Initio Parfums Privés Blessed Baraka Eau de Parfum

What It Smells Like

Initio Blessed Baraka is a soft, powdery amber fragrance built on sandalwood and musk. It is part of The Absolutes, the house's founding collection, and it is the gentlest member of it: warm, creamy and close to the skin.

Fragrantica and Parfumo list five notes and no top, heart and base structure, which suits the way it wears. There is very little development. From the first minute you smell amber and vanilla, warm and slightly sweet, laid over creamy sandalwood.

The musk is what gives it character. It is the warm, skin-like kind, with a faint animalic undertone, and together with the white flowers it creates a powdery, almost cosmetic softness, like the inside of a cashmere scarf that has been worn. Baraka is an Arabic word for blessing, and the house presents the fragrance as a kind of protective aura.

Fragrantica's community ranks amber and powdery almost level as the leading accords, followed by woody and musky, and rates it 4.20 out of 5 from about 2,800 votes.

Who Made It

Fragrantica credits Blessed Baraka to Alberto Morillas; Parfumo does not list a perfumer for it.

Alberto Morillas is one of the most decorated perfumers alive, a master perfumer at Firmenich whose work includes Calvin Klein CK One, Giorgio Armani Acqua di Giò and Gucci Bloom. He is known above all for his handling of musks, which is exactly what this fragrance leans on.

Who It's For

Blessed Baraka is for people who want a comforting, intimate scent rather than a statement. Fragrantica lists it for women and men.

If you love sandalwood, soft ambers and musks that smell like clean warm skin, this is a beautiful example. If you want something bright or loud, look elsewhere in the range: Oud for Greatness has far more presence, and Musk Therapy is the fresher take on musk. It also layers well under sharper fragrances, adding warmth without changing their character.

When to Wear It

Fragrantica voters place it in winter and fall, which score equally, and night scores twice as high as day. Amber and powder feel most natural in cool weather.

Wear it for quiet evenings, dates and time at home. Parfumo's community rates its longevity as above average. It stays close rather than filling a room, so it is also a safe choice where a strong fragrance would be unwelcome.

About the House

Initio Parfums Privés launched in Paris in 2015 with an unusual premise: that scent acts on mood and attraction before we consciously register it. The fragrances are built around materials chosen for that effect, such as musks, woods, resins and the jasmine-like molecule hedione, and they are grouped into collections with a stated purpose: The Absolutes, The Carnal Blends, The Black Gold Project, the Hedonist collection and Supercharged.

The bottles are heavy, square-shouldered flacons with a metal medallion on the front, and the compositions tend to be concentrated and long-lasting. Initio is a boutique-only house at Redolia. It is sold at our perfumery at 92 West Main Street in Somerville, New Jersey, and not through the website. Read how our boutique-only houses work, then come in and try it on skin before you decide.