In The Mood For Oud

This is, in my opinion, JHAG's most wearable oud. I applied it with a cautious hand, as some of the others from their luxury line will overwhelm and fill a room very quickly. There is the blast of oud along with saffron, with a drier quality than Another Oud (which I find to be a little too sweet and heavy on the raspberry for my taste). Perhaps the bergamot gives it that crisp dryness. But while In The Mood For Oud announces its appearance with trumpets, it dies down within about fifteen minutes to something more subtle than Another Oud and much much more subtle than Midnight Oud. It clings closer and closer to the skin, until I could no longer detect it by the four hour mark. I ended up spraying it four times over the course of the day. Either it had vanished into skin-scent nothingness, or I had quickly become anosmic to it and I'm unknowingly giving my housemates a headache. ( I asked my boyfriend if it was too strong. He said no. And he's usually very sensitive to fragrance.) Some might find that for this price, the performance of this scent isn't worth it. Very understandable; I wouldn't purchase one of the luxury scents unless it were at a discount and I had extra money to burn. For those who want more silage and longevity, I would suggest Midnight Oud. I'm a little scared to wear that one. I sprayed a tissue once and it filled a room for hours. Addendum: I woke up this morning and could still smell the base notes, vanilla and tonka bean. The oud is barely noticeable.

#690 in my "Tour de Fragrance" This sample is my first time with a Juliette Has a Gun fragrance. If you buy a fragrance for the opening you'd like this. The opening is very fruity, light and pleasant, more raspberries than bergamot. But you only get ten-fifteen minutes of that, then saffron and vanilla, a bit of tonka, along with the oud. The combination of Cambodian oud and tonka always reminds me of roasting chestnuts. It's not strong oud at all. If you're really in the mood for oud this probably won't satisfy you as it's a soft background note. Having just tried Atkinson's "His Majesty the Oud" two days ago, my idea of "oud" goes well beyond this. This is a likeable skin scent for several hours, so I'd reapply midday. It is certainly car pool, elevator and office safe as after fifteen minutes what projection you get is very mild-mannered. Even in the first minutes there's nothing here that would offend or overwhelm anyone. Pretty much dead center unisex to my nose. It's a nice pleasant scent that I like, and I think deserves much better than it's 3.45 rating. Though I tend to prefer scents that are a bit more daring, I'm on the fence about adding this to my collection. We'll see how much positive notice it generates. Update: So first reaction from a woman I'm interested in was, "It's smells soft and cuddly." That's a reaction I haven't gotten before, so I'm ordering a bottle.

If I saw it discounted (surprised about the TK Maxx reference below), I would definitely snatch it. It is very pleasant tame oud-saffron combo. I’m really not a fan of sweet frags and this does not come across sweet or excessively sweet at all. Very crowd pleasing oud. Would I pay the full pricetag for it? Absolutely no. For that it is not unique enough and forgettable. You won’t remember the smell, but surely you will not offend anyone and still have exotic middle eastern oud vibe around you, which you can confidently wear even in office environment. EDIT: Final drydown is all about raspberry - juicy authentic smelling fruits. It moves a bit more into feminine territory, but at that point it is merely a skin scent.

A light and playful oud based scent. The perfume has a brief bergamot opening and moves to a heart of raspberry, papyrus, saffron and Cambodian oud. It however also begins to immediately settle into a sweet base of vanilla and tonka bean. The slight feminine leaning scent has moderate projection and longevity. Although not particularly innovative it is a fun wear and an oud perfume that can be worn on any occasion and almost in any setting or weather. Enjoy!

The first ten minutes impressed me so much. Or maybe I was just relieved that JHAG had finally given me something that I could smell and was nice. I got a flash of bergamot. Then oud. I got a woody vanilla sweetness. It projected from just 1 tester spray. I was excited to see where this would go.... Then ten minutes later and all I could smell is that same, nose-numbing synthetic base that is ever present in JHAG fragrances. Why, oh why put it in this?! After a full 10 mins of ‘there but not there’ nose numbing chemical, the scent returns, and I can smell a sharp (tonka) warm lightly oudy vanilla, if I put my nose to my skin. So I know the other ingredients are there, and possibly projecting, maybe I just can’t detect them in the air. Disappointing. As always I’ll try again another day, and update if I notice anything different, maybe I’m having a bad nose day.