Article: Lattafa Khamrah: Why It Went Global
Lattafa Khamrah: Why It Went Global
Article Summary: Lattafa Khamrah is a 2022 eau de parfum from Lattafa Perfumes Industries, a family-owned company in Sharjah, built on cinnamon, nutmeg and bergamot over a dates accord, praline and tuberose, on vanilla, tonka, benzoin, myrrh and amber wood. It is searched about 8,100 times a month in the UAE, more than any other Arabic perfume, and it is the bottle that turned a regional wholesaler into a brand sold in around 150 countries. It won Fragrantica's readers' vote for best Middle Eastern fragrance in 2022, rode the Arabian perfume wave on TikTok from 2023, and has since grown into a line of five. Lattafa sells it at AED 169 for 100 ml on its own site. MOJ makes a reading of it, Khamrah, at AED 32, 44 and 69, all sizes available on October 23, 2026.
- Khamrah means wine in Arabic, a name for the boozy, dessert-like character; Lattafa itself gives no meaning on its product page.
- Lattafa credits no perfumer for Khamrah. The house has worked with Dominique Ropion, Julien Rasquinet and Jordi Fernandez on other launches.
- Flankers: Khamrah Qahwa (2023, coffee), Khamrah Dukhan (2025, smoke), Khamrah Waha (2026, fresh) and Khamrah Mira (2026, for women).
- The comparison every reviewer makes is to Kilian Angels' Share: a cousin, sweeter and spicier, not a copy.
- Lattafa: founded in the 1980s, emerged as a brand in 1992, 3,000 staff, 2,000 products, sold in about 150 countries by late 2025, no published revenue.
What Lattafa Khamrah is
Khamrah is an eau de parfum launched in 2022 in a heavy clear faceted tumbler of a bottle, the shape of a whisky glass, with a gold label and a black and gold box. Lattafa lists the pyramid as bergamot, cinnamon and nutmeg on top; a dates accord, lily of the valley, praline and tuberose in the heart; and roasted tonka, Laos benzoin, myrrh, akigalawood, vanilla and amber wood at the base. In plain words it smells like a date pastry with cinnamon on it, sweet and spiced from the first minute and warmer as it dries, and it is unisex in practice, worn as much by men as by women here. The brand credits no perfumer, which is usual for Lattafa; the one Khamrah that names its noses is the 2026 Mira, by Gael Montero and Jordi Fernandez.
The name is the Arabic word for wine, خمرة, and reviewers read it as a nod to the boozy, liqueur-like sweetness. Lattafa's own page does not explain the name, so that reading is the reviewers' and ours, not the brand's.
Who makes it: a Sharjah family company, not a Paris house
Lattafa Perfumes Industries is a family company headquartered in Sharjah, in Industrial Area 11, founded by Sheikh Shahid Ahmed with Shoaib Iqbal Ahmed. The company puts its roots in the 1980s and the Lattafa brand in 1992, and describes itself as third generation. It is private, with no outside investor, and it has never published revenue. What it has published is scale: more than 3,000 staff, more than 2,000 products, about fifty launches a year, and a country count that it reported as sixty-plus in 2021, 140 in 2024 and 147 to 150 by October 2025, when it opened in Brazil. In 2021 the company told Gulf News that its concentrates are blended in Europe by partner houses and finished and packed in the UAE, and it has worked with perfumers including Dominique Ropion, Julien Rasquinet and Jordi Fernandez. Its sister brands are Lattafa Pride, Niche Emarati, Asdaaf and Vurv; Maison Alhambra is widely reported as a sister brand but no corporate filing confirms it. Armaf is not Lattafa; it belongs to Sterling Perfumes in Dubai, and the two are mixed up constantly online.
Lattafa sells direct in the UAE through lattafa.com, with free delivery above AED 150, and through more than a thousand third-party retail doors; it has no branded shops that we could verify, and it is not stocked by Ounass or Bloomingdale's. Faces lists Khamrah as a marketplace item sold by Lattafa at AED 130 for 100 ml, not available when we checked, against AED 169 on the brand's own site.
Why it went global
Three things happened in order. First, Khamrah won the English-language Fragrantica readers' vote for best Middle Eastern fragrance of 2022, the year it launched, which put it in front of the people who write about perfume for a living. Second, in the autumn of 2023 Arabian perfumes as a category went viral on TikTok and Instagram in Europe and the United States, and Khamrah, cheap, loud and photogenic in that tumbler, became one of the two bottles the trend was built on, with Lattafa's Yara. By September 2024 the Swiss retailer Galaxus reported that Lattafa accounted for fifteen percent of every perfume bottle it sold, more than Versace; by January 2025 Fragrantica ranked Khamrah the second most popular fragrance on its site and Lattafa the most popular brand; in July 2026 the South China Morning Post reported Lattafa had sold more than 63 million dollars through TikTok Shop in a single year. Third, the price. Khamrah costs AED 169 at the brand and often less at retail, which is a tenth of the niche bottles it is compared to, and that gap is the story every video tells.
The bottle it is compared to is Kilian Angels' Share, the 2020 cognac and praline gourmand that sells for AED 1,605 for 100 ml at Ounass. Reviewers on Fragrantica, Parfumo and the dupe blogs agree on the relationship: a cousin with the same boozy dessert idea, not a copy, because Khamrah is sweeter, spicier and fruitier and Angels' Share drier and more cognac. We cover Angels' Share and MOJ's reading of it in our Kilian guide. Claims you will read that Khamrah is a copy of Tobacco Vanille or Baccarat Rouge 540 have no reviewer behind them.
Two things the brand says that we will not state as fact: that Khamrah and Yara are its top sellers, which its creative director told Gulf News in sponsored content, and that two of its fragrances sit in Amazon's global top ten. No unit figure for Khamrah has ever been published. What we can say is the search number: about 8,100 searches a month in the UAE for "lattafa khamrah", against 3,600 for the brand name itself.
The Khamrah line
Khamrah Qahwa followed in 2023, the coffee version, which took the readers' vote at Fragrantica again in 2024 and is the one most people buy second. Khamrah Dukhan came in March 2025, the smoky one, built on the same dates and vanilla with a dukhoon-style smoke over it. Khamrah Waha arrived in May 2026 as the fresh, aquatic edition for summer, and Khamrah Mira in 2026 as the women's edition, the first in the line to credit perfumers. Names you will see on TikTok that we could not verify as products, Khamrah Gold, Royal, Pink, Karaz and Blue, are not on the brand's site and we do not list them.
What it costs in the UAE
AED 169 for 100 ml on lattafa.com, with free delivery above AED 150, and AED 130 on Faces when the marketplace listing is available, which it was not on October 23. That makes the original one of the few fragrances on this blog where the gap between it and a MOJ reading is a factor of two rather than ten, and we say so because the honest reason to buy ours is not the saving. It is the size: a 30 ml bottle at AED 32 for a scent this sweet, which most people wear for the cooler months and for evenings, where a 100 ml of the original will last three winters.
The MOJ reading
Our Khamrah follows the brand's pyramid: cinnamon, nutmeg and bergamot on top, dates, praline, tuberose and mahonial in the heart, vanilla, tonka bean, amber wood, benzoin, myrrh and akigalawood at the base. It is our own composition inspired by the original, in 30, 50 and 100 ml at AED 32, 44 and 69, every size available on October 23, 2026, and it sits in our unisex collection next to Angel Share and in our vanilla collection. Evenings, autumn and winter, two sprays; in a Dubai August it is a lot. Our Arabic perfumes guide places it among the other Gulf styles we read, and what inspired perfumes are explains how we make them.
- Top: cinnamon, nutmeg, bergamot
- Heart: dates, praline, tuberose, mahonial
- Base: vanilla, tonka bean, amberwood, benzoin, myrrh, akigalawood
Should you buy the original or the reading
If you want the bottle, the tumbler, the box and the name on it, buy the original from lattafa.com; at AED 169 it is the cheapest famous fragrance in this country and there is no argument against it. If you want the scent in a size you will finish, or you want to try it before committing 100 ml of dates and cinnamon to a shelf, the MOJ 30 ml at AED 32 is the way to do that. If you already own Khamrah and want the next step, Qahwa is the brand's answer and our gourmand guide has the neighbours. Stock changes, so the product page is the final word.
