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Round 40 of the AlHimyan Perfume Battle puts a 131-dirham crowd-pleaser against a 750-dirham French niche release. On paper it should not even be close. On the numbers, it is not close at all, but not in the direction most people would guess.

Our reigning champion, Afnan 9PM, walks in with twenty-four consecutive wins. Today it meets Alexandre.J Black Beetle, a spicy patchouli built by two respected French perfumers and housed in one of the prettiest bottles in the niche aisle.

The contenders

Afnan 9PM Eau de Parfum, 100ml

Released in 2015 by Afnan Perfumes, 9PM is the fragrance that taught a generation of UAE buyers that a sweet, loud, evening amber does not have to cost four figures. It opens on crisp apple and bergamot with a lick of cinnamon, settles into a soft floral middle, and spends most of its life as vanilla, tonka bean and amber over a quiet patchouli base.

Notes. Top: apple, Provencal lavender, cinnamon, bergamot. Heart: lily of the valley, orange blossom. Base: vanilla, tonka bean, patchouli, amber.

Main accords. Sweet, fruity, creamy, gourmand.

Shop Afnan 9PM EDP 100ml at AlHimyan, AED 131

Alexandre.J Black Beetle Eau de Parfum, 100ml

Black Beetle arrived in 2022 and was composed by Anne-Sophie Behaghel and Amelie Bourgeois. It is the more grown-up proposition of the two: frankincense and raspberry over bergamot at the top, then a genuinely unusual heart where chili and nutmeg heat up a dark, airy patchouli, all resting on plain woods. It is a patchouli scent for people who normally find patchouli too heavy.

Notes. Top: frankincense, raspberry, bergamot. Heart: chili, nutmeg, patchouli, musk. Base: woods.

Main accords. Spicy, woody, earthy, fruity, oriental.

Shop Alexandre.J Black Beetle Unisex EDP 100ml at AlHimyan, AED 750

The scorecard

A note on method, because it matters. Fragrantica blocked automated access when we ran this round, so we did not use a Fragrantica figure for either perfume rather than guess at one. The remaining weights were rescaled proportionally, which is the same treatment both contenders received. Every number in the table above came from a live Parfumo page read on the morning of publication.

Reading the numbers honestly

The gap in sample size is the single most important line in that table. Afnan 9PM has been rated by 2,366 people. Black Beetle has been rated by twenty. Twenty ratings is enough to tell you roughly where a fragrance sits and nowhere near enough to be confident about the second decimal place. If Black Beetle picks up another two hundred ratings this year, its score could move meaningfully in either direction. 9PM's score, at this point, is essentially fixed.

So treat this as what it is: a well-established score against a provisional one. We are disclosing it rather than burying it, because a comparison that hides its own weak spot is not worth reading.

That said, the gap is wide enough that sample size alone does not explain it. Black Beetle would need to be sitting near 9.0 on scent to close an 0.9 point margin, and nothing in its twenty ratings suggests it is being under-rated by that much.

Where the battle was actually won

Value for money. This is the decisive column. 9PM scores 9.13, which is close to the ceiling of what any fragrance earns on that metric. Black Beetle scores 7.09, which is respectable for a niche house and still nowhere near enough. At AED 131 against AED 750, one of these bottles asks you to think about it and the other does not.

Performance. 9PM wins both longevity and sillage, though not by much. 8.21 against 7.81 on longevity, 7.99 against 7.56 on projection. Both are strong performers by any normal standard. Neither of these is a skin scent, and neither will disappear on you after three hours.

The bottle. Black Beetle takes the one category it wins by a mile, 8.88 against 6.93. That is not a small thing if the bottle sits on your dresser rather than in a drawer. Alexandre.J presentation is genuinely beautiful, and 9PM's is functional at best.

Winner: Afnan 9PM, twenty-five wins in a row

Final score 8.27 against 7.37. The champion holds the hill for a twenty-fifth consecutive round, and the pattern that has kept it there all month held again: nothing we have put in front of it competes on value.

Which one should you actually buy

The score picks a winner. It does not pick your bottle. These two do not smell remotely alike, and the honest answer depends on what you want.

Buy Afnan 9PM if you want a sweet, warm, high-impact evening fragrance, you are shopping for someone whose taste you do not know well, or you simply want the most performance per dirham on this page. It is an easy compliment-getter and a very safe gift.

Buy Alexandre.J Black Beetle if you already own sweet ambers and want something drier and more adult, if spicy patchouli appeals to you, or if you want a bottle that looks like an object rather than a product. It is the more distinctive fragrance of the two by a distance. It is also nearly six times the price, and you should want it specifically.

Frequently asked questions

Is Afnan 9PM suitable for men or women? It is listed as a men's fragrance and sold that way in the UAE, but the sweet apple and vanilla profile is worn widely by both. Nothing in the composition makes it exclusively masculine.

How long does Afnan 9PM last? Parfumo users rate its longevity at 8.21 out of 10 across 2,282 votes, which puts it in the strong-performer band. Expect a full working day on skin, longer on clothing.

Is Black Beetle unisex? Yes. Alexandre.J lists it as unisex and the spicy patchouli profile sits comfortably in the middle. It leans neither sweet-feminine nor sharp-masculine.

Why is there no Fragrantica score in this comparison? Fragrantica blocked automated access on the day we compiled this round. We would rather publish a comparison with one source missing and say so than fill the gap with an estimate.

Do you deliver these in the UAE? Yes. Both bottles ship across the UAE with cash on delivery available, free delivery over AED 300, and a seven-day return window.

Tomorrow

Round 41 brings a fresh challenger against a champion that has now survived twenty-five straight rounds. The pool of contenders that can beat 9PM on value is getting thin, which means the next perfume to take the hill will probably have to win on scent alone.

Both fragrances in this round are in stock at AlHimyan today: Afnan 9PM EDP 100ml at AED 131 and Alexandre.J Black Beetle Unisex EDP 100ml at AED 750. Authentic brands, delivered across the UAE.

Ratings source: Parfumo, read live on 20 August 2026. Fragrantica data unavailable at time of publication.