The Cologne Podcast
EVERY MONDAY: Join best friends Myke and Ryan as they take on the world of fragrances with unfiltered humor and uneducated opinions. Each episode, they'll sniff out a new scent and give their honest, foul-mouthed review. From high-end colognes to drugstore bargains, no fragrance is off-limits. Brace yourself for an irreverent, no-holds-barred approach to fragrance reviews.
The Cologne Podcast
#277 - World's Most Popular Fragrance: Khamrah by Lataffa
What makes Khamrah the fragrance that's capturing everyone's attention? Join us as we embark on a week-long sensory journey with this renowned scent, generously gifted by our Patreon friend, Perfume Tea from up north. We scrutinize whether it truly stands up to the buzz it's generating, especially when compared to Oud for Glory and the celebrated Angel Share by Killian. With no holds barred, we dish out our raw, unfiltered thoughts on its luxe packaging and playful presentation.
Ever wondered if a $20 to $40 fragrance could rival high-end brands like Kilian? You’ll be surprised by the quality and performance we unearthed in this affordable gem. We break down the scent’s unique blend, its versatile application, and even touch on its perceived femininity—a hot topic among our friends and listeners alike. Amidst our musings, we fondly recount our morning walks, lattes, and danishes, painting a vivid picture of where and how this fragrance fits into daily life.
We're about to smell the most popular fragrance in the whole goddamn world.
Myke:You search Fragrantica, it's the highest rated, most popular fragrance. It's all over TikTok, no matter where you look, everybody is slurping down on a big juicy bottle of this.
Ryan:Five things you should know before purchasing Latafa Camera.
Myke:I want to know if the hype is real. I'm telling y'all, do not sleep on Latafa Camera. I'm talking high-end drugstore luxury. This fragrance is literally in my top five. Latafa Kamra is the most hype Arab fragrance. On TikTok you can get it for $24. Let's review it. Motherfucking morning and I'm still smelling shit. This smells so good To all of you guys. I love this perfume. What are you guys smelling? Because this is not nice. What am I missing?
Ryan:Hello everybody, Welcome to the Reborn from the Ashes Colonial.
Myke:Podcast and we're back and we're smelling something that is obsessed over. People are trying to get you on their TikTok shop to buy this bad boy for 20 bucks.
Ryan:And it was given to us by fellow Patreon friend of the podcast, perfume Tea from up north. They wanted us to do a review on this but we took it a step further.
Myke:Yes. So she sent us a full bottle of this as a gift. You don't get it, we're keeping it, but we thought we're going to do one better than just review this bad boy. We bought a second bottle of it, so I obviously kept the gift. Ryan got the second bottle and we have been wearing this every day. We weren't allowed to spray on anything else but this fragrance. For the last week. We've been wearing it every single day. We're going to tell you exactly how we feel about it.
Ryan:Woke up sprayed it on Took a shower. Sprayed it on Went to the dentist. Sprayed it on Went for a walk outside. Sprayed it on.
Ryan:That's how much we've been wearing this motherfucker and we're about to give you our uneducated opinion. That's right. This episode is so important to us that we're not even doing a one night stand review, which was a revisit of Nishane's Hasevat and that will come to you at a later date. We're going to do a special episode on that because we got some emails we wanted to read after that episode that were quite tantalizing.
Myke:It was almost scandalous, very scandalous. Somebody called us out Big time and we thought you know what. We're going to address this. But when it comes to the most popular fragrance in the world, we can't even stop to do that. We've got to smell this thing. Ryan called me and he said oh my God, mike, I have to let you know something. Are you sitting down?
Myke:Sadly it actually kind of went down like this, and it was like I asked him. I said is this going to be so mind blowing that you need to save it for the podcast? And you said yes, it is. But I really think you need to know now.
Ryan:Let me tell you what I discovered while going on this journey with this fragrance this past week. I told it to Mike. I told it to him off air. He said, yeah, that'd be great, let's tell it on the air. I'm going to tell you now. This is no joke. When you go to Fragranticacom and you go to their search side of it and there's different things you can check off, you can say I just want to look at fragrances for men, fragrances for women or what's just popular for unisex. I'm saying overall, the entire website, the highest rated fragrance is this, latafa Camra, and I'm blown away by that. Immediately I'm like I've never even smelled this, but this is supposed to be the most popular fragrance on fragrantica. Then we did some more research. Man, this thing is seriously screamed to the fucking heavens on TikTok and our first introduction to Latafa was Ood for Glory.
Ryan:Yes, which was a great?
Myke:it was a great clone to me and so we've kind of felt like Latafa was a clone house right. It kind of feels that way and you see it on all the lists, like right now, if you go and watch Ashton's like top greatest clones that are better than the original or as good as the original, this will even show up. In fact, some people say this is Latafa's version of Angel Share by Killian, which happens to be the number two most popular fragrance on Fragrantica, which is wild to me. It is wild, ryan. But what is more wild is that Oud for Glory was so good and so close to Oud for Greatness we thought that this might be an exact replica of Angel Share.
Ryan:Yeah, just based on the popularity alone. Right Wrong.
Myke:Because, from what we see out there, a lot of people are claiming this is not Angel Share but in fact something original and and different, supposedly better enough to knock it off its freaking pedestal and replace it with probably one of the most beautiful presentations I've ever seen for like a sub 40 fragrance yeah, no question, it's a glass bottle.
Ryan:The packaging's nice. Seriously, for the price point. It's's intriguing. All these pluses we're giving you all these pluses about it. Are there any downsides? Hmm, and that's what you're about to find out, because we're going to spray this motherfucker, we're going to smell it and we're going to tell you the truth we won't hold back a single thing because you guys know we never lie, because you guys know we never lie, starting to think George Washington was full of shit too.
Myke:dude, I cannot tell a lie. I did chop down the comrade tree. All right, here we go.
Ryan:Spraying my skin here. Test or strip. Okay, fellow douchebags and baguettes, you want to know the truth. The truth is that this actually opens up pretty gnarly. It's pretty good.
Myke:And so loud. This is one of the louder fragrances we've tried.
Ryan:It is super loud and it smells really good.
Myke:It's spicy, it's spicy, it's warm, it's very sweet, it's almost got like this vanilla smoothness to it. You mentioned boozy yes, the first time we saw it. Right, yeah, when you get like that warm, sweet spice, it kind of takes me into boozy territory. In fact, the sweet lady that sent us the bottle of this said that it reminds her of cream brulee, which happens to be her favorite dessert, and a good one at that, and I don't think I've ever had a cream brulee.
Ryan:Really, I don't think.
Myke:It's like where they just like melt sugar or something like that on the top of like a very sweet vanilla type custard or something. Yeah, I don't think I've ever had that.
Ryan:Wow, maybe I need to try that yeah that's amazing he's like genuinely pissed. I can see it. It's like we're going right now.
Myke:We're gonna drive to dallas well, that is one thing that we know, that culinary and fragrances, food fragrances they kind of marry each other. Hey, I've got a little tidbit actually, and I know this is on a tangent. I don't even care, though go go ahead. Something that we love just as much as fragrances is ben and jerry's ice cream.
Myke:Oh god, one of the things that we've said over and over is that they're not stingy with, like, the fill-ins, the ingredients, the chunks of stuff. You know why they do that. Why is that? Because ben of ben and jerry's is agnosmic and we talk about this on the show a lot, which is where you're nose blind, but he's permanently nose blind. Because of that. It affects his taste so much he can barely taste anything. So jerry, the flavor connoisseur of the, the duo, yeah, started adding in a ton of fill-ins so that he would like the texture of the ice cream, because he couldn't really taste it. Oh, so it was about a texture thing. That's pretty cool. I didn't know that, yeah. So there you go. If you do get agnosmic, then it affects your taste, and that's why scents and savory deliciousness go together.
Ryan:Okay, well then that leads into a little bit later on what I want to say about this fragrance, then. But before we do that, just smelling this, we are doing this episode a little bit different. I'm cutting to the chase really quick. Okay, the price and trend. Let me hit you the price might, depending on where you get it, between like 20 and 40 bucks for like 100 ml. Crazy, crazy, crazy cheap for how good this smells.
Myke:I can almost guess the trend, though what do?
Ryan:you think Freaking crazy. Yes, it is crazy. Up until just recently, it has had quite a bit of a fucking dip, really. Yeah, this was released in 2022, like the back end of it, but it picked up its traction in 2023 and has been freaking flying up. I don't know if that sounded like a rocket, but I tried. Yeah, sorry, I spit all over your mic.
Myke:No, it's crazy. I closed my eyes and I literally thought I was in a rocket.
Ryan:Was your seat vibrating?
Myke:Yeah, I was like where am I headed?
Ryan:To hell. But it has had a dip just recently. We'll talk about that here in a minute. But knowing all this, we've been smelling this for about a week, wearing it religiously.
Myke:I haven't worn another fragrance, have not worn another fragrance Other than this. A couple of things to say though. One, it smells great. Two, it does not smell cheap. No, which I've kind of found these $20 to $40 fragrances. You kind of get that cheapness, yeah. So I don't know if Latafa is doing something different over there, I don't know if we just somehow get a great deal on it because a presentation is great, which make you think they spent all their money on the presentation. But then you smell the juice, and the juice is great. It's loud, performs well, it smells good. So you're like how do they even keep this thing going? I'm not making any money they gotta be.
Ryan:As popular as it is, they're making some money. They gotta be. I think it just shows, too, like the fragrance world probably does make a pretty good coin off of these fragrances, because if they're allowed to do this and make that and we know they're making money at it that's probably not at a loss, I'm assuming.
Myke:Having done some extensive sniffing on Apple Brandy and a little bit on Angel Share.
Ryan:If I was to say it's trying to be a Killian, I would say it's the bastard child of apple brandy and angel share that makes sense, because how do you say her name and andrea, oh, andrea, andrea, her man, be smelling this together on a video they did, and he was like it didn't smell like a whiskey. He said more like a brandy. Oh, so he said the same thing and I vibe with that a lot. I think that both of you are on the right path here with what this smells like.
Myke:Yeah, I actually used to live in the same town that Andrea lives in in Massachusetts.
Ryan:I literally make him say her name all the time, because he has to say it that way.
Myke:Well, I mean, we're in Texas so we add a little bit of like flair when we order stuff. Well, you probably don't, but if I like will order something, I'll say can I get a torta or a torta?
Ryan:Yeah, most of the time I don't do that, but sometimes it's nice to be, like with carnitas and this man loves torta so much so that he wanted to stop at a torta place in a bad neighborhood at like 12 o'clock at night and I was like, eh, I'm good.
Myke:I've eaten there by myself. I've rolled up at that time. I'm not worried about it at all.
Ryan:Nothing comes between you and the food dog. That's right. You know there's all this good behind this. What's the monkey's paw to this fragrance?
Myke:Because I've got one when each wish comes with a curse yeah, of equal or greater value. Exactly what is it? So here's where the bad comes in, guys. And is it an actual bad, or is it a preferential sort of bad?
Ryan:I think it's more so preferential for me, but I do think a lot of people can kind of agree with what I'm about to say. Does this smell good? Yes, is it really well priced for smelling that good? Yes, Is it packaged fucking well for this price?
Myke:Yes, but is packaged?
Ryan:fucking well. For this price, yes, but is it for you? Hmm, that's where this gets tricky guys.
Myke:Okay, let me say something before you say more. Okay, so I've also been carrying this bottle around because I've been able to take it and show friends and go see people love me. This was a gift and I let some of my lady friends smell this, all of which they loved, yeah, but they said I think this is more feminine. It smells great, but they're like I'd rather wear it than smell it on you. Is that where you're headed, ryan?
Ryan:It's exactly where I'm headed. I just truly believe in my heart of hearts. It may be unisex. Look, it might have a circle with a freaking plus sign sticking out and an arrow out the other side we're going.
Myke:The artist formerly known as prince.
Ryan:Yeah, I'm telling you, this thing feels very feminine and when I smell it, that's all I can smell it a great smell, and I can verify that it does smell a lot better on a woman. Like it just when you smell the DNA and you see it's on a woman, you're just like it works there, but it doesn't work for me.
Myke:So we took a walk this morning, you and I. You know, because we're beacons of health.
Ryan:Yes, know, because we're beacons of health.
Myke:Yes, followed by cheese. Danish, that's right. Yeah, we immediately went for lattes and danishes and we burned maybe 80 calories walking and then consumed 800 and I was like hey, just so you know, we usually do, uh, 10 push-ups around each lap.
Myke:I'm like I'm not doing not today, yeah, my shoulders fucked and then he was so nice to stop so I could do him.
Myke:I was like I'm not doing them either way on this walk, when I could smell it coming off of you, it did smell feminine, it smelled great, but it smelled feminine.
Myke:Here's where it gets kind of tricky and I think this happens in shops it's also why I've been railing against tester strips these days is when you smell it close, you get more spice, you get a little bit more booziness and you go, oh yeah, this is masculine, yeah, or it's at least proper unisex, yeah. But when you smell it on someone else and this is how we at the Cologne podcast are the most blessed human beings on earth because we have two dude bros that wear fragrances around each other, because this morning I hadn't sprayed it on, so I was only smelling it on you and when I could smell on you I thought very vanilla, very sweet and very feminine coming off of you. But when I get close, like this, I'm like, oh yeah, I smell more of that spice and more of that kind of masculinity coming through. But you have to get really close and that also kind of makes you not like it as much, because it's so rich that when you smell it for too long it kind of does get sickly sweet.
Ryan:Yeah, very much. So. We've worn it for a week now Only, and I'll tell you what I told Mike on the walk today. I fucking detest this thing.
Myke:Is it because of the fragrance or is it because, one, the fragrance is not you. Two, we've been wearing it in like 90 degree heat and this is not that fragrance. Yes, meant really for winter time, yeah, cooler weather, or on someone that looks way better than Ryan, for sure, but to be real, and has way more hair than me.
Ryan:But to be real though, I more hair than me. But to be real though I mean I would think spice bomb is what are fragrance? I'll wear that thing all year and I love that fragrance.
Myke:I don't care but I think I wouldn't like it now because I'm more sensitive to fragrances, used to not pay attention to it, but now I'm like my nose is on the hunt constantly, so I honestly think I'd be overwhelmed by that too. Too sweet in the heat for me just doesn't work anymore. Yeah, so is that the issue? Is it that it's just too hot and we're wearing it out, or the fact that you've had no choice to wear a different fragrance? You've had to wear this. I've forced you to wear only this.
Ryan:I'd be like slowly picking up one of my other bottles and I'd see out the side of my window at the house, like peeking through the blinds and I'd go uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh.
Myke:A little Jurassic.
Ryan:Park throwback for you. Absolutely. Newman was great in that. No it's. I don't think it's that for me. I just genuinely I would get tired of smelling this on somebody else all the time. Really I'm not a fan of this kind of profile of fragrance.
Ryan:I just I'm just not and uh but, after being forced to wear it for a week. Yeah, I fucking hate this thing. Sorry, sorry to Perfume Tea. My version was the one Mike bought, so I'm not dissing your gift, but I genuinely fucking hate this thing, and all the more. It's like it answers the question and it doesn't for me of what answers it, but then at the same time it creates new problems, because I'm like why is this so goddamn popular? Why is it the most popular fragrance on fragrantica out of everything? You don't see it. I mean, I know it's because a price point and it does smell good it's long lasting, it doesn't smell cheap.
Ryan:It's beautiful, like the presentation yeah, it's like yes and no, I agree with all that, but then I don't really because I don't think it is all that long lasting to me shocked. I really don't think it's long lasting to me. I do. My god, I just don't. Well, I say that. But then the only best part of this was the next day when I was washing off in the shower and I was like, hey, right, when it gets to that point and I'm being funny- it actually dry down.
Ryan:Yeah, the uber dry down of it is actually really nice, but the rest of it I just cannot I just don't like this.
Myke:See, this is long lasting to me because in the evening sometimes I would spray it on right after a shower. And I remember the next morning I like rolled over in bed and I like threw my arm up, and you know how you kind of like use your arm as a pillow. Oh yeah, it woke me up because it was still so loud on my arm. It was like one of those smelling salts or whatever. It was still so loud that I was like I'm up in more ways than one the best part of waking up is comrade in your car by latafa.
Ryan:Look, let's do it. Are you gonna skip it, sample it or fucking buy it? Mike, what are you gonna do? Ryan, I guess it would be no surprise to anybody here. This is a certifiable, without question. I've already told you when we're done hitting record on this fucking podcast, I will never, ever spray this on my body again, shocked. It is such a skip. I won't even glance at it, I won't even I. I just, I just won't, I won't even, I won't even look it in the fucking eyes, mike. Huh, it's a skip, man. The crazy thing is I'm saying skip, but I'm going to tell you people listening, I mean, it is cheap. We're not sponsored here. I wish we were. Actually, we are sponsored. We're sponsored by you, the fellow Patreons. Yeah, that's true.
Myke:We just had actually a poll of do you think sponsorships compromise integrity?
Ryan:And you guys would be shocked at the answer that we got in the poll.
Myke:It's true, we were so shocked we went back and recorded just like a bonus episode, going over the results and then going over how we feel about the results as well, and it made for an interesting kind of chat, a little fireside chat. 20-minute episode.
Ryan:Yeah, and that was for the Patreons, and again, that's where we're sponsored, the Patreons, you guys, thank you so much. Perfume Tea is a Patreon. She sent you a bottle of this. Thank you again. So, with saying that, all that, get that out of the way. Part of me does go. It's so cheap that you can I mean it's sampling but you're also can blind buy it because you're not going to be out too much money, right, and I mean hell, I guess if you had to sell it, somebody's going to buy it for 10, 15 bucks off, if you get some of your money back, I guess. But yeah, you could easily turn it around. I do think, though, legitimately in my heart of hearts, people, I think, if you're a man, just just skip, go, I don't know, just go, do something else.
Myke:Well, if Ryan's done talking, I'll give you my opinion on whether or not it's a skip it, a sample it or a buy it. The floor is yours, Mike One. I think it's a sample it, and by sample it you're probably going to end up blind buying it.
Myke:And look you'd probably move it really quick if you didn't like it. So I'm going to say sample it. I do feel like it is more feminine, but she was saying that she really likes it on her sexy smelling dude. And it makes me wonder, because there have been plenty of times I've smelled women wearing ombre leather and I've gone Ooh, that smells good.
Ryan:Starts doing that thing that horses do with their front hoof.
Myke:Sometimes you just one, you like the smell of something. And then if you like the look of something and you like the look of something and you like the smell of that something, it doesn't really matter if it's feminine, masculine, sometimes you just like the combo.
Ryan:Mike is the real-life schneider and the animal yeah maybe so I don't know.
Myke:I will quote what it says on the beautiful glass doors of the scent room. Oh yeah, it is a quote that says perfume doesn't care where it lands. So is it more feminine? To me, yes, but ladies may like the smell of this on a man. There's been masculine fragrances that we've liked to smell on women and vice versa. Guys, you just got to smell good.
Myke:It doesn't have to be super masculine, so I think you could get away with this. For me. I kept telling Ryan over and over again I'd probably wear this occasionally, but it would have to be cooler weather and I'd probably want to be more playful with my scent. I probably wouldn't want to make a huge statement, because it really is just like, once you've wore it for a while, it really is just this giant vanilla bomb. That's very sweet, very rich. It's a sample.
Myke:Ladies, I would almost guarantee it as a blind buy. I think it would be a smart choice because of the price. It is beautiful. It's going to look great on your shelf of other fragrances. It doesn't look cheap, doesn't smell cheap, doesn't perform like a cheap fragrance does. It is a wonderful fragrance. Is it a direct dupe of Angel Share or Apple Brandy, nowhere even close, and so I think you could make a mistake by just grading it that way. If you go, I found a $30 replacement for Angel Share Apple Brandy and you get it. I think you'll be disappointed. If you look at it that way, yeah, but if you just smell it for its own right, I think you'll like it. Guys, you may want to buy it secretly don't tell your lady. Spray it a few times, see if you like it, and if you don't, wrap it up, and here you go.
Ryan:Babe, I got you something he is a shy steve bastard, that's for sure. Now I'm starting to think about every fragrance you've ever given me. Now there was that commodity one.
Myke:I told you straight up I didn't like it. You keep going back to that one example, that one shitty one. But you're giving me rosea. Yeah, dude, multiple hell. You've gotten two bottles of elysium cologne parfum from me. Yeah, and the parfum I fucking love them.
Ryan:Greenlee the greenlee was nice too. Molecule of one that was nice too damn. Have I ever given you a fragrance? No, I've really never given you one fragrance I, I'm trying to think Carbon.
Myke:I gave you Carbon as well. What the hell? Yeah, how come you've never bought me a fragrance, Ryan?
Ryan:Am I a shitty friend? Write us at theclonepodcasts at gmailcom.
Myke:Yeah, I give Ryan a hard time, but when we're not recording I'm like the sweetest guy out there.
Ryan:Oh, here we go hey you go back and listen to that Haasavod episode where I'm like you want to do something about it and you were like I can't even imagine you that way because you're so sweet and cute, Making me sound like I'm Nathan Lane over here, dude.
Myke:That's not right. Are we the?
Ryan:Timon and Pumbaa of the fragrance. Listen, guys, if you love today's episode. Once you fucking put your money where your mouth is and go to patreoncom. Slash cologne podcast. Yeah, slash cologne podcast. I don't say this lightly.
Myke:We are taking the patreon way serious look, it's not like other patreons that you've seen. They're getting at least one bonus episode per week. It's not just this thing where you get early access. Yeah, it's not that shit. You get that.
Ryan:You get giveaways, you get live episodes now, and we're gonna be doing live what we call shooting the shit where we kind of have uh, yeah, it's just like meetups, almost like online meetups, you know, with different topics we're going to discuss, because your voice matters, so and the most important part is is that you're actually going to be in a community with people like yourself, for sure yeah, this isn't some toxic corner of the internet.
Myke:These are people that really care about fragrances and they really don't care about the drama.
Ryan:I'm telling you guys, it's amazing, so much so that I literally told it to our patrons. Tear of my eye looking at them organically interacting with each other, not us just strictly commanding what's said and whatever in there.
Myke:Yeah which, by the way, we haven't said this before. We've opened up community chat. Now you guys can talk with each other. We're gonna be popping in there. We've actually decided that we're gonna start being there all day.
Myke:One day, yeah, to where we'll start a topic of discussion and we're gonna be in the chat just interacting with you guys all day long, throughout the day so if you don't want us to pitch you guys some ball shavers or weird sponsorship that doesn't even have to do with fragrances, where we just go on and on for two or three minutes talking about how you can drink your greens and shit like that. Then go to the Patreon. Help us make this thing only fragrance related.
Ryan:Grassroots baby, let's do it Until next.