A gourmand scent which goes leathery. Does that even work?

Listed notes

Marzipan, almond, honey, cherry blossom, cypress, star anise, frangipani, malt, leather, suede, tonka bean, vanilla.

Top notes

A joyous, delectable almond marzipan is the first thing to greet you after spraying Tulaytulah by Majda Bekkali. It smells sweet, good enough to eat, and very realistically like marzipan. The nuttiness of the almond really comes through strongly, and beautifully, and this slowly morphs into something slightly more animalic as the scent coaxes the honey element forward.

The brand notes that Tulaytulah starts with a reference to a specific Toledo pastry made with almond and honey, and I can absolutely imagine a delicate and delicious little confection based upon the opening bars of the fragrance. Smelling this scent will definitely make you want to go and get a treat to accompany your morning coffee!

Heart notes

The almondy marzipan doesn’t stick around for more than a handful of minutes, and as the fragrance evolves it becomes both more airy and then more grounded. A floral tone sweeps in, but it is as delicate as the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings in the way in which it announces its presence. Frangipani is the listed note, but it is disguised by the almond lingering from the start and the overall effect is that the scent does feel for a time as if it is starting to take flight.

We don’t have long to admire this lifting effect before a second, more grounding component enters the scene. It’s hard to pinpoint this element of the scent exactly, but it is warm, fuzzy, almost furry or a touch animalic. It sounds detrimental to say that it smells of something like horse or dog, and it doesn’t exactly smell like that, it is more the comfort that being near a pet can bring, along with a touch of warm fur. At no point does Tulaytulah smell like a skanky or dirty fragrance, but it does sometimes have a “warm body” sense about it. There’s also a drop of something in the mix which smells wetter and looser than the thick, oozy honey we noticed previously, and it flows along in the background quite happily.

Base notes

The base of Tulaytulah is where the leather really starts to show itself. That animal-like facet we noticed in the heart provides a very clever bridge between the sweet honey and marzipan at the start, through the warmth in the mid, and down to a sweet, supple and gentle leather in the base. I can’t recall another scent which does this transition so well and so smoothly.

The leather in Tulaytulah is very much there, but really gentle, pliable and in itself quite comforting too. There’s enough sweetness left over for this to continue to be a feature of the scent, and it mingles beautifully with the leather and suede feel to further soften it. If you don’t think of yourself as someone who loves leather then do try this scent because it is so well behaved here that it is bound to convert people to a greater appreciation of it.

There’s also an interesting textural linkage between the start and end of the scent. At the beginning, that crumbly, granular texture of marzipan was referenced, and after a period of something smoother in the heart of the scent, we return to something more grainy in the base, something which doesn’t smell like marzipan per se, but which has a similar texture to it, rendered in scent. It’s a really nice little detail which gives the sense of the scent having not only come full circle, but also evolved into something new.

The other stuff

The perfumer for Tulaytulah is Delphine Thierry.

The projection of the fragrance is reasonably polite, going to hugging distance or just over. This would be a fine and unobtrusive fragrance to wear to the office, or for something like a daytime date.

The longevity of the scent is around four to five hours following application, so again, good if you want to wear something during the day and then switch to something else later, or indeed top it up to experience that lovely marzipan feel again.

Tulaytulah is part of the Andalusian collection from Majda Bekkali.

The brand

Majda Bekkali as a brand is whimsical and difficult to pin down. They were founded by their eponymous creator in 2009, and they combine artistic olfactory creations with beautiful, pebble-shaped bottles topped with wooden, egg-shaped caps. That makes them sound less beautiful than they actually are, whilst being a truthful description of the presentation!

Other than to say that the founder is from Morocco, and after a move to France she started working on various brands before founding her own, you won’t find out much else from their website. What you need to know though is that the brand has a slightly eclectic, dreamy feel, and that the fragrances and presentation are both high quality and interesting.

Buy it

You can find a full list of stockists of Tulaytulah on the Majda Bekkali website. In the EU, you can purchase Tylaytulah from Jovoy Paris where it is priced at €166.67.

We were kindly gifted samples of this fragrance by the brand, our thanks to them.

Header image by Muhammad Ragab from Pixabay.