Brand: Ajmal
Unisex · EDP · £68.2
Inspired by Dries Van Noten Soie Malaquais.

Ajmal Chapter 2 is a 2025 floral woody musk unisex eau de parfum and part of Ajmal's Untold Stories collection, Ajmal Chapter 2 sits in a comforting, powdery skin scent lane built around an unusual black tea heart that shares clear DNA with Maison Crivelli's Soie Malaquais. Product Overview Ajmal Chapter 2 Eau de Parfum comes from Ajmal Perfumes, created by perfumer Dalia Izem as part of the brand's Untold Stories collection, where each release is built around a personal memory rather than a direct copy of another house. It typically retails around £46 / $59 for a 50ml bottle, a noticeably more premium price point than most of Ajmal's catalogue, reflecting its positioning as a niche style release rather than a straightforward budget dupe. The bottle and concept lean into a quiet, reflective mood rather than the louder, beast mode energy associated with a lot of Middle Eastern fragrance houses. It has found a following among buyers looking for something calmer and more office friendly than the typical oud heavy Ajmal release. Its gender neutral framing and understated character have positioned it as one of the brand's more sophisticated recent launches. Scent Profile The opening leads with black tea, aromatic spices and jasmine, giving an immediate earthy, slightly bitter freshness rather than the sweet fruity rush typical of cheaper interpretations. The heart settles into almond, heliotrope and orris, building a soft, powdery, almost nostalgic texture that softens the tea's initial sharpness. The base closes on vanilla, white musk and sandalwood, leaving a warm, creamy, skin close finish. The almond and orris pairing is doing the heavy lifting here, creating that distinctive nutty, powdery facet that defines the fragrance's character more than any single note on its own. This is a quiet, layered composition built on texture rather than projection. Technical Structure and Development Development here is gentle and progressive rather than dramatic, with the black tea opening fading gradually into the powdery almond heart over the first hour. The spices add a light aromatic lift to the tea without pushing the composition into genuinely spicy territory. The orris and heliotrope combination gives the fragrance a slightly retro, classic perfumery feel that distinguishes it from more modern, linear gourmands. The dry down is where the composition spends most of its life, settling into a comforting vanilla sandalwood base that lingers close to the skin. Performance Community reports describe longevity sitting around 8 hours on skin, solid for an eau de parfum concentration without being exceptional. Projection is genuinely restrained from the start, making this one of Ajmal's quieter releases rather than something built for big sillage. It performs best in cooler conditions, where the powdery base holds its shape rather than thinning out in heat. This is a fragrance built for proximity rather than room filling presence, and reviewers consistently frame that as intentional rather than a weakness. Wear Scenarios This reads as a daily office fragrance first and foremost, suited to professional environments where a loud, oud heavy scent would feel out of place. Autumn and cooler spring days suit it best, when the warm vanilla sandalwood base feels cosy rather than heavy. It works well for quiet social settings, dinners or one on one meetings where a close, comforting scent matters more than projection. Anyone after a quiet luxury signature scent that doesn't demand attention will find this an easy daily option. Scent Family Positioning Ajmal Chapter 2 sits in a powdery, nutty skin scent lane built around the unusual pairing of black tea and almond, distinguishing it clearly from Ajmal's more typical oud and amber heavy catalogue. It shares stylistic DNA with niche tea and almond compositions rather than the louder Middle Eastern fragrance tradition the brand is best known for. Within Ajmal's own range it stands out as one of the more restrained, premium feeling releases, helped by its place in the dedicated Untold Stories collection. It reads closer to quiet luxury than crowd pleaser, appealing to buyers who want something distinctive rather than instantly recognisable. Inspired By and Style Comparisons Ajmal Chapter 2 shares its closest scent DNA with Maison Crivelli's Soie Malaquais, both built around a similar silky, powdery tea and almond character rather than a louder, sweeter gourmand profile. The comparison is closer to a shared stylistic family than a precise clone relationship, since Chapter 2's own brand story positions it as a genuinely original composition built around a personal memory rather than a direct interpretation. Community discussion treats this connection as a reasonable DNA observation rather than an established, widely confirmed dupe pairing, so it's worth treating it as a style cousin rather than a one to one alternative. For anyone drawn to the niche tea and almond skin scent category without wanting to spend Maison Crivelli money, this is a worthwhile, if not exact, point of comparison. Flankers and Variations Chapter 2 belongs to Ajmal's wider Untold Stories collection alongside other numbered Chapter releases, each built around a different perfumer's personal concept rather than functioning as direct flankers of one another. There is no confirmed flanker series specifically branching from Chapter 2 itself at this time. Market and Community Reception Pricing sits around £46 / $59 for 50ml, positioning this closer to niche pricing than Ajmal's usual budget territory, with Amazon listings running higher again around £64 / $82. The buyer profile here skews toward fragrance enthusiasts specifically seeking out the Untold Stories collection rather than casual budget shoppers, given the price gap from Ajmal's typical catalogue. Community discussion is still relatively limited given its 2025 launch, but early reception leans positive, particularly around the unusual black tea concept and the quality of the powdery dry down. DNA accuracy consensus around the Maison Crivelli comparison remains loose rather than firmly established, so it's fair to present this as an emerging observation rather than settled community consensus. Overall sentiment treats this as a genuinely interesting, well executed release within Ajmal's catalogue rather than simply another budget alternative.
Vibes
Occasions
Performance
Style Lane
Lattafa Art Of Arabia II
Shared notes: Jasmine, Almond
See Lattafa Art Of Arabia II →
Ajmal Mukhallat Dahn Al Oudh Moattaq
See Ajmal Mukhallat Dahn Al Oudh Moattaq →
Lattafa Peace & Love
Inspired by Dries Van Noten Soie Malaquais
1 review with an average rating of 7.2 out of 10.
Ajmal Chapter 2 represents a shift toward a more nuanced, niche-leaning composition within the brand’s portfolio. Departing from the high-impact, oud-centric traditions of Middle Eastern perfumery, this fragrance prioritizes texture and subtlety. The scent character is defined by a sophisticated interplay between a slightly bitter black tea and a creamy, powdery heart of almond and orris. The presence of heliotrope adds a nostalgic, cosmetic quality that avoids the heavy sweetness typical of modern gourmands, resulting in a balanced, unisex profile that leans into a quiet luxury aesthetic. Performance metrics align with its positioning as a restrained skin scent. While longevity is respectable at approximately eight hours, the projection is intentionally conservative. It does not demand attention but rather settles into a close-range aura that persists throughout a standard workday. This level of performance is consistent with the eau de parfum concentration when applied to skin, making it a reliable option for those who find high-projection fragrances intrusive. Positioned within the Untold Stories collection, Chapter 2 is marketed as a premium, artistic release rather than a budget-tier clone. While it shares significant stylistic DNA with Maison Crivelli’s Soie Malaquais, it should be viewed as a style cousin rather than a precise replica. The price point reflects this distinction, sitting above the standard Ajmal catalog but offering a more accessible entry into the niche tea-and-almond category. It is an ideal signature scent for professional environments and intimate social settings, particularly during autumn and cooler spring days where its powdery warmth can develop without being thinned out by extreme heat.
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Ajmal is a "Farm to Fragrance" house with over seven decades of heritage. Unlike many brands that source materials externally, Ajmal owns vast agarwood (Oud) plantations. This allows them to control the quality of their ingredients from the tree to the bottle, ensuring authentic, high-quality botanical extracts.
Ajmal Amber Wood, part of their prestige "W Series," is globally recognised as the brand’s masterpiece. It is a highly-rated, sophisticated scent that blends spicy cardamom with creamy orris and deep amber, often cited by enthusiasts as one of the best amber-woody fragrances ever created.
ANSWER 3: Yes, Ajmal offers a diverse range. While they are masters of heavy Ouds, they have a massive selection of "clean" and "fresh" fragrances like Raindrops and Silver Shade. These are specifically designed to be elegant and crowd-pleasing, making them perfect for professional environments and daily use.
Ajmal Chapter 2 is a dupe of Dries Van Noten Soie Malaquais. It interprets the original scent profile using high quality alternative ingredients at a fraction of the price.
Ajmal Chapter 2 opens with Black Tea, Jasmine, Spices, moves into Almond, Heliotrope, Orris, and settles on a base of Vanilla, Musk, Sandalwood. It is built to capture the character of Dries Van Noten Soie Malaquais.
Ajmal Chapter 2 is EDP with a community longevity score of 7.5 out of 10 and a scent accuracy score of 6.5 out of 10. It offers a budget friendly alternative to the original.
EDP stands for Eau de Parfum. It typically contains 15 to 20 percent fragrance concentration, giving stronger performance and longer longevity than EDT. Most Middle Eastern clone brands release their fragrances as EDP, which is a significant reason they tend to outperform designer equivalents in longevity and projection at a lower price point.
Extrait de parfum, also called pure parfum, contains the highest fragrance concentration, typically 20 to 40 percent. It lasts the longest, projects most richly, and develops the most complex dry-down. Bujairami releases all its fragrances as extraits, which is a significant part of why the brand has developed such a strong reputation for performance.
Maceration is the process of fragrance molecules fully integrating and settling after production. A newly bottled fragrance can smell sharp, synthetic, or unbalanced because the individual ingredients have not yet harmonised. Leaving a bottle to settle for two to four weeks is standard practice in the fragrance community. Remove the cap and let the bottle breathe overnight to accelerate the process. Most heavy Middle Eastern releases benefit significantly from maceration.
A blind buy is purchasing a fragrance without having smelled it first, based on notes, reviews, community consensus, and comparisons to fragrances you already know. The Atlas compare tool, scent accuracy scores, and community reviews are specifically designed to reduce the risk of a disappointing blind buy by giving you data before you spend money.