Johar 
People often ask which is “better”. They are not competing — they do different jobs, and most of our regulars own both.
What an attar actually is
An attar is fragrance oil diluted in a carrier oil, traditionally sandalwood. There is no alcohol in it at all. You apply it by dabbing or rolling, never spraying, and it develops slowly on the skin over the first twenty minutes rather than opening all at once.
What an eau de parfum is
An eau de parfum is fragrance oil dissolved in alcohol. The alcohol is what lets it spray as a fine mist and what carries the scent outward in the first hour. As it evaporates, what remains is the oil sitting on your skin.
Longevity
The attar wins, and it is not close. With nothing to evaporate, a Johar attar will run fourteen to sixteen hours from a single dab. Our eau de parfum blends give you eight to twelve, which is already long for a spray but not in the same category.
Projection
The spray wins here. Alcohol pushes the scent out into the room for the first hour or two in a way oil simply does not. An attar stays within arm’s reach for most of its life — which is sometimes exactly what you want, and sometimes not.
Cost per wear
A 12ml attar looks expensive next to a 50ml spray until you realise there is no alcohol diluting it. The 12ml bottle contains considerably more actual fragrance material, and you use a fraction of the amount per wear. Ours last most people four to six months of daily use.
When to choose which
- Attar: for the mosque, for sensitive skin, for hot weather, for long days, and any time you want the scent close rather than announced.
- Eau de parfum: for weddings and events, for cold evenings, and whenever you want people across a room to notice.
Layer them
Our favourite trick: a dab of Attar Sandal on the wrists, then your eau de parfum sprayed over the top. The oil anchors the alcohol blend and adds hours to it. Oil under alcohol is how perfumers have extended wear for centuries.
