Oud Touch

Firstly I would like to say that I am not a perfume connoisseur & I have zero expertise. My opinion is purely based on my experience alone. So the way I usually applied perfumes or was taught to when I was young is was 1 spray each side of the neck, 1 on each shoulder, 1 on the chest & finally 1 spray shared between both the wrists. I wouldn't recommend that for this perfume. I don't even know where to begin with this. In my experience, this was a MASSIVE COMPLIMENT machine. It's a perfume that grows on you. It has amazing sweet caramel notes, strong on the rose but goes fantastic with the amber/oud-y note with a nice little vanilla & ample musk to finish it off. Heavy artificial/synthetic smell for the 1st 5-10 mins. Dry-down is just beautiful. Projection: 10/10. In my experience, people passing by my room or sitting close to me could easily smell it 2-3 feet away for approximately 2 hours. Sillage: 8/10. Does leave a sweet rose amber trail ( in that specific order in my experience) when I walked around. But a bit synthetic. Smell: 8.5/10. I really grew to love this perfume. It's sweet, rosey, musky amber/ a bit woody. I just loved the rose amber musk combo. Used it almost daily for 4 years, almost any weather. Yes, you can pull it off in the summer if you get the spray proportions right. I received so many compliments throughout the years, especially from women. Whether it was my university, office or a party, non-stop compliments. BUT the opening is just so synthetic for the first 5-15 mins. Longevity: 10/10 1-3 hours of projection - can easily smell from miles away. I smell mostly caramel & rose, then between 3 to 5-hour mark people standing close to you can still smell it. Then 6 - 8th hour, its skin scent. By this point, it's musky amber but still good hints of rose. If you use it daily, it will never leave your clothes no matter how many times you wash them. Overall: 8.5/10 To me, this would be 10, but as I mentioned quite a few times, it is a bit synthetic. The first 15 minutes might give you a migraine. Usually, I would spray it on my outfit 10-15 mins before I wear it & leave the room. Come back, wear the outfit & leave my apartment. I do 1 spray on the neck and half a spray for each wrist. For the clothes 1 spray on the chest or centre & half on each shoulder. This used to be my daily perfume.

Blind Buy Worthy? If you’re doing a cheapie haul, just buy this. For under 25$ it’s a STEAL. First Wearing, 10 Sprays: It’s very smooth, and in my opinion fairly unisex like most exclusive designer ranges and niche house offerings. Lightly Floral, mostly Woody, Fruity, and fairly Sweet... It has a decent amount of density to the composition to make it masculine enough. Resinous notes combined with the Oud do keep the sweetness very smooth. It’s not as Rose heavy and animalic as Oud Ispahan at all. First impressions on a moderate temperature NYC mid spring day indicate it’s not a beast mode, 1 spray under your shirt type of scent. Oud Ispahan is certainly much nicer than this but Oud Touch is VERY GOOD, I’m so happy I have this. I don’t even feel like getting Oud Ispahan for a long time now due to the price, which I think is reasonable for its quality and performance. This is simply delectable, that’s why I wouldn’t mind this on my gf at all. After an hour on my skin it’s nice, caramel, oud, floral notes add an aromatic element... I’ll update on the performance later on. Update: 3 hours of excellent performance with all the notes advertised, it’s very very nice. Then it got less fruity and sweet and I noticed a very heavy and dense leather, patchouli-ish, woody Oud type of smell that wasn’t very great. Rather, it is good but it transformed into something fairly heavy and dark for a while. It then dies down in an hour to a solid skin scent which is still wafting with a woody, lightly caramel like scent which is pretty pleasant. The ultimate dry down is still on my skin after 6 hours. This is on a brand new bottle so I imagine letting it sit will make it nicer. (Update: It performed above average, the dry down lasting 10+ hrs at least as a wafting skin scent with some heft to it. My gf likes it.) Overall: I will wear this again in it’s current state for sure, the first 3 hours were honestly amazing for the price! I did spray 10 times, so the performance of the top notes stuck around a nice long while. Not too similar to Oud Ispahan to me. Maybe 50% similar. Update: I’ve worn it several more times, it’s such a great fragrance. I’m going to collect a few more Frank Olivier due to the quality and value of Oud Touch. 🏆💯👌

I was intrigued by reviews on Fragrantica that stated that Oud Touch was a very close copy of Christian Dior's Oud Ispahan, which I thought quite interesting as I don't believe there is any oud in Oud Touch. I thought to myself, Oud Touch only costs £23.00 so I blind bought it to try it out. As an Oud Ispahan owner I can confirm that (to my nose) Oud Touch is almost identical smelling - I'd say 90%; most people probably wouldn't be able to discern the difference. The slight differences I do detect are that it's slightly sweeter than OI, and that the sharp note from the oud is not quite so strong. I'm also picking up a sweet, subtle smokiness in the dry down that is lovely. It's an extremely nice fragrance and I don't find it challenging or synthetic smelling at all. The bottle I received is potent enough but I would not classify it as beast mode. As a fragrance, I really can't fault it's quality. I'd say that the only chink in it's armour is that it is not as potent or long lasting as Oud Ispahan. However, for what it cost I would consider Oud Touch to be outstanding value for money. One other thing to add, Penhaligon's Cairo which retails at £173.00 also smells very much like this. If you're thinking of buying Cairo I'd save yourself £150.00 and plunk for this instead. ;) Conclusion Highly Recommended! UPDATE I've worn this for a few days now and it's garnered a lot of compliments. Oud Touch is such good value for money that I've picked up another couple of bottles.

Man, this is it right here. Let me start off by saying; this is, hands down, my favorite cheap frag. AND, my top 5 of all time. The opening is a little harsh, but after about an hour, this is a sweet, rosy, woody beast. Sillage: 9/10. Hangs very nicely, and you could probably fill a decent room with this. Projection: 8/10. Seems to be a decent 2 feet of projection for ages, I'm very impressed, Scent: 9.5/10. This is almost the perfect scent for me. It's so sweet, but also nowhere near TOO sweet. The caramel, raspberry, and vanilla really take charge here. Although oud isn't listed, I can see where the name comes from. It doesn't have that distinct oud smell, but it's almost like they managed to replicate it, without adding oud oil. Interesting. The perfect mix of sweet, spicy, woody, floral, and fruity for me. Longevity: 10/10. Godlike. Think Sauvage Elixir. That's how long this stays. I'm scared to spray this on my clothes for fear it'll never come off. You'll probably need to shower for a good half hour to get rid of this... which isn't a bad thing, it smells amazing. Overall: 9/10. A truly amazing scent. Surprising the price is so low. Of course with the low price, you're forgoing nice packaging. The bottle is ok, but the cap is cheap, the sprayer is plastic and the atomizer isn't the best (If you have an old Dior atomizer lying around, it should fit, and give a better spray). Please buy this, you will NOT regret it.

Smoky & Resinous INCENSE-ROSE & OUD with Caramel & Raspberry-Violet. In the first couple of minutes I can feel the spicy-smoky frankincense (olibanum) & oud. Oud here is built mostly from olbanum (frankincense), amber, woods (not in the notes, but in the main accords) & ambroxan. As the sillage starts to open up, there's a sweet & creamy caramel with raspberry & orange nuances emerging at the top of the incense-rose. As it transitions to the heart, the raspberry melts into a more floral violet-jasmine at the top of the incense-rose. Over time as it dries down, it takes on a a more resinous-amber quality to the incense, and sweetens slowly with vanilla-musk. Contrast to Oud Ispahan Dior: This is a dupe of Oud Ispahan Dior with a twist. Although the notes are quite different, they're quite similar, but Oud Touch has more forward fruity nuances in the top notes. Both have excellent performance. Contrast to Oud Vanille Franck Olivier: These are different, but they share a similar DNA with sweet oud & fruity touches in the top. Oud Touch is more about incense-rose & oud, while Oud Vanille is more about caramel-vanilla-oud. Both get quite sweet as they dry down, but Oud Vanille is more vanilla forward. Both have excellent performance. Overall: gorgeous incense-rose & oud scent with some lovely sweet & fruity nuances. It's a love for me. Enjoy!