How SOSA works
Two rungs, honestly: a spray you aim when you choose, or a cordless diffuser that decides for you
A note list is not a smell
Every description here is an intention written in words. It cannot tell you how an oil will sit on your own skin.
Alcohol-free by formulation
A jojoba carrier with no DPG and no ethanol. IFRA-compliant.
One dab, and do not rub it in
A pulse point and a dab applicator. Oil opens with warmth, so rubbing crushes the top of it.
Composed by a trained perfumer
Sonal Sahani, ISIPCA Versailles-trained, composes the whole range.
A portion funds girl-child education
Part of every order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali.
We will tell you not to buy
There are four attars. Where your answer is not one of them, these guides say so and sell nothing.
A note list is not a smell
Every description here is an intention written in words. It cannot tell you how an oil will sit on your own skin.
Alcohol-free by formulation
A jojoba carrier with no DPG and no ethanol. IFRA-compliant.
One dab, and do not rub it in
A pulse point and a dab applicator. Oil opens with warmth, so rubbing crushes the top of it.
Composed by a trained perfumer
Sonal Sahani, ISIPCA Versailles-trained, composes the whole range.
A portion funds girl-child education
Part of every order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali.
We will tell you not to buy
There are four attars. Where your answer is not one of them, these guides say so and sell nothing.
✓ Alcohol-free and IFRA-compliant · a jojoba carrier, no DPG and no ethanol ✓ 6-8 hours on skin, longer on warm or oily skin · the only wear figure SOSA publishes ✓ A note list is not a smell · buy the 3ml before you buy a size ✓ Other brands named are the property of their respective owners · SOSA is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or associated with any other fragrance company named on this page
Founder Diaries · Car Fragrance
Which of the four is the sweetest, and are any of them vanilla-sweet? None of them is vanilla-sweet, because there is no vanilla in any of the four lists - and no caramel, tonka or chocolate either. The warmth that does exist comes from amber, which appears in Nawaab only, from the jammy facet of rose in Ameeri and Mastani, and from a faintly honeyed edge to jasmine sambac in Adaa. Driest to warmest the order runs Adaa, Mastani, Ameeri, Nawaab, and even Nawaab is a resinous warmth rather than a sugary one.
I want a floral attar. Which of the four should I compare? Mastani first, because two of its three materials are flowers and it is the most floral thing in the range. Ameeri second, because its Taif rose is named first and led from the front, though it sits on sandalwood and reads warm rather than fresh. Adaa third: its jasmine sambac is real but it is framed by a citrus opening and a musk base, so it reads light. Nawaab is not a candidate at all - there is no floral material among its nine.
Ask first
What this guide does not claim.
SOSA attars, specified:
On wear.
On what is in the bottle.
On other companies.
On availability.
There are four SOSA attars and this is the page that lays all four side by side properly. Not a note list four times over, which you can already read on the product pages, but the comparison that the product pages cannot make: which family each one belongs to, how sweet each one is and where that sweetness comes from, how woody each one is, how floral, what each one is for, and - the part most comparisons skip - who each one is wrong for. Two of the four share a flower genus and two share a flower family, and those overlaps are where the useful distinctions live. By the end you should be able to rule two out, which is more progress than any product page can give you.
Quick answers — read this first
How do the four SOSA attars differ from each other? By family and by depth. Adaa is a citrus-floral-musk with bergamot, green cardamom, jasmine sambac and white musk, and it has no wood on its list. Mastani is the most floral: night-blooming jasmine and Damask rose over oudh. Ameeri is the warm one: Taif rose led from the front with Indian sandalwood, Persian saffron and soft oudh. Nawaab is the deepest: nine materials built around white royal oud, with sandalwood, saffron, black pepper, cardamom, aged tobacco leaf, amber, leather and white musk. Lightest to deepest, that is Adaa, Mastani, Ameeri, Nawaab.Which of the four is the sweetest, and are any of them vanilla-sweet? None of them is vanilla-sweet, because there is no vanilla in any of the four lists - and no caramel, tonka or chocolate either. The warmth that does exist comes from amber, which appears in Nawaab only, from the jammy facet of rose in Ameeri and Mastani, and from a faintly honeyed edge to jasmine sambac in Adaa. Driest to warmest the order runs Adaa, Mastani, Ameeri, Nawaab, and even Nawaab is a resinous warmth rather than a sugary one.
I want a floral attar. Which of the four should I compare? Mastani first, because two of its three materials are flowers and it is the most floral thing in the range. Ameeri second, because its Taif rose is named first and led from the front, though it sits on sandalwood and reads warm rather than fresh. Adaa third: its jasmine sambac is real but it is framed by a citrus opening and a musk base, so it reads light. Nawaab is not a candidate at all - there is no floral material among its nine.
The short answer
Short answer: Adaa is citrus-floral-musk and the lightest. Mastani is the most floral, two flowers over oudh. Ameeri is the warm one, rose and sandalwood with saffron. Nawaab is the deepest, nine materials around oud with leather, tobacco leaf and amber. Lightest to deepest: Adaa, Mastani, Ameeri, Nawaab. None of the four contains vanilla.
The pick: Fresh and light, first attar, office: Adaa, 3ml ₹379. Most floral, evening: Mastani, 3ml ₹389. Warm, rose and wood: Ameeri, 3ml ₹385. Deepest, formal, oud: Nawaab, 3ml ₹399. If three of those sound plausible rather than one, the trio of Ameeri, Nawaab and Mastani is ₹1,055 at 3ml - but it does not contain Adaa, so if the light one is what you want, buy the light one.
Honest note: an attar is bought unsmelled, so a list of notes is all you have. A note list describes an intention, not a smell, and nothing written here is a substitute for wearing it.
In this guide
There are four SOSA attars and they run from a bergamot-and-cardamom opening at the lightest end to white royal oud at the deepest. Adaa is the freshest, Mastani the most floral, Ameeri the warmest, Nawaab the deepest. All four are alcohol-free on a jojoba carrier with no DPG, come with a dab applicator, and wear 6-8 hours on skin - longer on warm or oily skin. Sizes are 3ml, 6ml and 12ml, from Rs 379. None of that tells you whether you will like the smell, which is why the smallest size exists.
Once you know the scent
12ml · from ₹1,149
While you are deciding
3ml · from ₹379
Not sure which of the four
Tell us what you wear now
Straight answer
How do the four SOSA attars actually compare on family, sweetness, woody depth and occasion?
Four compositions, six axes. Work down them and two of the four should fall away.
The lists first, because everything below is read off them. Adaa is bergamot, green cardamom, jasmine sambac and white musk - four materials. Mastani is night-blooming jasmine, Damask rose and oudh - three materials, the shortest list in the range. Ameeri is Taif rose, Indian sandalwood, Persian saffron and soft oudh - four materials. Nawaab is white royal oud, sandalwood, saffron, black pepper, cardamom, aged tobacco leaf, amber, leather and white musk - nine materials, and much the longest list we publish. All four are alcohol-free, IFRA-compliant, built on a DPG-free jojoba carrier with a built-in dab applicator, hand-blended in small batches in Pune, and all four are 6-8 hours on skin, longer on warm or oily skin.
Axis one: family. Adaa is a citrus-floral-musk: it opens bright, passes through a white flower and settles on a clean skin-close musk. Mastani is a floral built on a resin: two flowers over oudh, which is the construction that makes a floral read deep rather than airy. Ameeri is a rose-woody: a rose led from the front with a creamy wood underneath it and a dry spice holding the two together. Nawaab is a woody-oud with spice, leather and amber in the frame, which is the most traditional attar shape of the four and the least like anything in a modern spray collection. Those are four genuinely different families, which is unusual in a four-piece range and is the reason a comparison is worth making at all.
Axis two: sweetness, and where it comes from. Start with the fact that settles half of this question: there is no vanilla in any of the four. No caramel, no tonka, no chocolate, no praline, nothing gourmand on any of the four lists. So if your worry is the sugary, bakery kind of sweetness, none of these is that fragrance and you can stop reading this axis. What sweetness does exist arrives from three places. Amber, which is in Nawaab only, is the warm resinous sweetness and it is the most of it anywhere in the range. Rose carries a jammy facet, which Ameeri keeps on a short leash with saffron and dry wood, and which Mastani lets sit closer to the surface because it has a second flower beside it. Jasmine sambac has a faintly honeyed edge, and in Adaa the bergamot and green cardamom cut straight across it, so Adaa reads as the driest of the four by a wide margin. Ranked from driest to warmest: Adaa, then Mastani, then Ameeri, then Nawaab. Nawaab is the warmest and still not what anybody would call a sweet fragrance.
Axis three: woody depth, which is where the range really separates. Adaa has no wood on its list at all. Not a soft wood, not a trace - the base is a white musk and that is the whole of it, which makes Adaa the only composition here that a reader who dislikes wood can wear. Mastani has one woody-resinous material, oudh, and it sits underneath two flowers, so the wood is a floor rather than a subject. Ameeri has two woods, Indian sandalwood and soft oudh, and the adjective "soft" is doing real work: the sandalwood is the texture you notice and the oudh is the depth you notice it against. Nawaab has white royal oud and sandalwood, with leather and amber reinforcing both, and it is comfortably the woodiest and deepest thing we make. Lightest to deepest, the house order is Adaa, Mastani, Ameeri, Nawaab - and the reason Mastani sits ahead of Ameeri despite having a plain oudh rather than a soft one is that Mastani's weight is floral weight carried over a resin, while Ameeri's is warmth: sandalwood and saffron read deeper on skin than two flowers do, whatever the note lists suggest at a glance.
Axis four: how floral, and the two flower comparisons that do the real work. Mastani is the most floral of the four and it is not close: two of its three materials are flowers. Ameeri is next, because its rose is named first and led from the front. Adaa is floral but lightly so - the jasmine is the third of four materials and it is framed by a citrus above and a musk below. Nawaab has no floral material at all among its nine. Now the two overlaps. The two roses. Ameeri lists Taif rose and Mastani lists Damask rose, and the difference on skin is less about the varieties than about the company they keep. In Ameeri the rose is the subject, with saffron adding a dry, almost leathery warmth beside it and sandalwood underneath, so it reads as a warm, composed rose rather than a fresh-cut one. In Mastani the rose is the second voice: it supports a jasmine and darkens against oudh, which is nearer to rose in a bouquet than rose as a soloist. So if you want a rose attar, Ameeri. If you want a jasmine attar with rose depth in it, Mastani. The three kinds of rose are set out separately.
The two jasmines, which is the comparison people get wrong most often. Adaa lists jasmine sambac. Mastani lists night-blooming jasmine. Those are not the same flower doing the same job. Jasmine sambac is the flower sold across India as mogra, and in Adaa, standing beside bergamot and green cardamom, it reads fresh and faintly green - much closer to the flower on a warm evening than to a jasmine perfume. Night-blooming jasmine in Mastani is the heavier reading: rich, a little indolic, and because it sits on Damask rose and oudh it gains weight rather than losing it. Same genus, opposite effects. Which jasmine is which, in full, and the short version is that a reader who loves the smell of mogra should be looking at Adaa and a reader who wants an evening white floral should be looking at Mastani.
Axis five: occasion. Adaa is the daytime and desk composition - a shared cabin, a commute, a morning meeting, hot weather, and it is the easiest of the four to wear without thinking about it. Mastani is an evening floral: dinners, festive afternoons, a wedding you are attending. Ameeri is the warm-occasion one: winter evenings, dinners, a wedding season, and it suits a reader who already likes warmth in a fragrance. Nawaab is the formal and the ceremonial end - your own wedding, a reception, a long evening in cold weather. The one honest caveat on this whole axis is that occasion in an oil is mostly a question of dose. One light dab of Nawaab is a different proposition from three, and the composition you choose matters less than how much of it you apply. The office-against-occasion question gets its own page for that reason.
Axis six, and the one that decides it: who each one is wrong for. This is the half of a comparison that brands leave out, and it is the half that saves money. Adaa is wrong for anybody who wants depth, weight or a recognisably traditional attar character - there is no wood in it, so a reader who loves sandalwood will find it thin - and for anybody who dislikes bright citrus openings or clean musks. Mastani is wrong for anybody who finds white florals heavy or indolic, anybody who wants something non-floral, and anybody who has ruled out oud, because its base is oudh. Ameeri is wrong for anybody who dislikes rose, anybody who dislikes saffron - a genuinely divisive material, and the most divisive thing in this range - and anybody who wants a fresh daytime fragrance, because it is the warm one and warmth is the point of it. Nawaab is wrong for a first attar, for a shared office, for anybody who dislikes leather, smoke or tobacco, and for anybody who wants a floral, because there is no flower among its nine materials.
Oud, said plainly, because it decides more purchases than anything else here. Three of the four contain oud or oudh: Nawaab leads with white royal oud, Ameeri carries soft oudh under a rose, Mastani sits on oudh. Only Adaa has none. If oud is your veto, the comparison is over in one line and the answer is Adaa. That answer has its own page, and it does not try to sell you a soft oud as a compromise.
Prices, at every size, so you can do the arithmetic yourself. Adaa is 3ml ₹379; 6ml ₹669; 12ml ₹1,149. Ameeri is 3ml ₹385; 6ml ₹679; 12ml ₹1,165. Mastani is 3ml ₹389; 6ml ₹685; 12ml ₹1,179. Nawaab is 3ml ₹399; 6ml ₹699; 12ml ₹1,199. At 3ml, the trio of Ameeri, Nawaab and Mastani is ₹1,055. That is ₹118 less than buying those three small bottles separately. At 6ml the trio is ₹1,859; at 12ml it is ₹3,189. Note what the trio is not: it does not include Adaa. If this comparison has pointed you at the lightest of the four, the trio is the wrong purchase and a single small bottle is the right one.
And the limit of all of the above. Everything on this page is read off published composition lists and from knowing what the materials do. It is a description, and a note list is not a smell. It cannot tell you how the sambac in Adaa will sit on your skin, whether the saffron in Ameeri will read as warmth or as metal to you, or whether Nawaab will be magnificent or simply too much. Those are facts about you, and the only instrument that measures them is a week of wearing the thing. A 3ml at ₹379 to ₹399 is what that week costs.
The lists first, because everything below is read off them. Adaa is bergamot, green cardamom, jasmine sambac and white musk - four materials. Mastani is night-blooming jasmine, Damask rose and oudh - three materials, the shortest list in the range. Ameeri is Taif rose, Indian sandalwood, Persian saffron and soft oudh - four materials. Nawaab is white royal oud, sandalwood, saffron, black pepper, cardamom, aged tobacco leaf, amber, leather and white musk - nine materials, and much the longest list we publish. All four are alcohol-free, IFRA-compliant, built on a DPG-free jojoba carrier with a built-in dab applicator, hand-blended in small batches in Pune, and all four are 6-8 hours on skin, longer on warm or oily skin.
Axis one: family. Adaa is a citrus-floral-musk: it opens bright, passes through a white flower and settles on a clean skin-close musk. Mastani is a floral built on a resin: two flowers over oudh, which is the construction that makes a floral read deep rather than airy. Ameeri is a rose-woody: a rose led from the front with a creamy wood underneath it and a dry spice holding the two together. Nawaab is a woody-oud with spice, leather and amber in the frame, which is the most traditional attar shape of the four and the least like anything in a modern spray collection. Those are four genuinely different families, which is unusual in a four-piece range and is the reason a comparison is worth making at all.
Axis two: sweetness, and where it comes from. Start with the fact that settles half of this question: there is no vanilla in any of the four. No caramel, no tonka, no chocolate, no praline, nothing gourmand on any of the four lists. So if your worry is the sugary, bakery kind of sweetness, none of these is that fragrance and you can stop reading this axis. What sweetness does exist arrives from three places. Amber, which is in Nawaab only, is the warm resinous sweetness and it is the most of it anywhere in the range. Rose carries a jammy facet, which Ameeri keeps on a short leash with saffron and dry wood, and which Mastani lets sit closer to the surface because it has a second flower beside it. Jasmine sambac has a faintly honeyed edge, and in Adaa the bergamot and green cardamom cut straight across it, so Adaa reads as the driest of the four by a wide margin. Ranked from driest to warmest: Adaa, then Mastani, then Ameeri, then Nawaab. Nawaab is the warmest and still not what anybody would call a sweet fragrance.
Axis three: woody depth, which is where the range really separates. Adaa has no wood on its list at all. Not a soft wood, not a trace - the base is a white musk and that is the whole of it, which makes Adaa the only composition here that a reader who dislikes wood can wear. Mastani has one woody-resinous material, oudh, and it sits underneath two flowers, so the wood is a floor rather than a subject. Ameeri has two woods, Indian sandalwood and soft oudh, and the adjective "soft" is doing real work: the sandalwood is the texture you notice and the oudh is the depth you notice it against. Nawaab has white royal oud and sandalwood, with leather and amber reinforcing both, and it is comfortably the woodiest and deepest thing we make. Lightest to deepest, the house order is Adaa, Mastani, Ameeri, Nawaab - and the reason Mastani sits ahead of Ameeri despite having a plain oudh rather than a soft one is that Mastani's weight is floral weight carried over a resin, while Ameeri's is warmth: sandalwood and saffron read deeper on skin than two flowers do, whatever the note lists suggest at a glance.
Axis four: how floral, and the two flower comparisons that do the real work. Mastani is the most floral of the four and it is not close: two of its three materials are flowers. Ameeri is next, because its rose is named first and led from the front. Adaa is floral but lightly so - the jasmine is the third of four materials and it is framed by a citrus above and a musk below. Nawaab has no floral material at all among its nine. Now the two overlaps. The two roses. Ameeri lists Taif rose and Mastani lists Damask rose, and the difference on skin is less about the varieties than about the company they keep. In Ameeri the rose is the subject, with saffron adding a dry, almost leathery warmth beside it and sandalwood underneath, so it reads as a warm, composed rose rather than a fresh-cut one. In Mastani the rose is the second voice: it supports a jasmine and darkens against oudh, which is nearer to rose in a bouquet than rose as a soloist. So if you want a rose attar, Ameeri. If you want a jasmine attar with rose depth in it, Mastani. The three kinds of rose are set out separately.
The two jasmines, which is the comparison people get wrong most often. Adaa lists jasmine sambac. Mastani lists night-blooming jasmine. Those are not the same flower doing the same job. Jasmine sambac is the flower sold across India as mogra, and in Adaa, standing beside bergamot and green cardamom, it reads fresh and faintly green - much closer to the flower on a warm evening than to a jasmine perfume. Night-blooming jasmine in Mastani is the heavier reading: rich, a little indolic, and because it sits on Damask rose and oudh it gains weight rather than losing it. Same genus, opposite effects. Which jasmine is which, in full, and the short version is that a reader who loves the smell of mogra should be looking at Adaa and a reader who wants an evening white floral should be looking at Mastani.
Axis five: occasion. Adaa is the daytime and desk composition - a shared cabin, a commute, a morning meeting, hot weather, and it is the easiest of the four to wear without thinking about it. Mastani is an evening floral: dinners, festive afternoons, a wedding you are attending. Ameeri is the warm-occasion one: winter evenings, dinners, a wedding season, and it suits a reader who already likes warmth in a fragrance. Nawaab is the formal and the ceremonial end - your own wedding, a reception, a long evening in cold weather. The one honest caveat on this whole axis is that occasion in an oil is mostly a question of dose. One light dab of Nawaab is a different proposition from three, and the composition you choose matters less than how much of it you apply. The office-against-occasion question gets its own page for that reason.
Axis six, and the one that decides it: who each one is wrong for. This is the half of a comparison that brands leave out, and it is the half that saves money. Adaa is wrong for anybody who wants depth, weight or a recognisably traditional attar character - there is no wood in it, so a reader who loves sandalwood will find it thin - and for anybody who dislikes bright citrus openings or clean musks. Mastani is wrong for anybody who finds white florals heavy or indolic, anybody who wants something non-floral, and anybody who has ruled out oud, because its base is oudh. Ameeri is wrong for anybody who dislikes rose, anybody who dislikes saffron - a genuinely divisive material, and the most divisive thing in this range - and anybody who wants a fresh daytime fragrance, because it is the warm one and warmth is the point of it. Nawaab is wrong for a first attar, for a shared office, for anybody who dislikes leather, smoke or tobacco, and for anybody who wants a floral, because there is no flower among its nine materials.
Oud, said plainly, because it decides more purchases than anything else here. Three of the four contain oud or oudh: Nawaab leads with white royal oud, Ameeri carries soft oudh under a rose, Mastani sits on oudh. Only Adaa has none. If oud is your veto, the comparison is over in one line and the answer is Adaa. That answer has its own page, and it does not try to sell you a soft oud as a compromise.
Prices, at every size, so you can do the arithmetic yourself. Adaa is 3ml ₹379; 6ml ₹669; 12ml ₹1,149. Ameeri is 3ml ₹385; 6ml ₹679; 12ml ₹1,165. Mastani is 3ml ₹389; 6ml ₹685; 12ml ₹1,179. Nawaab is 3ml ₹399; 6ml ₹699; 12ml ₹1,199. At 3ml, the trio of Ameeri, Nawaab and Mastani is ₹1,055. That is ₹118 less than buying those three small bottles separately. At 6ml the trio is ₹1,859; at 12ml it is ₹3,189. Note what the trio is not: it does not include Adaa. If this comparison has pointed you at the lightest of the four, the trio is the wrong purchase and a single small bottle is the right one.
And the limit of all of the above. Everything on this page is read off published composition lists and from knowing what the materials do. It is a description, and a note list is not a smell. It cannot tell you how the sambac in Adaa will sit on your skin, whether the saffron in Ameeri will read as warmth or as metal to you, or whether Nawaab will be magnificent or simply too much. Those are facts about you, and the only instrument that measures them is a week of wearing the thing. A 3ml at ₹379 to ₹399 is what that week costs.
Adaa, Mastani, Ameeri, Nawaab, lightest to deepest. Adaa has no wood in it at all; Nawaab has nine materials around an oud. Mastani is two flowers over oudh; Ameeri is a rose on sandalwood with saffron. No vanilla in any of them. 3ml ₹379 to ₹399.
If you will not guess, do not guess. The trio - Ameeri, Nawaab and Mastani - is ₹1,055 at 3ml, which is three of the four compositions for ₹118 less than buying those three 3mls separately. It is the right purchase for somebody who has read the note lists and still cannot choose, and the wrong one for somebody who already knows which family they want.
The trio from ₹1,055
The three comparisons that settle it fastest
Six axes are a lot to hold at once. These three do most of the ruling-out, and in this range the first of them is often the whole answer.
1
Oud
Three of the four contain oud or oudh, so this axis sorts the range
Nawaab leads with white royal oud. Ameeri carries soft oudh beneath a rose. Mastani sits on oudh. Adaa has none at all. That single fact settles more purchases on this range than any other, because oud is the material readers most often rule out outright, and because it carries further at a small dose than almost anything else a blender can reach for. If oud is a veto for you, the comparison ends immediately and the answer is Adaa rather than a softer oud as a compromise.
Tip: Decide about oud before you read anything else. It removes three or none.
2
Wood
Adaa is the only one of the four with no wood on its list
This is the cleanest separation in the range and it is easy to miss, because a reader comparing note lists tends to look at the flowers. Adaa ends on white musk and has no woody material at all. Mastani has one, oudh, holding up two flowers. Ameeri has two, Indian sandalwood and soft oudh, and the sandalwood is the texture you actually notice. Nawaab has white royal oud and sandalwood with leather and amber reinforcing them. A reader who loves creamy sandalwood will find Adaa thin, and a reader who dislikes wood will find three of the four unwearable.
Tip: No wood on the list means no wood in the bottle. Read the base, not the heart.
3
Two flowers
Two roses and two jasmines, and the pairs are not interchangeable
Taif rose in Ameeri is the subject of its composition, warmed by saffron and set on sandalwood, so it reads composed and a little dry. Damask rose in Mastani is the second voice behind a jasmine and darkens against oudh. Jasmine sambac in Adaa is the flower sold in India as mogra and, next to bergamot and green cardamom, it reads fresh and faintly green. Night-blooming jasmine in Mastani reads rich and heavy because of what sits under it. Position decides more than variety does.
Tip: Rose attar: Ameeri. Jasmine with depth: Mastani. Mogra: Adaa.
The SOSA principle
A comparison that only tells you who each fragrance is right for has done half the job. The half that saves money is the half that says who it is wrong for.
Rule two out, then buy the smallest size of what is left.
The four, in one place
Adaa is bergamot, green cardamom, jasmine sambac and white musk: the lightest, the driest, the only fresh opening in the range, no wood on the list, and the easiest first attar - 3ml ₹379. Mastani is night-blooming jasmine, Damask rose and oudh: the most floral, an evening composition, three materials - 3ml ₹389. Ameeri is Taif rose, Indian sandalwood, Persian saffron and soft oudh: the warm one, rose-led with a creamy wood under it - 3ml ₹385. Nawaab is white royal oud, sandalwood, saffron, black pepper, cardamom, aged tobacco leaf, amber, leather and white musk: the deepest, nine materials, formal - 3ml ₹399.
The SOSA attar range
The four on every axis at once
| Option | When it is the right call |
|---|---|
| Adaa, 3ml ₹379 |
Citrus-floral-musk · driest of the four · no wood on the list · four materials · daytime and office Wrong for: anybody wanting depth, weight or sandalwood, or who dislikes bright citrus and clean musk |
| Mastani, 3ml ₹389 |
Most floral · night-blooming jasmine and Damask rose over oudh · three materials · evening Wrong for: anybody who finds white florals heavy, wants something non-floral, or has ruled out oud |
| Ameeri, 3ml ₹385 |
The warm one · Taif rose led from the front on Indian sandalwood, Persian saffron, soft oudh · winter and dinners Wrong for: anybody who dislikes rose or saffron, or who wants something fresh for daytime |
| Nawaab, 3ml ₹399 |
Deepest · nine materials around white royal oud, with leather, aged tobacco leaf and amber · formal Wrong for: a first attar, a shared office, anybody who dislikes leather or smoke, and anybody who wants a floral |
Four compositions is the whole range, so there is no fifth answer waiting. We make no standalone white musk, no pure sandalwood, no amber attar, no tuberose, no vetiver or khus, no aquatic and no tobacco composition, and when somebody asks for one of those the honest reply is that we do not make it. The same liquid fills all three sizes of each of the four, so the only thing a larger bottle buys you is more of it: 6ml ₹669 to ₹699; 12ml ₹1,149 to ₹1,199.
Not sure which of the four is yours?
Tell us the three fragrances you wear most and the notes you cannot stand. If none of our four fits what you describe, we will say so rather than sell you a bottle you will not wear.
Adaa has no wood on its list at all. Nawaab has nine materials built around an oud. Between those two ends sit a floral on a resin and a rose on a sandalwood, and that is the whole range.
— Sonal Sahani, SOSA
The SOSA attar range
Every SOSA attar is alcohol-free and IFRA-compliant on a jojoba carrier with no DPG, hand-blended in small batches in Pune. A portion of every order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali. There are four, and the honest way to read them is by depth - how much the base note is doing.
The SOSA attar range
Four attars, lightest to deepest - 3ml from ₹379
| Attar | Built on | What it is, honestly | 3ml |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adaa | Bergamot, green cardamom, jasmine sambac, white musk | The lightest of the four and the easiest first attar. Jasmine sambac is mogra, so this is also the mogra answer | ₹379 |
| Ameeri | Taif rose, Indian sandalwood, Persian saffron, soft oudh | The warm one. Rose and sandalwood doing most of the work, with the oudh kept soft | ₹385 |
| Mastani | Night-blooming jasmine, Damask rose, oudh | The most floral. A different jasmine and a different rose from Adaa and Ameeri | ₹389 |
| Nawaab | White royal oud, sandalwood, saffron, tobacco leaf, amber, leather | The deepest in the range. Not a first attar unless you already know you like oud | ₹399 |
| The trio | Ameeri, Nawaab and Mastani together | Three of the four at once. The honest answer when you cannot choose and will not guess | ₹1,055 |
Four honest notes. A note list is not a smell. Every composition above is described in the words we would use ourselves, and those words still cannot tell you how it will sit on your skin - which is the whole reason the 3ml exists. On the sizes: 3ml, 6ml and 12ml are the same liquid, and the only reason to buy the larger ones is that you already know. If you have not worn it, buy the smallest and let it earn the upgrade. On wear: all four are 6-8 hours on skin, longer on warm or oily skin, and that is the only figure we publish. We do not publish a drop count, a per-application cost, or a comparison with how long anybody else's fragrance lasts - including sprays. On what we do not make: there is no standalone musk, sandalwood, amber, tuberose, vetiver, khus, aquatic or tobacco attar in this range. Four compositions is the whole range, and where your answer is not one of them, this page will say so rather than talk you into the nearest thing.
SS
ISIPCA
Versailles
Versailles
A note from Sonal
Attars are the part of this business where the marketing is worst, and I would like ours to be the boring, accurate version. Most of the category sells a bottle on adjectives - royal, exotic, hypnotic, long-lasting - and on numbers nobody has measured. You cannot smell any of it before you pay, so the words are doing all the work, and almost nobody writes them honestly.
So here is what I will and will not tell you. I will tell you what is in each of the four, in the order you meet it, and that they wear 6-8 hours on my skin. I will not tell you that one of them smells expensive, or that it will turn heads, or that it lasts twelve hours, because I cannot know the first two about you and have not measured the third. The honest sequence is: read the notes, buy the 3ml, wear it for a week, and only then buy a size. If none of our four matches what you have described to yourself, I would rather say so than sell you the nearest one.
The other thing worth knowing is how little you need. An attar is concentrated oil, and the commonest mistake is wearing it like a spray - a long press at the neck and another at the wrists. One dab at a pulse point is the dose. Two if you want it read across a dinner table. Do not rub it in; oil opens with warmth, and rubbing crushes the top of it. That is the entire dial, and most people never need the top of it. A portion of every order supports girl-child education.
Frequently asked questions
Which SOSA attar is the lightest and which is the deepest?
Adaa is the lightest and Nawaab is the deepest. The house order from lightest to deepest is Adaa, Mastani, Ameeri, Nawaab. Adaa is a four-material citrus-floral-musk with no wood on its list; Nawaab is a nine-material composition built around white royal oud with sandalwood, saffron, black pepper, cardamom, aged tobacco leaf, amber, leather and white musk.
Do any of the four SOSA attars contain vanilla?
No. There is no vanilla in any of the four compositions, and no caramel, tonka or chocolate either. The warmth in the range comes from amber in Nawaab, from the jammy side of rose in Ameeri and Mastani, and from a faintly honeyed edge to jasmine sambac in Adaa. If sugary sweetness is what you are avoiding, none of these four is that fragrance.
What is the difference between the Taif rose in one and the Damask rose in another?
Mostly the company it keeps. In Ameeri the rose is the lead, with Persian saffron adding a dry warmth beside it and Indian sandalwood underneath, so it reads as a composed, warm rose. In Mastani the rose supports night-blooming jasmine and darkens against oudh, which is rose as part of a bouquet rather than rose as the subject. Want a rose attar, choose Ameeri; want a jasmine with rose depth, choose Mastani.
Is the trio a better way to compare them than buying one?
It is the right purchase for somebody who has read all four lists and genuinely cannot choose. The trio is Ameeri, Nawaab and Mastani in the 3ml size at Rs 1,055. That is Rs 118 less than buying those three small bottles separately. The thing to know before you buy it is that Adaa is not in the trio - so if this comparison has pointed you at the lightest of the four, buy that one bottle instead.
How many SOSA attars are there in total?
Four, and that is the whole range: Adaa, Mastani, Ameeri and Nawaab, each available at 3ml, 6ml and 12ml, plus a trio of Ameeri, Nawaab and Mastani. We make no standalone white musk, no pure sandalwood, no amber attar, no tuberose, no vetiver or khus, no aquatic and no tobacco composition. When somebody asks for one of those, the answer is that we do not make it.
A fragrance you chose on purpose, not by accident
SOSA — alcohol-free attars, and an honest account of what a note list cannot tell you
Four families, four depths, three sizes. If three of the four still sound plausible, the trio at 3ml is ₹1,055.
The attar trio → Begin at 3ml
Continue the read
More from SOSA
- Adaa - bergamot, cardamom, jasmine sambac, white musk (3ml ₹379)
- Ameeri - Taif rose, sandalwood, saffron, soft oudh (3ml ₹385)
- Mastani - night-blooming jasmine, Damask rose, oudh (3ml ₹389)
- Nawaab - white royal oud, sandalwood, saffron, tobacco (3ml ₹399)
- The trio - three of the four together (from ₹1,055)
- Tell us what you wear now - we will say if none of the four fits
- Brand: Founder story — why SOSA exists
More from this guide
Editorial standards & sources
About this guide:
- Written by Sonal Sahani, ISIPCA Versailles-trained founder and perfumer at SOSA Home & Body. Product recommendations reflect the SOSA range; the fragrance-family guidance applies to any brand. SOSA does not sort fragrance by the gender of the wearer.
What this guide does not claim.
- An attar is a fragrance and nothing else.
- - it names what a composition is built from and the order you meet it in, which is a description of an intention rather than a measurement, and it is
- . Nothing here should be read as advice about health, allergies or anyone's wellbeing, and no fragrance on this page is claimed to affect anybody's mood, comfort, confidence or state of mind. Where a reader describes a preference none of our four compositions matches, these guides say so and sell nothing.
SOSA attars, specified:
- four compositions -
- (bergamot, green cardamom, jasmine sambac, white musk),
- (Taif rose, Indian sandalwood, Persian saffron, soft oudh),
- (night-blooming jasmine, Damask rose, oudh) and
- (white royal oud, sandalwood, saffron, black pepper, cardamom, aged tobacco leaf, amber, leather, white musk). All four are
- , supplied with a built-in dab applicator, and hand-blended in small batches in Pune. Sizes are
- : Adaa ₹379 / ₹669 / ₹1,149, Ameeri ₹385 / ₹679 / ₹1,165, Mastani ₹389 / ₹685 / ₹1,179, Nawaab ₹399 / ₹699 / ₹1,199. The three-attar trio (Ameeri, Nawaab, Mastani) is ₹1,055 / ₹1,859 / ₹3,189. The same liquid fills all three sizes.
On wear.
- SOSA publishes one figure:
- . SOSA does not publish a drop count, a cost per application, a projection rating, or any comparison with how long another format or another company's fragrance lasts. Where a customer review reports a different number, that is one person's experience of their own skin and not a measurement SOSA stands behind.
On what is in the bottle.
- The composition lists above name the materials a fragrance is built from. They are not a statement of grade, percentage or geographic origin, and this guide makes no claim about either. Where origin or grade matters to you, ask before you buy - that is a fair question and the answer belongs to the product page rather than to an article.
On other companies.
- Where another fragrance brand is named in these guides it is because a reader named it, and the page answers what they asked. Nothing here states what any other company's product contains, how long it lasts, what it costs or how it performs.
- , and no other company has reviewed or approved this content. If a product you already own suits you, keep it - several pages in this guide say exactly that.
On availability.
- SOSA is an online fragrance house and ships across India; it holds no retail counters, and no delivery window is quoted here. A portion of every order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali. Prices and availability change - see the live product pages.