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Round 67 of the AlHimyan Perfume Battle puts a twelve-time champion against one of the most talked-about niche releases of the last decade. In the blue corner, Xerjoff XJ 1861 Naxos - honey, tobacco and lavender, a Sicilian daydream that has held this title for twelve straight rounds. In the red corner, Nishane Hacivat - the pineapple-and-oakmoss powerhouse from Istanbul that turned a small Turkish house into a global name.

One is warm, sweet and nocturnal. The other is bright, green and built for daylight. Only one walks away with the crown.

A note on our data this round

We score every battle on real community data, never on opinion alone. This round, Fragrantica was unreachable from our side (the site returned a 403 block), so all rating figures below come from Parfumo, verified across two independent page loads to rule out cached or mismatched data. We would rather publish one source we can prove than two we cannot. Every number you see below is real.

The contenders

Xerjoff XJ 1861 Naxos - the reigning champion

Released in 2015 as part of Xerjoff's 1861 collection, Naxos is named for the Sicilian coastal town and smells like it: sun, sweetness and smoke. It opens with lavender, bergamot, lemon and Omani frankincense - a bright, almost aromatic start that fools you into thinking this will be a citrus fragrance.

Then the heart arrives, and everything changes. Honey, cinnamon, jasmine sambac and cashmeran build a thick golden middle that is unmistakably Naxos. The base is where it earns its reputation: tobacco, vanilla and tonka bean, blended so smoothly that the sweetness never turns sickly. Parfumo classifies the scent profile as sweet-spicy, with projection and longevity rated above average.

Naxos currently sits ranked number one in Unisex Perfume on Parfumo, drawn from 13,710 ratings - one of the largest voting bases of any niche fragrance on the platform. That is not a cult following. That is a consensus.

Nishane Hacivat - the challenger

Hacivat launched in 2017, composed by Jorge Lee, and it did something rare: it made pineapple serious. The opening is pineapple, grapefruit and bergamot - loud, juicy, unmistakable. But where lesser fragrances let that fruit go sugary, Hacivat pulls it straight into cedarwood, jasmine and patchouli, then lands on a dry base of oakmoss, dry woods and Clearwood.

The result is a fruity-fresh profile with a distinctly green, mossy spine. Parfumo also rates its projection and longevity as above average, and the fragrance remains in production. With 3,639 ratings, Hacivat has a smaller but fiercely loyal voting base.

Head to head

The note pyramids

Xerjoff Naxos

Top: Lavender, bergamot, lemon, Omani frankincense
Heart: Honey, cinnamon, jasmine sambac, cashmeran
Base: Tobacco, vanilla, tonka bean

Nishane Hacivat

Top: Pineapple, grapefruit, bergamot
Heart: Cedarwood, jasmine, patchouli
Base: Oakmoss, dry woods, Clearwood

How they wear

Naxos is a cold-weather and evening fragrance by instinct. In UAE daytime heat the honey and tobacco can push forward quickly, so it performs best after sunset, in air-conditioned rooms, at dinners and weddings. Two sprays is genuinely enough. It sits close enough to feel personal but leaves a warm trail behind you for hours.

Hacivat is the opposite case. The pineapple-grapefruit opening is built for heat, and the oakmoss base keeps it from ever feeling sweet or cloying at 40 degrees. It is an office fragrance, a daytime fragrance, a Friday-brunch fragrance. In extrait concentration, the performance is far stronger than the fresh opening suggests.

The verdict

Scoring across community rating, longevity, sillage and value, the numbers are close but not ambiguous:

Winner: Xerjoff XJ 1861 Naxos. The champion holds for a thirteenth straight round.

Hacivat lost on margin, not on merit. It came within striking distance on longevity and sillage while costing AED 320 less. What separated them was the scent score itself - 8.9 against 8.1 - and the sheer weight of the voting base behind Naxos. When nearly fourteen thousand people rate a fragrance 8.9 out of 10 and rank it first in its entire category, that is very hard to beat.

If your budget says Hacivat and your taste says fresh, you are not settling. You are buying one of the best-reviewed fruity-woody fragrances ever released, in extrait concentration, for well under six hundred dirhams.

Which one should you buy?

Buy Naxos if: you want a signature evening scent, you love honey, tobacco and vanilla, you wear fragrance to weddings and dinners, and you want something that will still be complimented five years from now.

Buy Hacivat if: you need something that survives UAE daytime, you want fruit without sweetness, you work in an office, or you want maximum niche credibility per dirham.

Frequently asked questions

Is Naxos worth AED 869?
Parfumo's own value-for-money score is 7.6 out of 10 across more than twelve thousand voters, which is high for a fragrance at this price tier. Buyers who rate it think the price is justified.

Is Hacivat unisex?
Yes. Both fragrances are formally unisex. Naxos leans slightly masculine through the tobacco base; Hacivat is close to genuinely neutral.

Which lasts longer?
Naxos, by a small margin - 8.8 against 8.5 on Parfumo. Both are rated above average for longevity, and both will comfortably last a working day.

Is Hacivat Extrait stronger than a standard eau de parfum?
Hacivat is produced as an Extrait de Parfum, which is what we stock. The higher oil concentration is part of why its performance scores stay strong despite a fresh, citrus-fruit opening.

What is Clearwood?
Clearwood is a patchouli-derived material produced by Firmenich. It gives the clean, modern woody-earthy effect in Hacivat's base without the damp heaviness of raw patchouli.

Buy both at AlHimyan

Both fragrances are in stock and shipping across the UAE with cash on delivery available.

Xerjoff XJ 1861 Naxos Unisex EDP 100ml - AED 869

Nishane Hacivat Unisex Extrait de Parfum - AED 549

Round 68 arrives tomorrow. Naxos defends again.

Ratings sourced from Parfumo, verified 16 September 2026 across two independent page loads. Fragrantica was unreachable at time of publication.