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 questions are not worth asking? Is it long lasting, is it strong, will I like it, which is your bestseller, and is it unisex. The first four get an automatic yes or a figure nobody measured, and the fifth has no honest answer from a house that does not sort fragrance by gender. Replace them with: what wear figure do you publish and how was it arrived at; what is the base; what would make somebody dislike this; and which of your range is the lowest-risk first purchase. Those four get specifics back.
What question reveals the most about a fragrance brand? Which of your range would you talk me out of, and why? A house that can name one composition it would not recommend to a first-time oil wearer is demonstrating that it understands its own range and is willing to lose a sale to be accurate. Ours is Nawaab: nine materials led by white royal oud, with leather and aged tobacco leaf in it, which is a wonderful thing to own and a poor place to start. A house that recommends everything to everybody has answered a different question.
Ask first
What this guide does not claim.
SOSA attars, specified:
On wear.
On what is in the bottle.
On other companies.
On availability.
This is the most practical page in this set, so I have written it as something you can copy. Most questions sent to a fragrance brand before an unsmelled purchase cannot be answered, and the ones that cannot are usually the ones people send: is it long lasting, is it strong, will I like it. There are nine questions that a real human at a real fragrance house can answer in specifics, and the answers will separate a brand that made something from a brand that is reselling adjectives. There is also one question that tells you more about the house than any other, and it is the one nobody asks: which of yours would you talk me out of.
Quick answers — read this first
What should I ask a fragrance brand before buying unsmelled? Ask what the oil is carried in, whether it is alcohol-free and IFRA-compliant, whether the smallest size is the same liquid as the largest, what the composition sits on after the first hour, and which material first-time wearers do not expect. Then ask about the intended dose, give them your own three favourite fragrances and three vetoes, and ask them to tell you if nothing of theirs fits. Finally confirm price, size, directions and returns on the live product page rather than in an article.Which questions are not worth asking? Is it long lasting, is it strong, will I like it, which is your bestseller, and is it unisex. The first four get an automatic yes or a figure nobody measured, and the fifth has no honest answer from a house that does not sort fragrance by gender. Replace them with: what wear figure do you publish and how was it arrived at; what is the base; what would make somebody dislike this; and which of your range is the lowest-risk first purchase. Those four get specifics back.
What question reveals the most about a fragrance brand? Which of your range would you talk me out of, and why? A house that can name one composition it would not recommend to a first-time oil wearer is demonstrating that it understands its own range and is willing to lose a sale to be accurate. Ours is Nawaab: nine materials led by white royal oud, with leather and aged tobacco leaf in it, which is a wonderful thing to own and a poor place to start. A house that recommends everything to everybody has answered a different question.
The short answer
Short answer: Ask about the carrier, compliance, whether the smallest size is the same liquid, what the composition sits on after an hour, the intended dose, and which material first-time wearers do not expect. Then give them your own three favourites and three vetoes, and ask them to tell you if none of theirs fits.
The pick: Send the four-line message below to any house you are considering, then buy the survivor at 3ml. Ours are Adaa ₹379, Ameeri ₹385, Mastani ₹389 and Nawaab ₹399 at 3ml, and we would rather answer four questions before you order than one complaint after.
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
What should I ask an attar brand before buying a fragrance I have never smelled?
Nine things a human can answer, and five it is not worth asking.
Five questions about the bottle. One: what is the oil carried in? An attar is fragrance materials in something, and that something is on your skin for as long as you wear it. Ours is a jojoba carrier with no DPG and no ethanol. This is a factual question with a one-word answer and a brand that cannot produce it has told you something. Two: is it alcohol-free, and is the composition IFRA-compliant? Both are statements about how the thing is built rather than adjectives, and both are checkable. All four of ours are alcohol-free by formulation and IFRA-compliant. Three: is the smallest size the same liquid as the largest? This matters enormously and almost nobody asks it. If the small bottle is a different dilution, you cannot learn anything from it; if it is the same liquid, it is a complete test for a fraction of the money. Our 3ml, 6ml and 12ml are identical liquid. Four: what is this composition sitting on after an hour? Not the top notes - the floor. Anybody who built the fragrance can answer this in a sentence, and it is the single most useful sentence you will get, because the floor is what you will wear for most of the day. Five: which material in this composition do first-time wearers not expect? This is my favourite question in the list. A house that answers it properly - "the saffron reads drier than people assume", "the oudh is further forward than the description suggests" - is being genuinely useful. A house that says nothing surprises anybody is not answering.
Two questions about you. Six: how much am I meant to apply? Dose is the biggest variable in whether a first attar feels right, and it is the one the buyer controls. Ours comes with a built-in dab applicator and the answer is one dab at a pulse point, two if you want it read across a dinner table, and do not rub it in, because oil opens with warmth and rubbing crushes the top of it. Seven: here are three fragrances I wear and three notes I cannot stand - which of yours fits, and will you tell me if none of them does? This is the whole consultation in one message. Give them your evidence rather than asking them to guess, and ask explicitly for the negative answer. Everything useful we have ever told a customer started with a message shaped like that.
Two questions about the transaction. Eight: what are the current prices and sizes? Ask, and then read them on the live product page the day you order, because prices change and articles do not change with them. Ours today are 3ml at ₹379 to ₹399, 6ml at ₹669 to ₹699 and 12ml at ₹1,149 to ₹1,199, with the three-attar trio at ₹1,055 for 3ml. Nine: what is the returns or exchange position on a fragrance? Ask them directly and read the policy page. I am not going to state a returns policy in an article: policies change, articles sit where they are, and a policy you read in a blog post is worth nothing at the moment you need it. Confirm price, size, directions and returns on the product page itself before you order.
Five questions that waste the reply. Is it long lasting? Everybody says yes, so the answer carries no information. Ask instead: what wear figure do you publish, and how was it arrived at? Ours is 6-8 hours on skin, longer on warm or oily skin, and I will tell you plainly that there is no standardised wear test in this category - nobody runs one, ourselves included. Is it strong? Strength is mostly dose. Ask about depth and about the base instead. Will I like it? Nobody can answer this, and a yes is a sales reflex. Ask the inverse: what would make somebody dislike this composition? Which is your bestseller? That tells you about other people's shopping rather than about your nose. Ask which of theirs is the lowest-risk first purchase and why. Is it unisex? We do not sort fragrance by the gender of the wearer, so the honest answer is a non-answer. Ask about depth and sweetness, which is what the question is usually reaching for.
Three questions nobody can answer honestly. How long will it last on me? That depends on your skin, your dose and your day, and anybody who gives you a figure for your skin specifically has invented it. How does it compare with the fragrance I already own? No house knows what is in another house's bottle, how it performs or how it smells. A confident comparison is a guess, and a brand that guesses about somebody else will guess about itself. How many applications are in a bottle, or what does it cost per use? That arithmetic needs a published drops-per-millilitre figure and nobody publishes one, us included, so any number you are given has been constructed for the answer. The useful substitute is to date your own bottle and count your own dabs for a fortnight, which gives you a figure that is actually about you. The full version of that refusal is a page of its own.
The four-line message to send. Copy this and change the contents. Line one: the three fragrances I wear most are X, Y and Z. Line two: the notes I cannot stand are A, B and C. Line three: I would wear this for - work, evenings, a wedding, every day - and my budget is a number. Line four: which of yours fits, and please tell me if none of them does. Four lines, no adjectives, and it puts the brand in a position where a useful answer is easier than a vague one. If you want to add a fifth line, make it: which of your range would you not give to somebody who has never worn an oil?
How to read the reply you get. A good reply is made of materials, positions and specifics, and contains at least one limitation. It may well tell you that nothing in the range fits what you described, which is the most valuable reply available and the cheapest for you. A poor reply is made of adjectives, offers a bigger wear number than the published one, compares itself to another house, or answers a question you did not ask with a larger size. You are not only collecting information about a bottle here - you are auditing whether this is a house whose description of a smell you can trust, because for an unsmelled purchase their description is all you have. Then rank what survives by uncertainty and buy the smallest size of the winner.
Five questions about the bottle. One: what is the oil carried in? An attar is fragrance materials in something, and that something is on your skin for as long as you wear it. Ours is a jojoba carrier with no DPG and no ethanol. This is a factual question with a one-word answer and a brand that cannot produce it has told you something. Two: is it alcohol-free, and is the composition IFRA-compliant? Both are statements about how the thing is built rather than adjectives, and both are checkable. All four of ours are alcohol-free by formulation and IFRA-compliant. Three: is the smallest size the same liquid as the largest? This matters enormously and almost nobody asks it. If the small bottle is a different dilution, you cannot learn anything from it; if it is the same liquid, it is a complete test for a fraction of the money. Our 3ml, 6ml and 12ml are identical liquid. Four: what is this composition sitting on after an hour? Not the top notes - the floor. Anybody who built the fragrance can answer this in a sentence, and it is the single most useful sentence you will get, because the floor is what you will wear for most of the day. Five: which material in this composition do first-time wearers not expect? This is my favourite question in the list. A house that answers it properly - "the saffron reads drier than people assume", "the oudh is further forward than the description suggests" - is being genuinely useful. A house that says nothing surprises anybody is not answering.
Two questions about you. Six: how much am I meant to apply? Dose is the biggest variable in whether a first attar feels right, and it is the one the buyer controls. Ours comes with a built-in dab applicator and the answer is one dab at a pulse point, two if you want it read across a dinner table, and do not rub it in, because oil opens with warmth and rubbing crushes the top of it. Seven: here are three fragrances I wear and three notes I cannot stand - which of yours fits, and will you tell me if none of them does? This is the whole consultation in one message. Give them your evidence rather than asking them to guess, and ask explicitly for the negative answer. Everything useful we have ever told a customer started with a message shaped like that.
Two questions about the transaction. Eight: what are the current prices and sizes? Ask, and then read them on the live product page the day you order, because prices change and articles do not change with them. Ours today are 3ml at ₹379 to ₹399, 6ml at ₹669 to ₹699 and 12ml at ₹1,149 to ₹1,199, with the three-attar trio at ₹1,055 for 3ml. Nine: what is the returns or exchange position on a fragrance? Ask them directly and read the policy page. I am not going to state a returns policy in an article: policies change, articles sit where they are, and a policy you read in a blog post is worth nothing at the moment you need it. Confirm price, size, directions and returns on the product page itself before you order.
Five questions that waste the reply. Is it long lasting? Everybody says yes, so the answer carries no information. Ask instead: what wear figure do you publish, and how was it arrived at? Ours is 6-8 hours on skin, longer on warm or oily skin, and I will tell you plainly that there is no standardised wear test in this category - nobody runs one, ourselves included. Is it strong? Strength is mostly dose. Ask about depth and about the base instead. Will I like it? Nobody can answer this, and a yes is a sales reflex. Ask the inverse: what would make somebody dislike this composition? Which is your bestseller? That tells you about other people's shopping rather than about your nose. Ask which of theirs is the lowest-risk first purchase and why. Is it unisex? We do not sort fragrance by the gender of the wearer, so the honest answer is a non-answer. Ask about depth and sweetness, which is what the question is usually reaching for.
Three questions nobody can answer honestly. How long will it last on me? That depends on your skin, your dose and your day, and anybody who gives you a figure for your skin specifically has invented it. How does it compare with the fragrance I already own? No house knows what is in another house's bottle, how it performs or how it smells. A confident comparison is a guess, and a brand that guesses about somebody else will guess about itself. How many applications are in a bottle, or what does it cost per use? That arithmetic needs a published drops-per-millilitre figure and nobody publishes one, us included, so any number you are given has been constructed for the answer. The useful substitute is to date your own bottle and count your own dabs for a fortnight, which gives you a figure that is actually about you. The full version of that refusal is a page of its own.
The four-line message to send. Copy this and change the contents. Line one: the three fragrances I wear most are X, Y and Z. Line two: the notes I cannot stand are A, B and C. Line three: I would wear this for - work, evenings, a wedding, every day - and my budget is a number. Line four: which of yours fits, and please tell me if none of them does. Four lines, no adjectives, and it puts the brand in a position where a useful answer is easier than a vague one. If you want to add a fifth line, make it: which of your range would you not give to somebody who has never worn an oil?
How to read the reply you get. A good reply is made of materials, positions and specifics, and contains at least one limitation. It may well tell you that nothing in the range fits what you described, which is the most valuable reply available and the cheapest for you. A poor reply is made of adjectives, offers a bigger wear number than the published one, compares itself to another house, or answers a question you did not ask with a larger size. You are not only collecting information about a bottle here - you are auditing whether this is a house whose description of a smell you can trust, because for an unsmelled purchase their description is all you have. Then rank what survives by uncertainty and buy the smallest size of the winner.
Nine answerable questions: carrier, alcohol, compliance, same-liquid sizes, what it sits on after an hour, the intended dose, the unexpected material, your own brief, and the four transaction details. Five that waste the reply. Three nobody can answer. Then buy the 3ml from ₹379.
Start at 3ml. A 3ml costs ₹379 to ₹399 depending on the composition, holds the same liquid as the larger sizes, and is the only honest size for a fragrance you have never worn. Wear it for a week before you buy a size. Nothing on this page can tell you how it will smell on your skin, which is exactly why the smallest bottle exists.
3ml from ₹379
The questions, sorted by whether anybody can answer them
Three groups: what a human at a fragrance house can tell you, what you have to supply yourself, and the one request that reveals more than all the rest. Send all three in one message.
1
About the bottle
Five factual questions with short answers
The carrier. Alcohol-free and IFRA compliance. Whether the smallest size is the same liquid as the largest. What the composition sits on after an hour. And which material first-time wearers do not expect. Every one of those has a specific answer that somebody who made the fragrance can give in a sentence, and every one of them is checkable against the bottle when it arrives. Ours: jojoba with no DPG and no ethanol, yes and yes, the same liquid in all three sizes, and the answer to the last two depends on which of the four you are asking about.
Tip: Five questions, five sentences. If you get five adjectives, that is your answer.
2
About you
Supply the evidence instead of asking them to guess
Three fragrances you wear, three notes you cannot stand, the occasion, the budget. A brand cannot read your nose, and a recommendation made without that information is a horoscope. With it, the reply becomes checkable: if somebody who knows their own range cannot match four lines of plain description, there is nothing in the range for you and both of you have found that out cheaply. Put the four lines in the first message rather than waiting to be asked.
Tip: Four lines of your own history beats four hours of reading.
3
Ask for the no
The sentence that changes the quality of the reply
Add this: please tell me if none of yours fits. It costs you nothing and it reframes the exchange, because you have given explicit permission for the honest answer and made the dishonest one more awkward. Four compositions is our whole range, and there is no standalone musk, sandalwood, amber, tuberose, vetiver, khus or aquatic attar in it - so for a reasonable number of readers the correct reply from us is that we do not make what they have described.
Tip: Give them permission to lose the sale, and see what they do with it.
The SOSA principle
Ask which of your range you would talk me out of. A house that can name one is telling you it understands its own compositions; a house that recommends everything to everybody is telling you something else.
Ask for a no, in writing.
Our own answers, so you can calibrate the ones you get
For the four here: the carrier is jojoba with no DPG and no ethanol; all four are alcohol-free and IFRA-compliant; the 3ml, 6ml and 12ml are the same liquid; the wear figure is 6-8 hours on skin, longer on warm or oily skin, and it is the only figure we publish; the dose is one dab at a pulse point; and the composition that surprises people most is Ameeri, because the saffron reads drier than the word rose suggests. The one I would talk a first-time oil wearer out of is Nawaab.
The SOSA attar range
Four replies you might get, and what each one means
| Option | When it is the right call |
|---|---|
| A reply in materials and positions |
Specifics, at least one limitation, an answer to the question asked Trade-off: It is still an intention described in words, which is why the next step is a 3ml |
| A reply saying none of ours fits |
The most valuable answer available · costs you nothing Trade-off: You leave without a bottle and with your money and your afternoon |
| A reply in adjectives |
Royal, exotic, long-lasting · unfalsifiable · tells you about the marketing Trade-off: You now know how much weight to give the product page, which is useful |
| A reply with a bigger wear number |
A figure beyond what is published, or a comparison with another house Trade-off: Nobody runs a standardised wear test here, so treat the number as marketing rather than measurement |
Our own four, for the record: Adaa at 3ml ₹379, Ameeri ₹385, Mastani ₹389, Nawaab ₹399, with the trio of Ameeri, Nawaab and Mastani at ₹1,055 for three 3mls. All alcohol-free and IFRA-compliant on a jojoba carrier with no DPG, hand-blended in small batches in Pune, 6-8 hours on skin and longer on warm or oily skin, with a portion of every order supporting girl-child education. Ask us anything on that list and we will answer it in materials rather than in adjectives.
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.
For an unsmelled purchase, a brand's description is the entire product. So the real question behind all nine is whether this is a house whose words about a smell you can trust.
— 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
What is the most important question to ask before an unsmelled purchase?
What is this composition sitting on after an hour? The opening is a few minutes and the base is the rest of the day, including what the people around you will come to associate with you. Anybody who built the fragrance can answer that in one sentence, and the answer tells you more than the entire note list read top to bottom. The second most important is whether the smallest size is the same liquid as the largest, because that decides whether a cheap test is possible at all.
Will a brand tell me honestly if nothing suits me?
The good ones will, and asking makes it much more likely. Add one line to your message: please tell me if none of yours fits. We have four compositions and no standalone musk, sandalwood, amber, tuberose, vetiver, khus or aquatic attar, so for a fair number of readers the correct answer from us is that we do not make what they want. A house that never gives that answer is not a house with a perfect range.
Why will nobody tell me the cost per application?
Because the arithmetic needs a published drops-per-millilitre figure and nobody in this category publishes one, ourselves included. Any cost-per-use number you are handed has been built backwards from a conclusion. What you can do instead is useful and takes no faith: write the date on your own bottle when you open it, count your dabs for a fortnight, and you will have a consumption figure that describes you rather than a stranger.
Should I ask how it compares with the fragrance I wear now?
You can ask, but treat a confident answer as a warning sign. No house knows what another house put in its bottle, how it performs or how it smells on you, so a comparison is a guess presented as expertise. The productive version of that question is to describe the accord you love in material terms - the rose over woods, the citrus over a clean base, the saffron warmth - and ask which of their compositions sits closest to it.
What should I confirm on the product page before I order?
Four things: the current price, the exact size in your cart, the directions for use, and the returns or exchange position. I will not state a returns policy here, because policies change and an article does not change with them, and a policy quoted in a blog post is worth nothing when you actually need it. Read those four on the live page the day you buy, and if any of them is unclear, ask before ordering rather than after.
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
Send us the four lines - what you wear, what you cannot stand, the occasion, the budget. We will name one of the four or tell you none of them fits. 3ml from ₹379.
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.