Oud Luban

Apparently this is Leonard Cohen's favorite perfume, according to the official website. Reminds me of leather-bound books in the library of an ancient wooden cathedral somewhere very foggy. It also reminds me of the wings of the backstage of an old wooden theater with lots of history. There is something very ancient, mysterious, and mystical about this perfume. Definitely very woody, almost a cedar with incense. There is also some leather. Citrusy top notes. This feels like a very grown-up fragrance that one might wear to a serious, formal event or ceremony where you want to show reverence. It's not a casual wear, and it's not really appropriate for a night out (unless you're going to a museum). Not a "sexy" fragrance.

Not an oud-centric fragrance. As another reviewer mentioned, this is very pine-y. This is unique and fresh, but I prefer others in the line more.

The top notes in Oud Luban are: elemi, orange terpenes, blood orange, and frankincense CO2. The base notes are oud, opopanax, choya ral (a smoky resin extracted from the Himalayan Sal tree), benzoin, and aged patchouli. Right off the top of Oud Luban, I get the most unusual combination of sharp orange zest mixed with the inside of a car mechanic shop, i.e. a heavy diesel note. Perhaps this is the result of the choya ral, the note in the breakdown with which I’m least familiar. “Diesel” sounds off-putting, but it has the odd effect of pulling my nose in for more. This could be a result of any several of the notes, including one of the eight (yes, eight) ouds that are included in the blend. Since there are so many different kinds of oud here, the scent may have gone off in a myriad number of directions. If I had to guess my untrained nose would guess that a good portion of those eight ouds came from Laos, known for being ... especially trying to the olfactory sense, to put it kindly. You may be able to accuse Oud Luban of being a lot of things, but you can’t say that it’s synthetic, and you can’t say it’s not redolent of the best oud – that skanky, animal, leathery, civet-laden oud that sends shivers of admiration down the spines of true perfumistas. I’m personally think myself too inexperienced to layer much of anything, but Mandy smartly suggests layering this with an assertive floral to brighten it. That sounds like a fabulous idea, and I know one it would layer with perfectly: Dirty Sinner, No. 07 from Greg Wharton’s Body Conjure collection, a heady jasmine that can stand up to an assertive oud note – or eight of them. I’ve spent the last year screaming up and down that I wanted a “real oud,” not this commercialized, watered-down stuff that’s really just sandalwood or cedar anyway. Well, I finally met my match. Mandy Aftel, you have bested me. I found someone to give me a taste of my own medicine, and I can’t handle it. Unfortunately, Oud Luban never quite lets up the petrochemical-like top that it does on my skin. Someone interested in the most unusual, liminal qualities of oud is going to love this. I wanted to say something about how it layered with something else (see above), but I wanted to leave this review to be on Oud Luban in its integrity alone, unmixed with anything else. Let me be said, though, that it does happen to mix very nicely with scents that are markedly more feminine. Now if I only knew more about layering!

A beautiful round, dry, smoky, leathery wood. Other (synthetic?) oud is unpleasantly fuzzy and sweet on me (one squirt of Demeter oud and I ran for the soap and water) but the Aftelier version is big and soft and dry and - obvs - expensive. To be fair the drydown is a hair's breadth from smelling like bandaids and bubblegum (the new frag from ELdO, thanks folks I'm here all week) and eventually there is a very slight head shop vibe, but somehow it misses all these marks and/or becomes the ideal version of them. The only possible way for me to actually use this would be to rub all of it into my hair and on my clothes. I have teflon skin so natural perfumes are more or less useless for me. :-(

One of my favorites from Aftelier. If I were to ignore all the listed ingredients... I would say cedar polished with lemon oil (in a good way), frankincense, and vetiver. Actually reminds me a lot of full incense from Montale, but if that was in 2D and Oud Luban is in 3D. I don't get a lot of oud in this. probably it's just playing it's role as a fixative and doing a good job at that without stinking things up B)