Fleur de Oud

Before I give detail, I want to be clear that Fleur de Oud (FDO) is full body worthy. For me, on the first spray FDO is transportive. I am instantly transported to the 1980’s in a really weird way. Weird in the sense that the smell is not bad but it’s not exactly good. Weird because I can almost reach out and touch the ugly pink tile walls in my godmother’s bathroom. I can see on the back of her toilet the weird pink doll crochet toilet paper cover that always seemed to be staring at you. There I am, a preteen, looking in the mirror, and washing my hands with some kind of fresh soap (maybe Irish springs). The opening of this fragrance, the first 5 to 10 minutes, physically moved me through time and space. The opening for me is a wild trip because I am there. The opening is an odd blast of a very soapy floral accord (maybe the combination of the rose, jasmine, and peach) that doesn’t stick around long enough to really enjoy. However, After about 30 minutes the opening is replaced with a sexy and dirty jasmine boosted by the different ouds and the leather. When the green mandarin shows up there’s a feeling of watching someone polish a live edge wood table while sitting in a leather smoking chair. The ouds here are loud. Possibly amped up by the caramel and the tobacco. The tobacco appears more along the lines of the tobacco leaf as oppose to dried tobacco. On my skin, the tobacco is more of the entire experience of the fragrance. Kind of in the way someone may have smoked a pipe “here” once before. In the dry down, as everything is working around together, the experience is akin to the cleaning of the Men’s only club in the NY Stock Exchange. My first wear of FDO was at 11AM, and under the Florida sun the experience was heavy, big, and loud. Until it dried down FDO was probably wearing me. I resprayed around 6 in the evening and the opening experience was still the same. However, when you move pass the opening FDO was absolute magic. Whereas I couldn’t detect the roses earlier unless I searched for it, this time the rose was on full display. It’s a sexy rose—stem and all. This is definitely a mature white floral that never crosses the line of becoming an old lady’s perfume. In fact it is a very masculine fragrance. Very elegant even with the dirty and strong vibes of the jasmines, leathers, and ouds playing together. FDO (I’m guessing probably Katana’s entire line) is not for the novice. This takes an experienced and confident nose to pull this one off. For me, this is very close to a 10/10 fragrance. I knock it down only because the weird soapy floral didn’t stick around long enough.

Striking floral woody chypre with some nice Malaysian and Cambodian oud. The scent opens with citruses and a burst of jasmine. The heart has rose, peach, caramel and slight tobacco. The perfume settles on a mostly oud base with leathery and woody/ mossy notes and some amber. Though not hugely exceptional, this is a nice well blended unisex composition with moderate sillage and good longevity. Quite lovely. Enjoy!

Cambodi oud is my fave oud type- resinous, balsamic, almost syrupy, and much sweeter and softer compared to Indian or Thai ouds, for example. Although it’s unmistakably noticeable in the opening, once the fragrance warms up its nuances are completely gone, and it fully transforms into a woody floral. masterfully blended and very pleasant, but less oudy than I expected. The florals together with citrus & bubblegum smell radiant and cheerful, beautifully cast against a bitter woody background. sometimes I still get a whiff of that cambodian oud, though cold and bitter, but mostly it’s a sweet bubblegummy fruity-floral. The peach is stunning -on contrast with the oud it smells almost like honeyed, caramelized peach. My favorite note in this fragrance. sits very close to skin.

On skin, it opens with a lime/lemon with hints of menthol, this opening stays for quite some time before moving to a sweet bubblegummy fruity floral accord. The fermented fruits note from the Cambodian oud works very well with the bubblegum accord. After a few minutes, I detect a woody leathery oud note which becomes more prominent later. I detect an animalic note almost like hyrax in the drydown along with an animalic oud. On paper though, it was much better, the opening was a beautiful fruity indolic floral bubblegum that stays for a long time so I assume that it didn’t work well with my skin chemistry as I feel that the accord got separated into two parts on skin.

lots of citrus and jasmine, the rest of the blend is quite full and interesting, lots of rose and peach. But im not a fan of citrus+oud. Jasmine and oud is great, sharp citrus on the other hand mixes with oud as well as oil mixes with water in most perfumes i have tried The caramel & bubblegum notes are very weird, the whole thing comes across like a sweet resinous incense For 400USD for 30ml, I would never spend that, the oud doesnt poke out at all, theres a ton of leathery/ambery/floral/synthetic sweetness covering it, it feels like most of this scent profile could be created for 1/4 of the cost

Intense oud citrus and fleur... It's very animalic than oud. The citrus is quite strong in here with roses, & oud. Also allot of peaches, hints of jasmines. When i first sprayed it, it was quite intensive animalic, and it remains animalic for the rest but less intensively. It could've been much better.

On my skin it opens up with a gorgeous slightly indolic jasmine, hints of wood and gentle fruitiness. Very soft and delicate. Mild clean transparent oud in the background. Perfect for summer mornings. Cozy, comforting and delicious. The dry down yet to come...