Nishane Hacivat: Worth It?
Article Summary: Nishane Hacivat is a 2017 extrait de parfum by Jorge Lee, part of the Shadow Play Trilogy, and it is the Istanbul house's most talked about bottle. It is pineapple, grapefruit and bergamot over jasmine, patchouli and cedarwood, landing on oakmoss and dry woods, which is a chypre built on fruit rather than the citrus most retailers label it. The comparison everybody makes is to Creed Aventus, and it does not survive checking: the two were composed by different perfumers seven years apart, neither house has ever mentioned the other, and no legal action exists between them. In the UAE the price spread is the widest we have recorded: AED 1,528 for the 100 ml at Ounass against AED 596 from a third-party seller on Carrefour's marketplace, on the same day. Nishane has no open boutique in the Emirates; Abu Dhabi's Marina Mall is listed as coming soon. MOJ's reading, Hacivat, is AED 48 for 30 ml, 59 for 50 ml and 109 for 100 ml, every size available on November 7, 2026.
- The Aventus comparison is consumer commentary and nothing more. No shared perfumer, no brand statement, no lawsuit. We checked all three.
- The UAE price range on one 100 ml bottle is AED 596 to 1,528, a gap of 61 percent, and the cheap end is a marketplace seller.
- Hacivat is an extrait de parfum. Several UAE retailers print eau de parfum on their listings, which is wrong.
- Watch what you are buying: Hacivat X and Hacivat Oud are different fragrances, and at least one Dubai retailer stocks only the X.
What Hacivat is
Hacivat launched in 2017 as part of the Shadow Play Trilogy, three fragrances Nishane released together and named after characters from Turkish shadow puppet theatre. Hacivat and Karagöz are the two leads of that tradition, and the brand added Zenne as the third; the name comes from Hacı İvaz, meaning İvaz the Pilgrim, and the brand describes the character as a tribute to refinement, competence and a love of art. The fragrance itself is a chypre wearing fruit. Nishane's own page gives bergamot, pineapple and grapefruit on top, jasmine, patchouli and cedarwood in the heart, and clearwood, oakmoss and dry timberwood at the base, and Parfumo prints the same nine materials in a slightly different order. That is unusually tidy: the note list has not changed since the 2017 launch release, which is not something we can say about most fragrances we cover. What makes it work is the oakmoss. Pineapple on its own goes sweet and goes stale; mossy, dry wood under it turns the same fruit into something that reads as a grown-up chypre rather than a juice. It is an extrait de parfum, in 15, 50 and 100 ml, and there is no refill.
The Aventus comparison, and why it does not hold up
This is the reason most people arrive at this fragrance, so it deserves the checking rather than the repeating. Hacivat is constantly described as a Creed Aventus alternative, and almost every version of that claim implies a connection between the two houses. There is none that we can find, and we looked for three specific things. First, a shared perfumer: Hacivat was composed by Jorge Lee, with Nishane's two founders credited alongside him, while Aventus is credited to Jean-Christophe Hérault and Olivier Creed. Different noses, different houses, seven years apart. Second, a statement from either brand: we read Nishane's Hacivat page, its Hacivat X page, its about page, the 2017 launch release and two separate founder interviews, and Nishane has never named Creed or Aventus. Creed has never named Nishane either. Third, legal action: Creed does litigate, but against unauthorised distributors and dupe marketers, and there is no case involving Nishane. What is actually true is smaller. Both fragrances put pineapple somewhere near the top and both have moss underneath, and that is one shared material and one shared idea, not a shared formula. The earliest public comparison we could trace is a reader comment under a March 2017 launch article, which tells you how this started. Our Aventus article covers the other half of this argument.
Who Nishane are
Nishane was founded in Istanbul in 2012 by Mert Güzel and Murat Katran, who met at a friend's birthday party in 2010; Katran was an export manager in the steel business and also an actor, Güzel had founded a hotel chain. They funded the house themselves, released the first fragrance in 2013 and took a sixteen-piece extrait collection to the Esxence trade fair in 2015, which is where the rest of the world met them. The name is the Turkish nişane, meaning a mark, a sign or a symbol. The brand calls itself the first and only Istanbul-based niche perfume house, which is its own claim and a narrower one than the version you usually see repeated, so we print it as the brand's words. It has grown quickly: trade press reported projected 2026 revenue of 150 to 200 million dollars and sales in more than 120 countries across more than 1,500 retail points, and the only investor named anywhere is Maxis Girişim, with no stake size, no value and no date disclosed. No strategic buyer has acquired it. The house now runs its own shops in Paris, London, New York, Rome, Istanbul, Jeddah, Riyadh, Doha and Beirut among others, and the Emirates entry on that list is Abu Dhabi's Marina Mall, marked coming soon, so there is no open Nishane boutique here yet. Our niche guide covers the neighbours.
Buying one in the UAE, and the widest spread we have recorded
On November 7, 2026 the 100 ml of Hacivat was AED 1,528 at Ounass and AED 596.10 on Carrefour's marketplace from a third-party seller, which is a gap of 61 percent on the same bottle in the same city on the same day. That is wider than any spread we have published, including the Initio one we wrote about yesterday. The rest of the picture: Bloomingdale's showed it from AED 1,082 with an active buy button; Ounass had the 50 ml at AED 1,082; Faces listed the 100 ml at AED 1,435 with none to sell and the 50 ml at AED 1,030; Paris Gallery had it at AED 903, marked down from 1,473, with nothing available; Carrefour also had a 50 ml at AED 465 from a different third-party seller. Two warnings before anyone acts on the cheap end. The first is the usual one: a marketplace seller at less than half the authorised price can be running parallel imports, clearing old stock, or selling something else entirely, and from outside you cannot tell which. The second is specific to this fragrance. Galeries Lafayette Dubai stocks Hacivat X, not Hacivat, and lists it as an eau de parfum when it is an extrait; Hacivat X is a different composition with lime, orange flower and vetiver in it, and Hacivat Oud is a third product again. Check the exact name on the box. Our where-to-buy guide has the authorised list.
What nobody can prove about it
Three claims follow this fragrance around and none of them stands up. It has no award: we checked the Art and Olfaction Awards winner and finalist lists for 2018, 2019 and 2020 and the Fragrance Foundation's 2018 lists, and Hacivat appears on none of them. There is a trap here worth naming, because a well-known fragrance site runs pages headed with Hacivat and the word winner, and those are giveaway draw announcements rather than awards. It has no documented sales figure: the trade press wrote about Nishane twice in 2026 with brand-level revenue and growth numbers and did not mention Hacivat once, and the only seller ranking attached to it is a Dubai retailer's own badge on its own listing. And it has no reported viral moment from any named publication, whatever the volume of video about it suggests. What it does have, which is more interesting than any of that, is a note list that has not moved in nine years and a house that went from self-funded to 1,500 retail points in thirteen. Our woody guide ranks it against the rest.
The MOJ reading
Ours is one of the closest readings on this site, and the arithmetic of why is simple. Nishane publishes nine materials; our product page builds pineapple, grapefruit and bergamot on top, cedar, patchouli and jasmine in the heart, and oakmoss and woody notes at the base. Seven of the nine carry over by name. What is missing is clearwood, a captive woody material, and dry timberwood, both of which our base compresses into woody notes, so the difference is one of specificity rather than character. The pineapple, the grapefruit, the jasmine, the patchouli, the cedar and the oakmoss, which between them are the whole of what makes Hacivat recognisable, are all present. Our Oman store's version of this reading adds musk and amber to the base and is a slightly warmer thing; this one is the drier of the two and the nearer to the original. It is our own composition inspired by the original, in 30, 50 and 100 ml at AED 48, 59 and 109, every size available on November 7, 2026. The arithmetic that brings most people here: AED 109 against AED 1,528 for the same volume at Ounass is about fourteen times less, and about five and a half times less than even the marketplace price. It sits in our men's collection although it is unisex.
- Top: pineapple, grapefruit, bergamot
- Heart: cedar, patchouli, jasmine
- Base: oakmoss, woody notes
Should you buy the original or the reading
If you want the real thing, buy the 50 ml at Bloomingdale's or Ounass rather than chasing the marketplace price, and read the box before you pay, because Hacivat, Hacivat X and Hacivat Oud are three different fragrances and at least one Dubai retailer carries only the second. Do not expect to walk into a Nishane boutique here; the nearest one the brand lists is in Doha, and the Abu Dhabi shop has not opened. If you want to find out whether pineapple over moss suits you before spending four figures, our 30 ml at AED 48 answers it with seven of the original's nine materials, and our guide to inspired perfumes explains what a reading is and is not. And if you came here because somebody told you this is the cheap Aventus: it is not a cheap anything, it is a different fragrance by a different perfumer, and the comparison is a conversation the two houses have never had. Stock changes, so the product page is the final word.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pineapple over oakmoss, which is a chypre rather than the citrus several retailers label it. Nishane's own page gives bergamot, pineapple and grapefruit on top, jasmine, patchouli and cedarwood in the heart, and clearwood, oakmoss and dry timberwood at the base, and Parfumo prints the same nine materials in a slightly different order, so there is no real dispute about what is in it. The pineapple is the part people recognise and the oakmoss underneath is what stops it going sweet. It launched in 2017 as part of the Shadow Play Trilogy, composed by Jorge Lee, and the published note list has not changed since the launch release. It is an extrait de parfum in 15, 50 and 100 ml, with no refill. MOJ's reading is AED 48 for 30 ml, 59 for 50 ml and 109 for 100 ml.
No, and the connection people assume does not exist. We checked three specific things. There is no shared perfumer: Hacivat was composed by Jorge Lee in 2017, while Aventus is credited to Jean-Christophe Herault and Olivier Creed in 2010, so different noses at different houses seven years apart. There is no statement from either brand: Nishane has never named Creed or Aventus on its Hacivat page, its Hacivat X page, its about page, the 2017 launch release or in two founder interviews, and Creed has never named Nishane. And there is no legal action between them; Creed does litigate, but against unauthorised distributors and marketers of copies. What is true is that both put pineapple near the top and have moss underneath, which is one shared material and one shared idea, not a shared formula. The earliest public comparison we could trace is a reader comment under a March 2017 launch article.
Between AED 596 and 1,528 for the 100 ml, checked on November 7, 2026, which is a gap of 61 percent on the same bottle. Ounass showed the 100 ml at AED 1,528 and the 50 ml at 1,082; Bloomingdale's showed it from AED 1,082 with an active buy button; Faces listed the 100 ml at 1,435 with none to sell and the 50 ml at 1,030; Paris Gallery had it at 903, reduced from 1,473, with nothing available; and Carrefour's marketplace showed 596.10 for the 100 ml and 465 for the 50 ml, both from third-party sellers rather than authorised accounts. A discount of that size from an unfamiliar marketplace seller is a reason to pause rather than a bargain. MOJ's reading is AED 48, 59 and 109.
They are different fragrances, and buying the wrong one is easy. Hacivat is the 2017 original from the Shadow Play Trilogy. Hacivat X belongs to a separate collection and has a different note list, with lime, orange flower and Haitian vetiver in it. There is also a third product, Hacivat Oud. The practical problem is that Gulf retailers mix them up: Galeries Lafayette Dubai stocks Hacivat X rather than the original and lists it as an eau de parfum when every Hacivat is an extrait de parfum. Read the exact name on the box before you pay, especially if the price looks unusually good.
No, it is our own composition inspired by the original, and it is one of the closest readings we make. Nishane publishes nine materials and ours uses seven of them by name: pineapple, grapefruit and bergamot on top, cedar, patchouli and jasmine in the heart, and oakmoss and woody notes at the base. What is not there is clearwood, a captive woody material, and dry timberwood, both of which our base compresses into woody notes, so the difference is one of specificity rather than character. Note that our Oman store's version of this reading adds musk and amber to the base; the UAE one is the drier of the two and the nearer to the original. It is AED 48, 59 and 109 for 30, 50 and 100 ml, every size available on November 7, 2026.
