Ahmed Mostafa grew up in Abu Dhabi in the 1980s, where his mother, a journalist who worked with members of the UAE royal family, brought home gifts of agarwood, bakhoor and oud perfumes. He placed ninth in the world in A-level chemistry, took a master's in materials science and engineering, worked briefly as a materials engineer, then served as a diplomat from 2012 to 2017, training his nose as postings took him abroad. He went full time in perfume in 2018 and launched Elixir Attar in 2019.
His blends lean on rare naturals: agarwood up to kyara grade, deer musk, ambergris, irones and floral enfleurages. He also runs Elixir Agarwood Science and Ancient Resins, which sell those raw materials to people learning perfumery, and he has composed made-to-order perfumes for hundreds of private clients.
His Smoke Series opened with Dark Matter, built to capture agarwood smoke, and continued with Kinam Kodo, which rebuilds the smoke of kinam agarwood from a molecular study he began in 2019. Dark Matter II reworks the first as a limited extrait of saffron, Taif rose, honey, aged oud and castoreum. AlGhaliya Bulgare Fleuri et Animalique pairs Sri Lankan oud with lilac, rose and gardenia enfleurages, black and white ambergris and three musks over vintage Mysore sandalwood. Ballad Irone II: Après Le Soir is the second edition of his Après Le Soir.