Notorious Oud

After smelling over 100 oud fragrances, I have noticed something: Few brands make oud fragrances that smell unique to the brand. What do I mean? Most oud fragrances made by most brands smell like they could've been made by any other brand. Exceptions to this observation...Royal OUd which is an Oud scent made with Creed’s aesthetic, Oud Wood by Tom Ford which smells like something Tom Ford would make and the newest release from DS& Durga, Notorious Oud. These fragrances have a style which mirrors the olfactory aesthetic of the brand. I'm a huge fan of this Brooklyn born brand. U can always count on DS&DURGA to create unique, interesting fragrances with uncommon ingredients in a blend that is very them. Notorious Oud was named after Brooklyn born rap legend Biggie Smalls. This is the second scent from the company that references music legends. The first being the Fig masterpiece Debaser, which was named after a song by the rock band, The Pixies. The name choice “Notorious Oud”, is an awesome way for this Brooklyn based brand to pay homage to a Brooklyn Legend and also highlights how forward, and cool, DS&D is. I can analyze in detail how this scent mirrors the man it was named after but I’ll save that for my video review. Some scents DS&D make smell down right weird on paper but reveal itself much better on skin. This was my experience with Notorious Oud, their newest scent. I went to the flagship store in Soho NYC and sprayed Notorious Oud on a blotter and the Oud, saffron Civet combo was jarring. The opening was almost a petting zoo and that thought almost made me make the mistake of dismissing it altogether. "oh boy...it's one of those", I thought. There wasn't the usual hyped up rose to pretty up that monster oud note. The opening was room filling but like many of the scents from this house the bark was worse than the bite. Sometimes they go on strong but settle very nicely to a noticeable but non disruptive bubble. Notorious has a very animalic, rugged opening but within 20 minutes you notice elements of the greenness and the floral rose. The rose in this fragrance is a lead character with no lines. It never sticks its head out too much but really supports the composition from almost the start to the end. It's a Jekyll and Hyde scent to be honest. Notorious Oud's opening will make some people recoil and within an hour these same people won't stop wanting to smell it. It stayed on me for over 8 hours but it was a skin scent longer than a room filler which for a scent like this, is perfect imo. It's distinctive but again, not disruptive. I prefer my fragrances to be discovered than unleashed. This is a scent I would spray right out of the shower tho so that it has time to settle as I prepare for my day. You know...to be on the safe side...lol Notorious has that DS&D woody, green dna backed by awesome use of flowers...in this case rose. Notorious smells conceptual but still wearable (once it settles...) and is a great scent for fall and winter. It's my favorite oud scent of this year and i've smelled quite a few. I really have only been able to wear it during summer evenings in less humid weather but I really think this will shine when it's cool. I can see middle eastern folks loving this and I can see open minded fragrance lovers appreciating the beauty of it also. My P.A.G.E.rating system is P for Poor, A for Average, G for Good, and E for Exceptional. To me this scent is a G fragrance without question. Oud lovers always tell people that the beauty of oud fragrances is in the drydown. This scent requires patience if you aren't used to its style. To me it's worthy of its price point and is imo unique enough to warrant a look if you are a fan of woody or oudy or rugged fragrances. Notorious demonstrates the beauty in "dirty". This ugly duckling is really a swan. SIMPLY PUT SCENTS

This is my second time sampling Notorious Oud. The first time I liked it but I felt it failed to stand out in a very crowded genre. I decided to sample more and circle back - which brings us to today. This time I’m testing in spring instead of winter and with more rose oud experience, and something just clicked - this is a dark green Oud rose. There is an overdose of papyrus, a green, papery, smokey note that’s becoming a favorite, made greener with galbanum and aromatic with the camphor and lavender and also slightly leathery from the animalics and saffron. An authentic smelling dark rubbery oud dominates, I get no barnyard, and the rose just offers a whisper of floral sweetness in the back. Those looking for a strong rose will be disappointed. Compared to most other examples this has the sweetness dialed way back, instead it’s pleasantly medicinal. That lack of sweetness makes it more versatile in warmer weather than most. Durga does a great job with woody notes and that shines here as well. My friend from the dog park said I smelled like me but better, which is a nice compliment to get. Update: Many more wearings has changed my perception of this quite a bit. There’s a lot of ambroxan in here and combined with the green elements it actually wears kinda like a dirty version of Gentle Fluidity Silver, (dirty from the oud) which is not a comparison I would have ever made at first. They layer perfectly too. I recommend giving this at least one full wear before deciding on it, it takes a while to reveal itself.

A decadent oud fragrance, totally Middle Eastern in feel, but with DS&D's DNA, so you almost can't go wrong if you are a fan of this house. The oud is definitely B.I.G. The other major players are rose, saffron, and some very huge and distinct animalic notes of civet and ambergris. The other notes of lavender, camphor, galbanum, papyrus are probably there, influencing the direction of the fragrance, but they don't stand out to me at all. One thing I am noticing with the latest releases, especially Amber Teutonic, is the perfumer's skill in blending. It's seamless, providing the wearer the opportunity to discover different facets of the fragrances on different days, different temperatures. This is a quality I associate the most with Amouage perfumes, a quality of which I think very highly because it gives me reason to visit the fragrances over and over again throughout the years, making them truly worthy of "collecting". Just call it the "Big Poppa" of ouds. Westerners are seriously stepping up their oud game lately! Notorious Oud IMHO blows all the completely fake ouds out of the water, and God there are sooo many. There is an empty spot in my treasure chest waiting for this gem.

On paper, this was full of bitter spice and I was not excited to skin test it. But what a nice surprise! I was just crushing on the dry papery tobacco in Chinese Tobacco by 1969, and this has something similar. This is a fat approachable log you see by the side of a hiking trail that you scope out for a snack break. As you sit down, wood dust poofs up and you see the little specks in the long sunbeams - Notorious Oud is that dust. It's old gnarled wood, dry and crisp in the sunshine. Just enough saffron and camphor to add a little spicy something. Dries down a little warm and yet mint medicinal. I am new to ouds but this is beautiful and very wearable, not too overpowering. Maybe my sample is a little mild but I'm not getting the punch of longevity others are describing. Edit to say: I adore the dry down of this. It stays well blended and I can continue to smell the individual notes, but it somehow slowly dissipates into something ethereal and cozy.

While on a trip to New York, I stopped at the storefront for D.S. & Durga. I hadn't ever really tried this brand before, and to be honest and a tad pretentious on my own behalf... I thought it looked a bit too "blatantly hipster" for my tastes. I was DEAD wrong. Nearly every single scent in their current lineup was incredible. If you shop in-store, you can build a 4-sample pack for $40, then redeem the envelope they come in for $40 off any FB! That said, it was nearly impossible to narrow my selection down to four. This made the cut. I'm not entirely an oud guy, but this is probably the most "fall" D.S. & Durga scent I came across. The oud is balanced beautifully with the floral elements but never gets too floral. I think this is a very easy wear, though the oud is a touch loud. Someone below mentioned that this is not office friendly, but I think if you go light with it, it's suitable for any occasion.

D.S. & Durga's take on the classic oud-rose-saffron DNA. Oud forward, but not extremely animalic or fecal to my nose. It starts off with a dusty oud, maybe accompanied by some rose. Weirdly, I smelled something minty (?) off my wrist when I first smelled it, but its nice! As it dries, the oud and papyrus begin to jump off my skin. Its a nice combo, and pretty unique. When worn in moderation, this can be an office-safe fragrance. It says on the DSD website that the perfumer, David Seth Moltz, "procured" a rare Indonesian Oud that he used as a base for this fragrance, but I'm not sure if he's actually using the authentic oud or an accord. I think its an accord. Nonetheless, I am really enjoying my sample and would definitely consider buying a FB if I can get a good deal on it. Longevity is solid, 8+ hours on my skin, applied at night, and could smell it the next morning. Definitely NOT a blind buy.

Spent several hours at the Silver Lake store in LA. It was the best retail experience I’ve had in decades. They were super friendly, super chill, well-informed, passionate, & unaffected. There was zero rush, zero pressure to buy. The DS&D stores use little overturned ceramic cups to smell each frag (way more civilized than strips) and they had an impressive library of ingredients on-hand (!) to learn how each scent is built. The civet was bonkers, but it stirred something in me (not that). I left with a hefty envelope of samples gratis (so classy; UNHEARD of in California). But sure enough, over the next week, that stinky little critter kept squeaking out my name, beckoning me back to Notorious OUD over and over again. I bought a 100 ml bottle. Had to. I thought maybe I’d get sick of it, but nope. Months later I still revel in the dankness. Take my advice: get your nose way up in this one.

I've got a big grin my face seeing that @lessthanzero in the review below mentioned a connection to Lowe's - my immediate reaction when I first smelled this in a shop was "oh my god this smells like a Lowe's garden department," which for me is not a complaint! I love the smells of utility stores like Home Depot etc, the various smells of stone, soil, lumber, and garden supplies drifting around and to me those come to mind while wearing this. It's a fragrance that makes you want to get up and out of the house, move around - theres a breeziness from the camphor that feels uplifting. My initial reaction to it was that it was an interesting novelty but nothing exceptional, but every time I try the sample I have I get a little bit more addicted to it. Certainly one I wouldn't mind on my shelf! Quite a fun, funky, and well-concocted offering.

It's beautiful, a truly unisex experience, there's oud but I think it's there to add depth to the other notes and give richness to the composition as well, I can't discern it but I know it's there. Halfway sweet and halfway meditatively medicinal I'd say. I put it on the shelf Amber Kiso and Amber Teutonic because of the richness but this is better in terms of versatility than the other two imo. It's the blend it's just blended so perfectly that it melds into this surreal type of hypnotic scent, dreamy for sure, all seasons. I've got it, it's the saffron, it's the saffron that stands out but not in a saffron way, you just have to smell it, it's a must have for fragheads, kudos Mr.Moltz for a job well done.👏👏👏

on me this is not too animalic, but surprisingly pleasant while different, dark, dry and oud-y but not skanky, woody with a hint of something that smells like vibrations feel (the saffron i think). weirdly, it reminds me of something i also smell in baccarat rouge extrait (a hint of the burnt sugar minus the sugar - i know it doesn't make sense, but i cannot describe it in other words... it is rather dark than sweet and i think again it might be the saffron). i love wearing it on its own, just so good and different but inoffensive, but also layer it to give woody or rose fragrances a darker and moody undertone. perfect. love!

I own a sample of this fragrance and it is possibly the strongest fragrance I have and is only rivalled by the other oud fragrance in my collection, Oud Ispahan by Dior. This fragrance is very appropriately named, and it will definitely fill a room. It smells amazing though. A clean but intense oud with warm spicy and rose undertones. This fragrance lasts forever on my skin. I showered twice and I could still smell it, but I absolutely love it. This smells like a male CEO in an all black suit wearing his dress shirt 3 buttons down who exerts authority.

Tested this over the weekend. Strong and immediate resemblance to Mattiere Premier Crystal Saffron but with less focus on saffron (although still prominent) and the addition of oud and papyrus. Lavender helps smooth the whole thing out a touch of camphor opens the sinuses but isn't bothersome. The oud is the western variety. I love this one, but I already have crystal saffron. Less similar to Le Labo Oud IMO. Great release, I'm a fan of DSM and DS Durga. Scent 8.8/10 Performance 7/10

Woody, green, paternal, hot professor in a merino pullover kind of scent. A grey pebble pulled out from a stream. Leans really masculine but that's okay, I can enjoy smelling like a sexy man. Something to remind you of him when you're apart. Definitely giving authority figure, mature, but a little bit tortured. Can't stop sniffing myself. Comforting and relaxing.

Im testing this right now and I think it’s amazing! There is a rubbery smell, and I like it. It has good longevity and doesn’t over project. To me, it smells like a real estate agent touring a 10 million dollar New York brownstone with 11 ft ceilings. 😂😘

This is really lovely. Complex, well blended. I have a hard time picking out any specific notes, but I'm not very experienced with oud. Extremely sensual. Woody, like a drumbeat. _-.. _-.. _-.. _ I want to try some of this outfit's other offerings now.

First impression: Great Oud scent with camphoric green undertones that gives a surprising freshness and bite. Rose Oud has been done million times but this has lavender, galbanum and other notes that makes it pleasant but also strong.

this scent makes me go completely feral. i layer it with musk oil to soften the whole thing. when it’s on me, i can’t stop smelling myself. it smells like saffron and sex.

Notorious Oud. The opening smells fucking amazing. The dry down smells fucking fabulous (but better).

Yum! Saffron, a little dirty, dry, Oud rose with little to no sweetness. Glad to have my full bottle.

all I smell is saffron on my skin, but I grew to love that, actually

I dig this latest release from D.S. & Durga, Notorious Oud, named for who other than Biggie himself. It’s a dry oud that is pretty darn boastful at the onset (I went easy on the sprays) but dries down rather comfortably to become of a sober take on oud, with some of the familiar accompaniments of saffron, rose, and resins (galbanum, in this case), along with the reliable lavender and few more provocative additives that I don’t detect much of at all, like camphor and civet. In that I don’t get much of the civet on my skin, Notorious Oud is smooth and not all that dirty. It does have the spicy, floral, and resinous touches, but it’s mostly smooth oud, just less so than, say, Pure Oud By Kilian. It’s a good performer, surely not Roja-esque in terms of the loudness of the oud, and probably not even analogous to the Kilian offerings, but still robust enough and frankly a bit easier-to-wear because it’s not so over-the-top oud-heavy. I could see this being a big winner for the house. Overall, it’s a very nice fragrance, teetering on the edge between a “like” and a “love” for me. I’m glad that its pricing is at least consistent with the current lineup, at $260/$175 for 100ml/50ml, respectively.. at its usual points of sale (i.e. Luckyscent, Twisted Lily, etc.)., 7 out of 10

A very pleasant, albeit standard and straightforward oud fragrance. Opens up very dry and spicy with an overdose of saffron with a hint of camphor. As it dries, the saffron turns leathery as it mixes with this very woody, slightly medicinal oud and a thick and slightly sweet rose. In the deep dry down the oud almost completely takes over with a bit of rooty powderiness from papyrus helping fill out the edges. A very pleasant, slightly edgy oud that still rides close enough to a western woody oud for it to be more generally mass-appealing to a wider audience. While I think this is a great "intro to oud" fragrance, I wish David Seth Moltz took a bit more risks with this one, as he has done for a lot of his other fragrances. A good graduation from something like Oud Wood, but if you're fairly experienced in the hobby this won't do anything you haven't smelled before. Very good performance of 8-10 hours with strong projection for the first two, fading to moderate/intimate for the remaining. 7.5/10. Song vibe - Dead Weight by Jack Stauber

Not sure I understand folks who say this smells like plastic or cleaning solution or moss (maybe just a trick of skin chemistry). This is a very pleasant oud. I definitely pick up the rose, but it blends very well with the rest of the scent so it's much more cohesive than something that can be discretized into its individual components. On me this smells like a leathery oud with a subtlety of rose in the beginning that eventually fades. Not picking up on the saffron or lavender at all. I can imagine how the civet contributes to a slightly animalic scent but it doesn't stand out to me nor is it offensive. Reminds me of my mom who wears pure oud and rose (L'Artisan Parfumerie Tuberose) :)

A really pleasant but somewhat unexceptional Oud based fragrance from DSD. The ingredients are high quality, and they have been suitably tamed to create a safe Western Oriental scent that is not even remotely notorious. The perfume opens with notes of saffron, camphor and galbanum. The heart is rose and Indonesian Oud with a hint of lavender. The perfume settles on a bed of papyrus surrounded by hints of synthetic civet and ambergris. The unisex perfume has moderate sillage and good longevity. Nice as an easy reach versatile oud based scent. Sadly DSD is a bit late in the game quite frankly with a scent whose name is more notorious than its actual feel. Enjoy!

This Notorious Oud, I love it. It has a very, very iconic plasticized veil scent on a very androgynous, very sexy, and at the same time very versatile woody base. I think it's a very deep, rich, and also wonderfully original accord. All the announced flowers are exploited with accuracy, are really very present, and are dancing with each other in an extremely harmonious way. It's both woody/safety/floral, it reminds me of many beautiful things at the same time creating a completely new feeling, and I think it's really one of their most beautiful successes. Completely validated.

Since I smelled this, I have reserved a mental space for it on my shelf as my would be "Niche-Beast Mode-Clubbing" fragrance. But I don't ever leave the house, so no need to splash out the cash for it :D It is a sexy, sour, green, leathery, LOUD, attention-grabbing rose and oud. I'd buy this over Oud Ispahan because Notorious OUD is a neon-flashing billboard of wackiness. COMPLETELY inappropriate for an airplane, office, errands. My 13 year old brother tested it with me. He said it smelled like the Lowe's lumber department.

Lolling at the review below because this is anything but fresh, light and easy to wear. This house is a total favorite of mine and even their oud is cool but I can't wear this daily. Notorious Oud is one of the best performers in the entire line in my opinion and a great winter night scent. A stylish oud and thankfully my nose doesn't pick up any lavender. Worth trying.

I was blown away by my first go with this scent. For me the oud and the bulgarian rose work so well together to give a luxurious, rich scent. This one lasts and lasts, I found I got at least 12 hours from it, so have to be careful if I want to wear something different the next day.

a bouquet of fake, plastic flowers. among the prettiest rubber you've ever smelt. boys beware: notorious oud is for the ladies!

This smells a lot like Baccarat Rouge... except I hate Baccarat, and I really like Notorious Oud! Weird how that works.

Smells of iodine, but not in a peaty "Oud for Greatness" sense, much more like a pharmacy.

This is how I learned I was allergic to oud. I kept wearing the sample anyways.

Smells like hot plastic I love it.

Reviewing a 1.5ml decant. * on paper: - Freshly sprayed: fresh, sweet (but not overwhelmingly so), very “edible”. It had me salivating and feeling like licking it off my skin. - Dried down: similar qualities as when freshly sprayed, but more tame. Very comforting scent. Maybe not quite a match for my personality, but definitely the type of fragrance I would like to smell on a partner when waking up in the morning. * on skin: - Freshly sprayed: heavily fecal, with a touch of soap. - after 30 minutes: still very fecal, but more soapy. - after 1:30h: the sweetness I smelled immediately when testing on paper finally started to show through. The fecal element is still present, but faded slightly. - after 2:30h: the fecal element has returned with a vengeance. Seems my skin chemistry brought out the absolute worst in this fragrance, which was quite an interesting experience. I might try it again another day, maybe with a different sample. If you're unsure whether to get it or not, I would definitely encourage you to get your hands on a sample first—if you’re lucky, you’ll have a gorgeous, well-balanced gourmand scent; if not, then like me you might end up in a sh!tty situation. EDIT: decided to conduct an experiment and am spraying this on friends for as long as my decant lasts, to see how it behaves on other people's skin. On victim number 1 it opened similarly to how it did on my skin, but after a while (we didn't time it, but somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes) it started to become more pleasant, and it eventually began to smell almost as nice as it did on paper. Will update this again when I repeat the experiment with a second victim.

So, another perfume I got for all the wrong reasons, and when I sniffed it at a store and put it on a tester paper and brought it home I thought it was quite lovely and was impressed with how long it would stay on my skin and clothes and how it developed on that paper, so eventually I decided to get a 100ml bottle. Bad choice. Because the thing is, it is CLOYING. First of all, I'm not a oud connoisseur at all, the only other Oud perfume I've knowingly been in touch with being Byredo's Notorious Oud, which is so FANTASTIC on skin and so utterly pointless on cloth or paper, and so I thought that this thing that just goes on and on must be a great value to buy just because it lasts so long, and, YES, it is, from a lasting point of view, but compared to the oud smell of Oud Immortel, I'm not getting that at all here, but instead a TON of saffron, cloyingly sweet at that, and also something that reminds me a lot of mosquito repellent in the opening. I quickly realised I really don't want to smell like this for months and months on end, and I have always been NOT looking forward to wearing this whenever in rotated it to the front in my perfume roster. Thankfully I had a friend who really loved this perfume (although his wife doesn't) so I could give a basically full bottle to him as an in-advance birthday gift, with my apologies to his wife. As far as DS&Durga goes, I can't WAIT to own their Cowboy grass instead. Now THERE'S something I'd be happy to smell like 7 days a week.

Sadly disappointing. Opens with a rubbery oud that is enjoyable but unexceptional. Reminds me of the top of Tauer’s L’oudh. But the drydown on Notorious smells just like Fantastik cleaning spray to my nose. And the longevity is monster so I’ve smelled like a freshly scrubbed countertop all day. Husband thinks I smell like a GI Joe doll. I suppose the cleaning solvent/plastic doll smell is the camphor-lavender combo. I don’t like it. Perhaps I’ll try the sample a couple more times but a FB is a hard pass. Regrettable because I really wanted to like this homage to Brooklyn’s Finest.

This is not a typical rose oud combo in the least. I barely get any rose in here at all. This actually reminds me a lot of a fragrances like Anubis. It’s very leathery, saffron heavy and lightly oudy. If you know the feel of that fragrance you’ll recognize it here. I also get a bit of additional resins in the drydown, labdanum and maybe elemi? Overall this is a really well rounded and easy to wear if you like these types of profiles but I’d exercise caution if you are sensitive to animalic notes.Not for me at all. I tend to not like leather oud combos done in this way.

This fragrance did not impress. Reliant on a winey/chocolatey Oud accord (like those found in Le Labo Oud 27 and Lancome Oud Bouquet) as well as very faintly spicy florals, Notorious Oud might be better named Inconspicuous Oud. This is the oud fragrance for people who don't want anyone to know that they are wearing 'one of those.' It's pleasant but not gorgeous. The best part of the composition, in my opinion is the woody saffron base, but that too lacks impact - coming across like a watered down Ajmal. I'd rather wear notoriously cheap Oud Touch.

A modern take on Oud for sure. The drydown has a slight cigarette smoky feel to it, but not in a bad or an unpleasant way, but certainly in a 'Notorious' way. Not sure how long it will last on skin but it seems really high quality. Sprayed it on paper Tuesday and it is still booming on Saturday. If you like oud, you will love this, because it is not a powerful Arabic oud, but has a modern edge to it. A very nice fragrance, well rounded, soft, but with a full body.

Nicely blended. Doesn't impress at first but keep smelling. Top is nice inoffensive powdery light woods to me and the oud only kicks later. Very wearable for an oud, not funky at all, nice for work. Fresh, light and easy to wear.

i smelled this side by side with oud affair by vilhelm. this opening was more inviting and sweet, but this became a lot darker. smoky wood with a weird edge i couldn't specifically identify. dark. black charred wood and leather.

A saffron fest, it starts out as almost entirely saffron, and then settles into a woody, oudy saffron after a while. Not my favorite, but I’m sure it’s someone’s.

so so strong. leans very masculine, musky, papyrus really came out for me. not the best dsd scent, though i appreciate it.

this fragrance is absolutely horrible i do not get why anybody would like it it smells like powdered paint and something burning, but that’s barely what it even smells like i just can’t describe it. it doesn’t smell good on me or on a test paper, i wouldn’t wish my worst enemy to wake up and smell like this, it smells like somebody took a bunch of random woody powdery scents and ruined them and added other random stuff and compressed it together. not for me

Ho-hum rose/oud scent. Montri by Dusita is a much better version of this combo.

This actually smells identical to a dirty public toilet. Its not blended well at all the animalic notes and the oud does not work well in this fragrance. I sprayed this once on my arm yesterday because it smellt interesting in the bottle but now my arm habe smellt like shit for a wholde day. I do not recommend. However it might just be my skin chemistry not working with this fragrance. I rate it 1/10

Immediately gagged. It is so damp and suffocating. This is what I think of when people say "old people smell". Like plastic covered couches and dust everywhere and prunes and nasty cleaning products. I wish I could get this off me it's so strong!!! The dry down is fine but I would never spend money on this.

To me, this is extremely sweet. It's plasticy, leathery, woody, and over all just too strong, heavy, and dark for my taste.

The oud here(in combo with the civet) is particularly animalic/dirt smelling, which makes for a at first kind of odd pairing with rose, After the opening it calms into a more grassy/damp lumber thing with a slightly pungent kick. I also feel like I get petrichor note? The extreme rose goes away fairly quickly, towards the middle I mostly get a smoky lightly floral fruit top on the damp wood base. I do notice the papyrus but unlike other comments I honestly don’t smell any saffron, although there is some green almost vegetal notes I can’t quite place as well as some slight leather. I have a feeling your skin chemistry is really going to dictate how pleasant this smells and I liked it a lot more in the late spring than I did in the winter but honestly, I’m a fan of it, even if it’s not something I’d wear every day. Would absolutely recommend getting a sample first though

Camphorous and saffron-laden composition on my skin. I love the smell of saffron when I make and eat paella. Though I cannot help getting that saffron scent all over me after I’m done cooking it, it is ok when I’m in the kitchen. But another matter is to wear the smell of saffron as a perfume. I don’t like smelling like a paella cook in my social/business activities. Notorious Oud, unfortunately, has too much saffron for my taste. I can still smell it prominently 24 hours later on my skin. They should name this perfume Notorious Saffron. I do smell the oud a little, which I like. It is the smoky type. But the saffron overpowers it. Not a Perfume would buy. Perfumers, spices do magic in perfumes but be careful with putting too much of a spice that is not intended to be the central note. Saffron is one of those spices that tend to overpower.