The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Mukhallat de Medellín is the fragrance Maison Anthony Marmin built around Colombia's wild biodiversity, where the second-largest flowering plant population on earth grows within reach. The perfumer, Anthony Abdul Karim Marmin, drew a direct line between South American raw intensity and Arabian oud tradition. Colombian coffee and vetiver anchor the composition in place, while Thai oud pulls the whole thing toward a different hemisphere. Named for Medellín itself, the composition earns its geography through its materials rather than its marketing copy. The note pyramid reads like a passport: lemon and rose on top, orchid at the heart, then Colombian coffee, South American patchouli, and vetiver grounding the base while Thai oud hums underneath everything.
South American patchouli in the base brings an earthiness that grounds the composition before the oud has even entered the conversation, its dark dampness already reshaping what the top notes promised. The coffee accord runs roasted and acidic in a way that distinguishes it from the sweetened, spice-laced coffee notes common in Arabian perfumery, carrying a fermented edge closer to a poured shot of espresso than to a kitchen aroma. Colombian vetiver adds its own tobacco-green bitterness, a raw leafy quality that refuses to be polished.
The evolution
The first hour is chaos in the best sense. Lemon stabs bright on top, cut by Colombian vetiver's tobacco-green bitterness, while rose tries to arrange itself underneath and mostly fails. The coffee rises quickly, roasted and slightly burnt, the way a shot of espresso smells the second it hits crema, and this is where the fragrance commits to its identity, dropping its polite floral pretense and going dense. The sour Thai oud emerges as the composition ages, meeting patchouli in the base, and the whole thing tilts earthy, damp, almost composted. What started bright-sharp goes dark and humid, the vetiver's green chew swallowed up by the heavier materials below it. The oud never fully resolves into the smooth, meditative wood that other compositions settle into; it stays slightly raw throughout, sour-edged and unfinished, a working material rather than a finished lacquer.
Cultural impact
Mukhallat de Medellín connects the Colombian identity of its name with the mukhallat tradition of layered fragrance composition rooted in the Middle East. Its Colombian vetiver, lemon, rose, coffee, orchid, and patchouli sit beside Thai oud, and the result maps a conversation between two very different raw material traditions. The composition links the scent directly to Medellín through name and through the featured botanicals themselves, many of which carry the sensory character of the Colombian countryside.
The House
Maison Anthony MarminMaison Anthony Marmin is an independent perfume house based in Dubai. The studio creates pure perfume oils, extrait de parfum and incense that marry Arabian raw materials with French compositional techniques. Signature offerings include Musk Di Palermo, Oud Cuiré, Imperial Ambergris and the 2021 release Baghdad 2. Each composition arrives in a minimalist amber bottle that highlights the liquid’s colour and texture, while the brand’s incense line brings traditional Arabian aromatics into contemporary spaces.
The Creator
Anthony Abdul Karim MarminMarmin’s signature technique centers on the art of mukhallat, where he layers multiple pure oils to achieve depth without relying on synthetic shortcuts. He favors ingredients that age gracefully—raw musk, amber, sandalwood, and rare oud woods—allowing the fragrance to evolve…
