Nirvana

I am surprised by the neg reviews. I've owned a bottle of this (oil form) for a couple of years and revisited it the other day after reading Luca Turin's review "oud oud". I found Nirvana to be a very beautiful rose oud, with very noticeable rose. I got no funky nuances whatsoever. I'd dabbed it on someone else so I didn't get to test the sillage or longevity (the departing dabbee loved it too).

Gosh darn luca turin's perfume guide. It is dangerous bathroom reading. I go to 'spend a penny' but end up spending a small fortune blind buying ouds because they're described as 'blue cheese' and curiosity gets the better of me. I bought a (rather crappy but I keep coming back to it anyway) knock-off of Malle's The Night and it didn't satisfy my desire for filthy and peculiar oudhs in the least, so I treated myself to this - It will arrive imminently. I wasn't impressed that for a 12ml tiny bottle of oil the shipping is an exorbitant $20. It has a tough act to follow though, Rania J's 'Oud Assam' is currently at the top spot of cheese oudhs, I'm excited for it to have some competition! Will update y'all apropos!! // It arrived!! Only put on a little bit, here is a first impression. The smell from the bottle is... nasty. I smell all sorts of everything: exactly like on the bottle, funky, jammy, etc. On the skin however, all I smell is... castoreum. Natural castoreum, the real stuff, that smells truly like humid, putrid rotting garbage and third-world backstreets. This fragrance does smell a little like Kemi (sic?) and shares an over-ripe nuance with Onda. I know it will continue to change, so I am not making any decisions about it now, and will keep you updated, first impressions are underwhelmed //