood, patchouli, amber, and musk. It smells like none of these ingredients. The development is clever, and it becomes more attractive as you wear it, ending up smelling very outdoorsy, natural, and compelling.
Chypre comes out of the bottle dark green-black in color. It is sharp, tangy, clean, dry, warm, very earthy, and somewhat green. To me, it smells nothing like its description as a woody, musky, floral; rather more like green twigs and spruce needles. Again, it needs time on the skin to develop.
Santal Blanc was the most unexpected fragrance in the group. Billed as sandalwood "nothing more, nothing less" it is light, dry, pungent, non-sweet, and earthy. If this is what real sandalwood smells like, I have received an education.
Posted in the Women's Fragrance discussion is a comprehensive thread on Madini Oils, which includes the gorgeous sweet, vanillic amber fragrances and many unusual spicy, fruity florals as well as the above-mentioned woody scents. See the whole posting at:
/showthread.php?t=194494

Answer:
Thanks for your reviews, purplebird. Madini oils have been topics on the board on and off over time but haven't been discussed much lately. Of the ones you mentioned, I have Chypre and Maderas de Orient, both of which are excellent, but because my skin tends to sweeten many scents, neither is as dry as they apparently are for you. One that IS incredibly dry is Bouquet, which is a bouquet of woods, not flowers, and has a medicinal blast of oud. Not for the faint hearted.
Thanks for bringing up Madini again, as the company makes superior products.

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Purplebird,
Do you buy direct from Madini or are they available where you shop?

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Sahara is another beautiful one (Amber, Myrrh and Citron), but very powerful. Too much of it can make my head spin a little (intense citron+amber accord).
Does anyone have experience with Madini Sahara? I think it smells very familiar to something I've smelled before. Maybe there's a cologne out there that it copied, or that copied it?

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Originally Posted by fredricktoo Purplebird,
Do you buy direct from Madini or are they available where you shop? I got mine from Talisman in Seattle on the Madini.com address.
Other online vendors sell them, too, such as Tigerflag.com.
Originally Posted by Arvydas Does anyone have experience with Madini Sahara? I think it smells very familiar to something I've smelled before. Maybe there's a cologne out there that it copied, or that copied it? Sahara is my favorite.
Are you thinking of one of the Serge Lutens scents? Maybe Ambre Sultan?
Or is it an amber or vanilla composition from women's fragrances, like Shalimar or Samsara?

Answer:
Originally Posted by purplebird7 I got mine from Talisman in Seattle on the Madini.com address.
Other online vendors sell them, too, such as Tigerflag.com.
Sahara is my favorite.
Are you thinking of one of the Serge Lutens scents? Maybe Ambre Sultan?
Or is it an amber or vanilla composition from women's fragrances, like Shalimar or Samsara? Not Ambre Sultan (I've tried that and I find Sahara more to my liking), and definitely not Shalimar.
Sahara kind of reminds me of an old school mens cologne, somehow. Isn't it crazy when a scent is so familiar but you can't put your finger on it?

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IMO Sahara smells very similar to Dior's DUNE

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Ah, I shall have to go compare.
Yes, it drives me crazy when something smells similar to something else, and the more experience I get, the more that happens.

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Originally Posted by slave2love IMO Sahara smells very similar to Dior's DUNE Thanks, I'll have to give that a test.

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I shopped at tigerflag yesterday. I wanted them all, I ordered some samples of Indian attars and one Madini since Madini samples only come on paper strips.