Oud Orange Intense

Based off the other reviews here, this seems to be quite the divisive fragrance. For me, however, it is quite possibly the greatest fragrance I have ever smelt, and I'm so sad because now I'm going to have to get vital organs surgically removed and proceed to sell them on the black market to be able to afford it. That is one thing of note, the price is inflated due to the natural oud, but for how it acts as a background player when you actually pick up the scent of it - it's possible you wouldn't even realize it has oud besides the name - it's pretty hard for me to justify paying so much for it. This is a gourmand. This isn't a primarily oud fragrance nor is it a primarily citrus fragrance. I might be different, but I really don't get those fruity notes at the top. I can best relate it to l'artisan perfumeur's ode al oudh with an added tinge of orange and overall better performance. For those who haven't tried that, imagine the smell of those milk chocolates with tiny dots of orange in it, but add a whiff of oud and vanilla. When I first sprayed this on at Neiman's, it radiated like a monster to the point that my girlfriend and the representative who were each about 5 feet away from me both smelled it off of me in a store where you find hundreds of other strong perfumes, so this has to mean something. Strangely, this isn't particularly strong. It has fantastic performance without ever being too cloying. My girlfirend is incredibly picky with the fragrances she likes on me and I've learned that I can base her classic three reactions to how good the cologne is: "it's okay" means it's bad, "it's pretty good" means it's okay, and "oooohhh that's really good" means it's the greatest essence known to man. It's safe to say this rendered the third option.

Simply a stunning fragrance. I'm a huge fan of coconut and vanilla in fragrances, so I had to pick up a 2 ml sample of this one. The 2 ml sample was 219 NOK (about $25 USD). The 50 ml bottle is 4000 NOK (about $455 USD), so this is ridiculously expensive. No matter how great it smells, I don't feel like I can spend that much on one fragrance, when I could pick up two 50 ml bottles of Fan Your Flames by Nishane—another high-quality coconut fragrance for cold wather—for the same price. Having said that, I enjoy Oud Orange Intense immensely. It's a very pleasant and wearable oud fragrance, with fantastic projection, sillage, and longevity. It's quite sweet, but not sickening to me. On my skin, the coconut is strong in the opening. But the opening is primarily a sweet orange, as the name suggests. As it settles down, I get more sweet fruits and vanilla than coconut, but the fruits and coconut are still present in the background. I would say this leans in a more feminine direction, although I would wear it with gusto. I'm going to save my 2 ml sample vial for special occasions.

I have purchased samples of this from LuckyScent (a registered FdB distributor) for years and adored the creamy, lactonic skin scent that emerges through the day. All of my samples have been sweet from the fruits and vanilla, but never overpowering. I truly found this to be the most gentle, creamy day to day. Saying that, I purchased a full bottle this year from a different distributor of FdB and I received a completely different scent. It is very unisex musky oud with a touch of vanilla. I really like the scent I purchased, as it is a likeable soft oud skin scent. However, my bottle has no note of coconut, nothing fruity at all. I am curious if this the experience of others in current batches. I do enjoy my bottle but I just find it to be a totally different opening and dry down. It is unlike the years of samples that I have purchased prior. The new bottle also seems to have a much longer wear as I can smell it on my clothes a full day after spraying it.

What fascinates me about this perfume is that I’m quite enjoying it today. It’s not even good by Fragrance du bois standards, a brand which I fundamentally don’t like, for various reasons but going back to around 2018 or so (because I haven’t tried recent stuff) their repertoire, while quite reserved in terms of creativity was undeniably good perfumery. The materials, the compositions, just very classy stuff. This isn’t actually immediately true of this perfume it, feels a bit like some crude, sweet, niche tropes knitted together. It’s a fruity ‘orange’ hued vanillic, musky amber, I’ve had it on for hours now and can smell a mild coconut note listed here too. It’s apparent how good this is and does actually remind me of Merveilles Hermes but just not my style because of the extra heft and gourmandness but if this kind of perfume is your thing then you could do much worse.

I haven't worn this fragrance since last winter, and I thought I should make a review. I put it on today thinking it was Brume du Matin and I am happy it wasn't. I know vanillas are all the rage right now, and I'm not sure why this one doesn't get more attention. It's a beautiful, floral vanilla that isn't syrupy sweet and overly gourmandy. I think it's absolutely lovely. Anyone who knows anything about FDB knows that the colors they assign their fragrances have nothing to do with the scent. Rose isn't a rose fragrance, orange isn't an orange fragrance, etc. It's just the way they name their fragrances. I also don't get any powder or barnyardy oud, which makes me love it even more. What's funny is that I never even associated it with Eau des Merveilles, which I also love, but now I get it. I love this fragrance. I'm not sure why it's so controversial.