The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Ramad arrived in 2018 from the UAE-based house Jouri, shaped entirely by founder and perfumer Ali Abdulla Almarzooqi. It pairs the comfort of strawberry and milk against the intensity of birch tar, cade, and oud, a juxtaposition that sets the tone from the very first spritz. Released into the UAE market on November 28, 2018, the fragrance announces its intentions immediately: creamy sweetness set against dark, smoldering woods, each side pushing the other toward something more complex than either could achieve alone. The green top notes cut through the richness at the surface, keeping the opening from collapsing into pure gourmand territory. Underneath, saffron threads warmth through the composition, a spice that bridges fruit and smoke without ever fully belonging to either camp.
What makes Ramad worth attention is the collision at its core. Milk and strawberry belong in dessert compositions. Birch tar, cade oil, and oud belong in smoke. Putting them in the same bottle is either reckless or deliberate, and the answer is clearly the latter. Almarzooqi uses saffron as a bridge, that warm spicy thread that sits between comfort and danger, sweet and scorched. The labdanum and cistus in the heart add resinous gravity, pulling the fruit downward into something that feels ancient rather than synthetic.
The evolution
The first ten minutes feel almost playful. Green notes and strawberry arrive bright, the milk softening everything into something that reads like cream over fresh fruit. Saffron hums underneath, not loud yet, more of a suggestion. By the thirty-minute mark the birch tar and cade begin their takeover, and the fragrance shifts into a completely different register, smoky, leathery, faintly medicinal in the way cade always is. This isn't a gradual transition. It's a door closing. The heart phase is where Ramad lives, birch and labdanum trading weight with the woods underneath. Oud arrives quietly, cedarwood and sandalwood grounding everything, while guaiac wood and gurjun balsam keep the smoke alive well into the drydown. As hours pass, the strawberry retreats almost entirely, leaving behind a leather-wood skeleton that carries the composition forward.
Cultural impact
Ramad leans into the sweeter side of smoky composition, the kind of fragrance that lets fruit and dairy share space with tar and hardwood without either side losing its character. The strawberry note doesn't read as candy or synthetic fruit; it reads as something darker, closer to jam that's been cooked down with spice, weighted by the birch tar that surrounds it. Milk softens the smoke rather than being softened by it, and the saffron threading through the middle keeps both halves in conversation. Cade oil brings a leather-like harshness that grounds the creaminess, while oud adds depth without overwhelming the lighter notes.
