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Nabeel, the Emirati perfume house founded in 1969, has widened its Musk Al Tahara line into a collection of three concentrated oil perfumes. Musk Al Tahara Zahri and Musk Al Tahara Vanilla join the original, and all three come in 12 ml bottles with gold caps. Musk runs through all three. It seems like soft, skin-close fragrances are among the defining trends of 2026, and musk is at the top of its ingredient list.
Musk Al Tahara, the original, is what Nabeel calls a powdery floral. Rhubarb and orange open it, with violet softening the edges, lily and rose sit with cedarwood in the heart, and musk, amber and tonka bean settle underneath. Oud, which the house puts in its Arabian Musk oil, is absent.
Lily of the valley and jasmine make up the heart of Zahri, Nabeel’s fruity floral, warmed with amber. Bergamot and black currant open it with rose alongside, and musk and sandalwood sit underneath.
Vanilla opens on caramel and benzoin, the only start in the set without citrus. Amber and tonka bean warm the middle, and creamy vanilla and musk take over to finish the brand, which calls it velvety.
The original is white with gold accents. Zahri comes in a metallic pink-and-green box, with a clear bottle finished in gold detailing. Vanilla’s metallic box fades from blue to cream, with gold foil on the clear bottle.
Nabeel, which is Arabic for noble, began in Aden, Yemen, where Asghar Adam Ali (Al Attar) opened a small perfume shop in 1969 at the age of 16. His father worked as a perfumer, while his mother crafted perfumes and bakhoors at home. He relaunched the business in the UAE in 1990 and based it in Sharjah’s Saif Zone from 2002, starting with a semi-automatic plant.
The company has since grown from a 7,000 square foot warehouse to a facility of more than 200,000 square feet, with an automated plant fully operational since 2010. A 2015 trade report put installed capacity at more than 60 million units a year, with roughly 60 per cent of output exported, and the house marked its 50th anniversary in 2020.
Ali, its founder and chairman, told Khaleej Times in 2020 that they cater to different segments across the full range of fragrances and are available in over 110 countries. He called Nabeel itself renowned for its Oriental range of premium fragrances and The Spirit of Dubai an ultra-niche label with modern Oriental fragrances. Chris Adams is the group’s French line.
Oils run through the Nabeel catalogue in sizes from 6 ml roll-ons to 25 ml bottles up to 100 ml aluminium cans, sorted into collections that include Vintage, Souq, Iconic and Heritage. The namesake oil, an oriental and woody blend with saffron and sandalwood in its notes, already comes in 12 ml. Iconic holds oils named for a single ingredient, among them Rose, Sandal, Bergamot and Patchouli, plus a 15 ml Arabian Musk filed as musky and oriental, with styrax, oud and tonka bean among its notes.
IMARC puts the UAE perfume market at USD 817.9 million in 2025, with Arabic perfumes holding the majority share. Layering, the use of two or more perfumes to build a personalised scent, is among the trends it names, and the firm projects the market will reach USD 1,876.6 million by 2034. Unisex perfumes are its dominant segment. An oil sits close to the skin and projects gently, so a spray can goes over it without competing, and at 12 ml the bottle fits a handbag without a spray nozzle or a full-size flacon.
Perfume was the leading category at Dubai Duty Free in 2025, a record year for the airport retailer, with sales of AED1.601 billion (US$438.67 million) making up 18.45 per cent of its takings. In November, perfume sales rose 13.29 per cent to AED160.58 million, a gain the retailer tied to a strong focus on new and exclusive fragrance launches, and it says exclusive and limited-edition products now account for around 12 per cent of its sales in the major categories.
Nabeel sells there and has launched exclusive oils made for the Gulf market. Among them is Pulse of the Gulf, a pure Indian agarwood oil in a green crystal bottle trimmed with gold filigree, which Ali, also the house’s master perfumer, created after feedback from airport retailers and customers.
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