Mysterious Oud

Opening is quite spicy, I believe this is the elemi resin - but you can also smell the oud, right from the start. When the spiciness settles it becomes creamy, woody and lovely, like a walk in the woods on a sunny day. Sandalwood comes in but it's not overpowering, oud is still the main player. I didn't detect jasmine at all, which to me is great. Keeping close to the skin, good staying power.

The opening almost comes off as a smooth leather with some gentle spice, something almost akin to cinnamon. The dry down is a very soft, woody scent with whispers of lighter notes encircling it. Sadly, this is weak. It does not last long and is completely gone within a couple hours. It's a good fragrance that I'd like to explore in more depth, but it's just gone so quickly.

I've smelled a lot of ouds lately. This one is interesting as it's simultaneously both deeply woody, balsamic and resinous (not sweet and with only a touch of white floral) -- and also surprisingly light and sparkling. Dark, resinous oud scents are often heavy but this one borders on sheer. There are no aldehydes listed, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few in there. This is oud in an upper register - a clean, fresh oud. Marvellous! Mysterious Oud fairly linear, although the opening is spicier (elemi!) and this quietens down after the first five minutes to make way for the resins, wood, and musk. I like this as an office scent. It's sophisticated but also understated, professional. It's also light on projection and intensity. Great for a work environment, but I do prefer a bit more "pow" in my EDPs. Still, I like it.

A very balsamic oud. It's allmost like collecting resins straight from the bark of trees. It's nostalgic to me, as I grew up in a town surrounded by resin-covered pine trees (rest assured, Mysterious Oud smells like resin and bark in general, not pines/christmas tree). It's woody and I'm getting some oud but mostly it's amber and resin. Smells clean, sophisticated and could be worn as a perfectly unisex fragrance. I would prefer this on a man though. Only minus is (since I really like the scent) that it's not a projecting beast and it only lasts a few hours. It has an intimate projection, and since it smells so good, I wouldn't mind this projecting and filling up a room. If my boyfriend wears this, I want to feel as if I'm in a forest being close to him :D

A discreet amber-oud-sandalwood combination. It’s made very smooth and doesn’t change over time. With moderate longevity it stays close to your skin. You can wear it every day for different occasions (work, leisure activities), but it’s probably too weak for special eveng occasions.

Opens up with freshness like floral notes. The dry-down smells very much like Interlude Man by Amouage. It is however very smoky and balsamic wood, by that I mean it leans towards "sourness" rather than medicinal oud with subtle sweetness and creaminess.

An oud with a fresh timber note and light conifer/resinous touch. Not too sweet, not too bitter, just the right balance. Very timber-y, quite masculine.

A cold, woody scent. Not too overpowering and intense than other ouds, which I prefer.

I'm making my way through the Chabaud sample kit, and I have to say, this has been one of the best trialling experiences I've ever had (for comparison, I've bought sample kits from Maison Crivelli, Francesca Bianchi, Maître Parfumeur et Gantier, DS & Durga, Dedcool, etc., etc.). I usually find that I'm lucky if just one fragrance resonates with me deeply, but with Chabaud, I'm having to convince myself *not* to go for a full bottle of three or four different fragrances. Eek. :) So I've tried 10 so far, and while I'm confident there won't be any "bad" ones in the bunch (though the Caprice line hasn't wowed me yet), I just don't care for this version of oud. I have a ton of oud-based fragrances, but this one turns rather animalic on my skin. It's gasoline-like, a bit balsamic, verging on funky. But like I said, it's still very clearly a fine fragrance. Just not my taste. (I wish the "OK" face on Fragrantica didn't look so aggrieved haha.) So far, I've been bewitched by Lait et Chocolat (to my great surprise, as a non-chocolate-note-lover) and by Fleur de Figuier (to my mild surprise, considering I just bought Clary Fig and was convinced I didn't need another fig fragrance), and with heightened interest in La Nuit Danse (as potentially my first powdery perfume) and in Innocente Fragilité (a mercurial scent that isn't exactly what it seems).

Mysterious probably isn't the best way to describe this oud. Multifaceted? Yessir. Oud to me has always been mostly bitter, but this isn't just that. It opens almost sweet and wispy, but very resinous. Powdery sandalwood is pretty prominent on me, too. I would venture to say that this was even seemingly floral at times, woody at others. I've never known this to be possible with a perfume that is so laden with resin and oud notes, but Mysterious Oud oddly manages to wear rather lightly! You can almost taste a kind of stickiness - what I think warm, melted leather might taste like. It ends in a very pleasant and soft but slightly bitter musk. I give this massive props for taking oud out of its comfort zone, so to speak, and show that it could be a lighter, melancholic-tinted happy fragrance. It is a little curious in the sense that while it retains the obvious qualities of a oud-based perfume, it succeeds at setting itself apart. But as I said, perhaps mysterious isn't the right adjective for it. Projection wasn't much to shout about, which is always a relief for me when it comes to resinous perfumes. Lasting power was alright, around 5 hour on me.

FIRST IMPRESSION: this is a heavy scent, mainly the balsam im getting. it is very 'seasoned' almost smelling like a meal would. but it has that woody notes, not sure if thats the oud or just something cedar-y. it is sharp in the nose, like smelling black pepper from close, almost sneezing, that labdanum which i never liked. it has just a bit of that soapy 'oud' like in oud wood by TF which i loath. it doesnt bring nature into mind rather than seasonings and old outdoor kitchen. smells like dirty damp kitchen rag, not in a completely negative way, but im not loving it either. FEW HOURS LATER... longevity isnt great, it is not projecting at all, smelling much more like generic woody rather than anything mysterious now. still some kind of sharp seasoning - probably labdanum. not enjoyable and not fitting me. 36/100

Quite interesting.... It's the french type of dark oud with slight sweet and quite an addictive amber sandalwood combination. Quite smooth & delicate rather than the loud type of oud where it stays close to skin mysteriously. Requires more test to define it's charm. Edit (17th Aug 2016) The problem with this one is that it's too thin, and quite close to skin, maybe it is meant to be like that cause i thought for once that it needs to be kind of stronger than this, but as a second thought i guess it should remain like this cause if it stronger it's gonna be irritating and quite disturbing, now it's heavy but thin (not huge silage) and stays like this till it ends.