Oud Palao Eau de Parfum

This is a great realistic oud fragrance. I heard about fecal smelling Oud. My first impression here was, this smells like crap, not interested :) Then a couple minutes after spraying, it calms down and the other notes come in to make a very pleasant accord. It reminded me of Acqua di Parma Oud, but this has so much better quality of notes, and very distinctive. I am 61 years old with a mature taste, and this is bottle worthy for me because it is so well blended and distinctive. The Oud is genuine and raw smelling, with a nice smoky quality. I never liked this kind of rose note, but the Oud is so good, I can live with the rose which isn't so strong. There is a smooth and warm sandalwood here, which softens the coarser Oud note. In the opening there is a pleasant medecinal accord, the raw oud with the rum I think it is. This is for more mature, or seasoned tastes perhaps. Without looking at the notes my first impression was that there are some fresh citrusy notes blended in. This is fresh, maybe the camphor which blends into a nice accord with the Rose and rum. The rose is allmost imperceptible to me in the opening; But the nuance of rum and rose add a bit, for a slightly sweet freshness. This is just a bit sweet, mostly dry. Nice smooth sandalwood here, and some nice green camphor, not too much, and not very boozy. You never loose that distinctive Laotian Oud as the unique center piece. The quality rum and camphor accord really nicely balance the darker, earthy, dirty Oud/ Patch/ Tobacco accord. Allso Diptyque lists frankincense and Labdanum, very smooth. Although the Oud fades some, and it evolves to become more noticably sweet, the rum and rose become more evident. This is kind of an aquired taste, but a really solid quality fragrance. I don't add to a large collection unless I have nothing similar, I will some day get a bottle because it is so unique. This reminds me a bit of MFK Oud Satin Mood, which I couldn't wear as the rose is to feminine. With Diptyque Oud, the openning to mid mid, it leans masculine, then late mid too drydown it's right in the middle, or very slightly feminine leaning. The best fragrances blend contrasting aspects, like MFK Lumiere Noire. Diptyque Oud Palao does it so well; the raw, dark and dry oud, with the floral, green camphor and slightly sweet rum on a smooth creamy sandalwood base, awsome ! I have sampled MFK Ouds, Cashmere and Velvet are their eastern type of ouds, as is Oud Palao. The MFK is nice, but the Oud smells sharp and synthetic. Our Palao is better than Amouage or MFK Ouds, for me. PS: I wrote my review in the first hour when the Oud is still skanky, and I liked it. It does evolve to a slightly feminine, sweeter, more typical oud/ rose combo. So I may not be getting some soon, unless I find the older formulation that stays skanky longer. After my review from a 2 ml sample, I have received a 10 ml Dyptique vile, and the rose does stay more hidden throughout, making this allmost perfect for me, and will be in my top 5. It has a similar construction as Creed Royal Mayfair, where the rose stays hidden. Maybe the 10 ml vials for sale on eBay may be from older formulation, 2015. An eBay seller was able to give me the batch code, and I was able to purchase the older formulation with less rose. 2015. Rating: 8.5/10 (new formulation with more Rose) 10/10 (old formulation with less Rose) God bless. John 3:16

Oud Palao is an earthy oud-tobacco-rose with all thorns intact, plus some venom for good measure. To experience Oud Palao is to feel like the brambles and undergrowth of an enchanted forest have come to life, wrapped around one's ankles, and pulled the wearer along the ground into a potentially malevolent wood elf's lair. But instead of trying to resist, one can’t help but let oneself be pulled into the belly of the beast. Not that one would want to escape, even if one could. It opens with an enjoyably bristling oud, like something pulled from a splintered tree trunk. It mingles with dry, woody tobacco effect, made jagged by a camphorous edge that lasts from the opening to the drydown. Rose notes take their time to unfurl from between the brambles. Once it opens on the skin, it softens the composition with its overripe petals, already beginning to melt into the forest floor. One can practically taste the drip-drip of petals melting into a decidedly woody sap. However, despite this ‘melting’ texture that arises during the drydown, Oud Palao does not turn into a sweet rum-tobacco scent as many perfumes that list those two notes often do. Instead, the composition remains balanced by retaining its slightly bitter, prickly wood character throughout. Some of the reviews below indicate that they find this to be a challenging or 'unwearable' scent. However, I find its brashness to be the central part of its charm. To borrow Mario Praz’s term, I would liken Oud Palao to a type of 'Medusan beauty', wherein the grotesque mingles with the beautiful to create a dangerous allure that overwhelms the senses and ensnares the subject--the subject, in this case, being the wearer of this perfume. I wouldn't change a thing about this perfume, least of all softening or smoothing its burrs. To do so would spoil its appealingly saturnine, Byronic elegance. Intoxicating and utterly ravishing. I’m addicted.

Review for EDP: The name is misleading, because the main player here is an 'in-your-face' rose, definitely not the oud. Furthermore, the scent pyramid is also misleading: no laotian/cambodian oud, but - a simulated - oud from Palao (as the name indicates, similar to the ones of Papua, very floral and linear, not dark/warm and multifaceted like the laotian ones). That said, this is a nice rose/tobacco/sandalwood/camphor fragrance, with a synthetic oud that the most trained noses may possibly detect in the back. Given the floral scent of the oud from Palao, I think that the use of rose is useless, and uselessly taming the floral expression of palau oud - in the improbable case that there is real Palao oud oil present in this juice, probably the reason why they had this strong rose. I think that what most people describe as 'oud' in this fragrance, is just the mix of sandalwood/tobacco/camphor. That said, given the current honest price tags online, and the overall decent quality and performance, it may be worth a full bottle for women (cannot imagine a man wearing that, even the most metrosexual ones). On a side note, I wouldn't like my gf to smell like that, as this gives me the image of a more 'experienced' woman. May please someone who has no idea of oud, but if you know what it smells, and if your're looking for an oud fragrance, go elsewhere, as here oud is just a tiny part of the blend and you may only be disappointed. (still a good rose frag if you're not targeting oud). In my opinion, overall ok but overhyped, and I am tired of those rose/flower bombs covering the oud... Just covering, really? Or hiding the low quality and/or amplifying the low amounts of real oud oil in it? I made my decision :) Women 40+, Fall/Winter Edit: 2 hours in. Had to wash it off, as it was making me nauseous. (I m a 40 yo male, and hate strong rose).

Very pleasant Rose/Oud combination with a creamy drydown. Oud Palao starts of with a suave nudge towards Oud Ispahan before showing its individual character. I'm not an Oud expert by any means, but I can tell the utterly synthetic (Montale) from a better crafted one, and Palao stands somewhere between MFK Oud Satin and Oud Ispahan. The opening is a deep red rose with a smoky leathery Oud. It's not medicinal, nor does it have that band aid smell so typical in other Oud combos. Instead the smokiness perfectly combines with the rose to produce a very nice opening that lasts around an hour on my skin. Slowly but linearly evolving towards the heart, the labdanum adds a piquant animalic warmth without overshadowing the main notes; instead it enhances them. The drydown arrives 3 hours in, and I mostly detect the earthiness of patchouli with a very creamy and slightly violet tinged vanilla. This lasts for the rest of the day on my skin, with sudden whiffs of Oud and rose. The sillage is above moderate, persistent without being excessive, giving of whiffs during the day, along with a very long lasting longevity. It doesn't feel new, but given the fact that it is well made, it's an excellent introduction to Oud for a beginner as well as pleasing someone more into this genre. Sillage and longevity above average for Diptyque with nods to other well crafted fragrances and with attention to detail and ingredients. If anything, it feels like a middle eastern perfume seen through a gauze, without falling to western cliches. Right now I'm wearing both Palao on one arm and Leather Oud on the other, and I'm smelling Palao. Unfortunately the clearly reformulated Dior is nowhere to be found. Thumbs up Diptyque; late to the party but attending with an ace up your sleeve!

Oud Palao currently sits in my top 5 list. I remember smelling it for the first time in a Nieman Marcus when I was still quite 'green' in this hobby. My first thoughts were, "Uhhh ok. Feces and manure." I think I sort of chuckled. I knew straight out of the gate that this was an unabashedly dirty, (ok maybe sophisticated) French, perfume-y perfume. Oh how my nose pallet (and appreciation for dirty, sophisticated, French, perfume-y perfume) has changed and matured. Oud Palao, IMO, has all the character and development you could really want and expect in a fragrance. It's dirty, but actually quite clean. It's challenging, but actually quite pleasant. It's OUD and ROSE, but actually quite complex. It's just brilliant. That dirty, challenging, fecal oud softens rather quickly. It wears much closer to the skin than you might think or expect or realize. One day while I was wearing this gorgeous creation, I had a friend smell the back of my hand after describing to him that it is a rather "fecal, skanky, oud-y" perfume. He didn't think so at all. Mind you, he isn't 'into fragrance.' Granted, this was after it had dried down 3-4 hours. Still, I was surprised. I imagine a lot of folks that describe this as an "uber poopy-poop fest" haven't actually worn it much, if at all. Even though it is a strong oud and rose perfume, it still dries down into that soft, close-to-skin, Diptyque-like character. The rose and oud burst onto the scene like wild bandits, but then one hour in, two hours in, three hours in, slowly backs away after a standoff with the brilliant blend of labdanum, sandalwood, rum, (tobacco?) camphor, patch, and vanilla. This is my experience anyway. Scent: 8.4/10 Uniqueness: 6/10 Offensiveness: 6/10 Seasonal Versatility: 2/10