Spice, Flowers and Woods Engulfed in Best Powerful Scent

The busy, bulging Souq: this traditional open-air marketplace of the Arab and Berber cities is alive and bustling, a hub where vendors vie for space to sell goods, food spices. Go past the market to the streets of Dubai and imagine the ancient trade routes and the rushing, smells and noises or finally to cool, quiet corners and verdant courtyards, a haven in the middle of a huge desert kingdom. Where in the spaces, all lives come alive and waft generous scents for shoppers to breathe in. Three new scents that perfumer Nick Steward has created to celebrate his love of the Gulf with its myriad of exceptional places and spaces, unlike anywhere else. From bright blooms to dark and smoky woods, meet the new Gallivant Gulf collection here, in Spice, Flowers and Woods Engulfed in Best Powerful Scent

Three scents have been born out of what seemed ot a young man travelling to the Gulf States, the pinnacle of exotic and heady met. The different explorations of ancient yet modern lands, the barren desert giving way to sumptuous scents.

“I first travelled to the Gulf in the late 1980s. The places I visited felt like nowhere else I’d ever seen. I was particularly fascinated by the beauty of the Arabic alphabet. And impressed by the elegance of the people … the chic white kandura robes, the sheen and flow of billowing black abayas. The people and the place really got hold of my imagination. The air plump and heavy with scent. A feeling of sumptuousness and grandeur.”

First of the three is Souq Wāquf, in Doha, Qatar. Originally, the famous market was used for trading activities, such as traditional garments, spices, and handicrafts. The area was important because it used to be located immediately on the shore to allow trading boats to access it from Doha Bay. Image now still, its winding alleyways pungent with spices and incense, that wrap around and mesmerise, amid the low-level hum of traders; this merchant quarter, a taste of authentic culture, where the khaleeji people fulfil their daily needs.

Its interpretation by Gallivant? A gritty, delicious, deep-smoky Oud that is clear and pure to its eastern roots, that here meets with biblical notes of Frankincense, juicy Orange and soft woods.

It opens with a literal flash of bright Blood Orange, mingling with the spice of rare, rich and expensive red Saffron, pulled together with mystical, earthy, smoky and resinous Omani Olibanum known more commonly as Frankincense. An initial exploration and key as to what is still to come.

Damp and earthy Patchouli, resinous, soft-sweetness and balsamic Myrrh link the opening spice, whilst bringing a depth to the heart, and a flourish of African Geranium brings a peppery green floral to the mix.

And finally, the base notes that warp the scent with sweet, resinous, and ambery, leathery, and balsamic facets from Cistus Labdanum that turn up the warmth, smoky fireplace woods from Guaiac wood, bringing resinous depth and warmth and finally the master note of Oud the joyous complexity of rich deep, smoky, and woody notes with hints of spice, sweetness, and leather. Here, the Oud is clean and deeply faceted. This is a truly honourable, rich Oud perfume; an homage to this ancient ingredient, often misused and misunderstood, here it is crafted to perfection.

It is safe to say the nose Céline Perdriel and Nick Steward, the creator, have caught in a bottle. An utterly addictive scent that captures your heart and takes you on an almost mystical, religious journey. This is Art in a Bottle.

Next up, take a side step to Dubai, which may seem like a modern city of height, glass and steel, but it is, in fact, part of the ancient trade routes that crossed the globe as far back as the 3rd Century.

As much as it is a modernist city of skyscrapers and long , busy roads, it’s also home to the world’s largest flower garden, Dubai Miracle Garden. The land, so much a desert until recent times, still has the ability to grow beautiful flora and fauna. Flowers like the regal white Jasmine grow with ease in the hot climate.

And so the perfume Dubai is a scent built around this bloom. For Nick, this perfume represents the city gardens of friends, where relaxed talk is mixed with tea drinking and wafts of garden flowers.

Its opening is luscious watery juice of sweet Pear, sat with the freshness of Neroli oil with its sweet, floral, and slightly spicy aroma and citrus undertones, but it’s the hint of leathery Saffron that draws you into a hypnotic trance.

Its heart is rich and inviting and generous, flowing with clean, yet heady, intoxicating Jasmine Sambac,  its honeyed sweetness and undertones of musk alongside mean it joins like a perfect puzzle piece with Honeysuckle that expresses her sweet, creamy, dewy nectar, with a final flourish of Cypriol that tempers the sweetness with tones of earth, wood, and dry spice, that hint at tones of tea.

The all-important finale holds the scent and balances as well as mirrors many of the earlier facets. Firstly comes the delicious, earthy dry grass of Vetiver with earthy, woody, gentle smoke and leathery facets, the notes of warming, sweet, and resinous Amber are finally melded with Musks to encompass and wrap the whole scent up.

This is another addictive scent that gently rolls over you, pulling you into a floral bed, rich yet slightly dark, as if the flowers offer up their roots as much as their nectar. The rich fullness is tempered by dry, earthy, woody facets, with the sheerest hint, the finest whisper, of a herbal twist, enabling a perfect, balanced juice that is rich harmony in a bottle. The elegant and crafted scent created by Nick Steward with nose Céline Perdriel is a majestic meeting of the ancient with the modern.

The last stop on this perfume trail belongs to Ar Riyād, (Riyād -gardens and meadows) which Nick that even in a megacity he found cool, quiet corners and verdant courtyards, havens in the middle of this huge kingdom. It is a celebration of the softened languished heat of a late afternoon in a hidden garden where friendship and hospitality meet.

The scent opens with the sparkle, brightness, and almost lemony-herbal hit of Vervain (Verbena) and uplifting citrus spring from Bergamot alongside a suggestion of pungent bitterness via Bitter Almond in a union embraced with fiery Ginger.

Its heart, so full of eastern promise, where the sweet spice of herbal peppery Clove, earthy balsamic Nutmeg and earthy warm Cumin join hands in an enveloping gentle spiced warmth, yet meet, in many ways, with a slight contradiction of floral joy via sweet honey-green of Orange blossom, and rich custard floral spice of Ylang Ylang that offers a light bright star in the heart.

The finale brings a grounding, rooting to the elixir, where the earthly booze of creamy Vanilla, alongside Blond Tobacco with its warm, inviting, and slightly spicy character, joins up with its ‘sisters’ in the centre of the fragrance. Two final strikes of genius come together to gather everything together: the magical multifaceted Patchouli with earthy, musky, woody, and spicy undertones and a flourish of eastern spirituality via Olibanum  (Frankincense), with its complex and multifaceted woody, resinous, and balsamic angles and with subtle citrus and spicy notes. This set of ending elements unites the stratas and enables an embrace of sweet, soft, addictive notes that uplift and yet ground our souls; nuanced, intelligent. It is yet another masterclass in perfumery by Nick with perfumer Céline Perdriel.

Outside of the remarkably intense beauty of each scent is an overall feeling of richness, depth, yet clarity, if not a ‘cleanness’. Rich perfumes that are melded with heavy ingredients rarely have this quality, but somehow these elixirs manage the seemingly impossible. The quality of the substances used also shines and highlights this clarity, too. Letting the clarity of each ingredient shimmer through at its very best, whilst at the same time blending perfectly with its ‘sisters and brothers’ ingredients. A remarkable feat of blending, craft and knowledge: a masterclass in perfumery.

These three perfumes are above and beyond; they are multifaceted and global, ancient and modern, rich and intelligent, opulent yet clean, heady but not heavy, rich but not showy, sweet spice, not sweet cream, unusual and melded to perfection. Grounded in an ancient spiritual world, yet as modern as the newest skyscraper, Fragrances for real lovers of the art of perfumery

Each stands on its own as a work of art, of genius, but as a trio, possibly the best perfumes of 2025

If you enjoyed reading Spice, Flowers and Woods Engulfed in Best Powerful Scent, then why not read on The Other Earth here

To find the Gulf Collection, please visit Gallivantperfumes.com here

.Cent Magazine London. Luxury Minded