Oud Excelsa

I love when you go shopping for a fragrance, buy it and then on your walk around discover a different hidden gem that you hadn't heard much about. You try it and it just absolutely rocks your world. Jean Jacques, take a bow my friend. This is a wonderful creation. This one came out of nowhere. Caron is a very high end Parisian perfume house that is over 100 years old, and it celebrates its legacy and long history though its super refined, very well done niche fragrances that arent mainstream and do not require viral marketing or instagram hype much. The house is a little overlooked by the trendier end of the fragrance community I feel. For the quality of what they are doing and the elegant way they do it, maybe they should get more attention. But truthfully, I'm glad they don't. Oud Excelsa is one of the classiest ouds Ive ever smelt and it was on my skin less than thirty seconds into the drydown before I agreed to buy it. I believe I actually swore out loud in wonder at how lovely it is right from the off. It only gets better from there. There is no Xerjoff style opening salvo, no enormous hit of opening accords that you wait to dry down; just a ridiculously assured Bulgarian rose and a black cup of coffee holding hands with some high quality oud. It is never screechy or shouty. First things first: this is smokey oud. The smoke and the marriage with the wood and oud here are the central accords. The beauty is how the smoke dies down and the mids and bottoms start to emerge fully. The coffee note is almost non-existent at first but very apparent after a little while. As it dries down you start to see the smoky notes start to emerge, slowly and with grace. Part of it comes from the oud notes and it has the hot double espresso coffee note to it that is just the right side of smokey bitter, but never enough to step in front of the sweet rose. It’s extremely well done, The mids and bottoms are a finely-judged mix of resins and spices that serve to ground the very smoky oud. Normally when you get a fragrance of this profile; ie: with the oud front and centre and at the central core of the whole shebang with all the other notes there to make the oud last longer and smell more complex, it is much more powerful. We have perfumes here in Dubai like that in many forms that fill rooms and dominate polite society, but this is a very European interpretation of a central oud fragrance in that it is more assured and confident than big and dominant. Oud Excelsa is nonetheless a powerful thing in its own right thanks to the high end ingredients and the resins that back this lovely, rosey oud. It projects very well in that super classy Parisian style where you get a little frisson when someone walks past a few feet away and something closer and deep if you're stood next to them at the bar, but it doesnt demand your approval or deference. It isn't arrogant. This is not ancient, ingrained mysogyny in a bottle. In fact, I'd suggest this to be one of the most truly unisex ouds I've come across and I think that makes me love it even more. The smokiness and lack of sweetness makes it lean a tiny bit masculine to me, but it is much, much more wearable for a woman than many of the oud-centric frags out there, in my humble opinion. I get some amber in this, although it's not in the notes. The rose and smoke dance beguilingly around the oud tree in an incredibly precise choreography. This is one of the best judged fragrances I've ever come across. Performance is 7-8 hours for me, and it goes close to the skin after 5-6, but in a really nice, controlled power sort of way. The smoke dies down after an hour or so just before it starts to smell burnt and settles into the resin accords so that it goes a bit richer and spicier. I don't get any pine tar from this. There is cardamom in it, but so faint that you cannot pick it out against the coffee and smoke. It is there though. If I had to sum this up, I'd say it is a masterclass in balancing notes to create a tight, refined and very rich, smoky unisex oud in a European style. I sometimes think some ouds are so heavy and complex that they can lose a bit of wearability and fundamentally do not smell as good as they might do in the pursuit of complication and power. A little like watches with complications for the sake of it. Olfactory art, sure. Incredible fragrances, definitely. But would you want to wear them? Not always. This fragrance retains a wearability and utility that belies the smoky central oud theme: this is a fragrance that goes with almost anything. Conceptually; a jeans and t-shirt oud? Seems difficult to envisage but Oud Excelsa certainly gets very close to that. Big, big, big fan of this. Three Word Summary: Parisian Coffee Oud Scent - 9/10 Sillage - 7/10 Drydown - 7/10 Bottle / Packaging - 9/10 Performance - 9/10 42/50

Oud Excelsa by Caron opens like a photorealistic cup of Arabic coffee, rich and aromatic, infused with freshly cracked cardamom pods that feel authentic rather than perfumey. The fragrance captures that warm, inviting coffee–cardamom accord with incredible clarity, yet Caron elevates it into something refined and luxurious. The oud is smooth and polished, adding depth without heaviness, wrapping the spicy coffee warmth in a velvety, elegant aura. The result is a scent that feels both comfortingly familiar and strikingly sophisticated—like savoring Arabic coffee in a beautifully appointed setting, where tradition meets modern luxury.

There is something very special about this fragrance. It has a mysterious vibe to it, it feels like transcending into another dimension. At first, I didn’t like it, but after a while, it has transformed completely into a warm, inviting, superb scent. It’s not sweet at all, which is a plus. Very unexpected experience, overall.

This is a very good release from caron. Just the right amout of sweetness and a rose that hangs in the back just behind the oud.great for the fall/winter season and no barnyard here, just a well blended fragrance with a smokey touch.

This should be Zohran Mamdani's signature scent - Mr. Cardamom. I love the realistic cardamom opening mixed with coffee and rose. It has a very strong sillage for first 2hrs but then it's becoming a skin scent. It's 7/10 for me