Al Oudh

Deep in the desert between the rose red city of the dead and Aqaba in the fabled Wadi Rum, where in I found myself standing before the tent of a Bedouin Sheikh. The great royal blue curtains heavy with gold embroidery and pearls the size of cherry pits parted to reveal the most inner sanctum of the cool spacious palatial tent. Here far from the Western world and deep into the mysterious desert of Jordan I entered upon a dream beyond those of Scheherazade, T. E. Laurence or even the great Darius of Persia. I stood alone in listening to soft voices of the desert jinn carried from the heart of the night upon the wind to my ears. They whispered scented words of magic and wishes and wonders beyond the dreams of kings. The wind rose and fluttered the roof of the tent and made the tent polls of agar wood to creak and sway gently. Tiny bells like rain on the hot sand broke the air and urged me on deeper into the tent. A brassier in the center of the tent burned in amber and crimson flame revealing just beyond it a small myrtle wood chest intricately studded in ivory and gold. I knelt on cushions of indigo silk and with hesitant hands opened the box. Within lay a glittering glass bottle of golden liquid. As I reached for it the tent began to swirl in heady waves as though I and all about me were being lifted on the wings of a great bird to be carried to another world. I opened the bottle and the air about me changed instantly and transformed the dry warm night of the desert into magic filled with music and desire. I blinked... there before me stood a Jinn. Magnificent in form and enticing in his smile he leaned toward me and winked. I was so startled by the apparition that I dropped the bottle spilling what remained of the golden juice. “My son you have set me free and for this I grant you....” His voice was rich and deep and full of the promise of all things imagined and many more things undreamed of. “Three wishes?” I managed to squeak out. A well manicured brow shot up as he cocked his head to one side. “No! I give nothing so common as a wish for you my lord of my emancipation. But rather, I give this.” He picked up the empty bottle held it out to me. “An empty bottle?” very disappointed. The Jinn chuckled causing the walls of the tent to flap lightly... and beyond them there were tiny silvery giggles from the moonless night. He put the bottle to his lips and filled the chamber with his breath then capped it quick as lightning with a golden seven sided stopper. The Jinn held it before me and dropped it into my open hand. In a flash of fire and rain he was gone. I looked down at the bottle with its red Arabian grillwork and read the words emblazed in warm buttery gold letters. “Al Oudh ~ Eau de Parfum.” The magic held within Al Oudh by L’Artisan Parfumeur Paris is indeed like a dream. It opens with the delicious delights of pink pepper, Dates, dried fruits, caraway, cardamom and orange blossoms. They hang in the air about six glorious seconds only to be violently embraced and seduced like Velma Banky by Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik. A beatific incense, elegant agar wood (Oud) and rich dark sexy leather, make up the heady scrumptious almost religious concoction full of church and sin, sex and redemption that takes over here. This center is supported by iris, saffron, Neroli, and rose. Yes Al Oudh is a caravan of oriental exotics poised to poison you with delirious olfactory pleasures. This Parfum packs a punch not meant for those who prance and dance lightly in green fields covered in laundry lines of drying white cotton sheets and shirts. The ever evolving dry down meets this caravan of pleasure with its own treasures from the east. Sandalwood, Tonka beans, vanilla and the dirty sexy little civet come to the orgy with a grounding musk, rapturous patchouli, rich caramelized myrrh all in cased in a fine Cedar. Yet even hours into this fragrance you never loose the gloria in excelsis which is the trinity of incense, Oud and Leather. A word to the wise on this one, as with most perfumes as compared to Eau de Toilettes a very little goes a very long way. So be gentle when you apply. For men one spritz will do the job. Two will kill at ten paces. And believe me boys it will last all day and well into the night so on longevity it is a stunner. Not for work only for special events or evening wear. As for silage there it gets gold stars too. I must thank and acknowledge my friend Hilary at Barney’s New York who guided me to this wonderful perfume. Her expertise is without compare and she is both gracious and beautiful. If you are ever in San Francisco go by Barney’s and say hello to Hilary. She will be your very own personal Jinn and find you just the right fragrance to fulfill your every wish. FIVE PLATINUM STARS *****

Not oud. Incense. Should we have expected differently from L’Artisan Parfumeur? Let us not forget that for decades prior to the niche/anti-big-brand craze that took over the 21st century, they were one of the OGs hell-bent on giving us perfumes that defied typical structures and most certainly naming conventions. When this was released in 2009, when the oud craze was taking off - a time much to YSL’s/Tom Ford’s and M7’s chagrin from only a few years earlier - there was a weird, interesting, and dichotomous pull: houses and perfumes were now fully aware of the positive impacts to the P&L of synthetic materials, that they were able to be reliably sourced, and - shockingly - perfume consumers were enjoying how they smelled. Enter L’Artisan Parfumeur to provide “the contrarian’s” point of view in giving us an oud that isn’t really oud by not using expensive natural materials, and the use of synthetics that also weren’t going to play to the synthetic-loving craze. With Bertrand Duchaufour as Executive Chef, LAP’s modus operandi of acting as a Michelin-starred molecular gastronomy restaurant to the reigning nouvelle cuisine, we find what can, perhaps, be called a “deconstructed” oud accord. First thing to note is a beautiful, wide, and powerful string of frankincense and myrrh running from top to bottom of Al Oudh; keep this in mind throughout the rest of this description. Now, onto the more detailed bits: With real oud there are the top notes of medicinal fruity, fecal and barnyard, and high-pitched wood notes. In Al Oudh the medicinal fruity aspects are curiously absent, the fruity and waxy peppercorns not really doing their part to truly engage in this way - likely a bit-of-give to Western noses at that time - but there is a good amount of the other facets thanks to aromatic spices of cinnamon and cardamom, and some extremely dry castoreum. The woody spice aspects work to the brief, but the castoreum is so dry that it certainly doesn’t fully convince of you of the hot, digestive juices-laden excrement of a barn animal onto dirt. The dry, animatic leatheriness of the castoreum is certainly quite pushy in terms of a leather accord, sans a more modernly typical shoe polish chemical facet. Curiously, you also pick up that LAP and Duchaufour weren’t quite sure what “oud” they wanted to represent: was it the Indian or Arabian funky oud, or the more tame and nuanced Southeast Asian oud? The tame floral notes of neroli and rose certainly seem to suggest the latter, but what ends up happening is that the heart shifts very quickly to a floral leather perfume with a heaping dose of incense rather than an “oud” perfume. That said, though, it is gorgeous. It really is. Oud purists will likely be fed-up with Al Oudh at this point, but for those of us with a more open mind will probably find this deconstructed version of oud - it’s unique components stretched out and amplified - to be very tasteful and alluring. If this was not enough to convince of an oud-not-oud perfume, the dry down will be. A creamy and floral sandalwood makes itself more logically connected to the floral notes of the heart, aromatic cedar to the brief peppercorns and otherwise oily woody notes, and then, of course, the incense - that gorgeous frankincense and myrrh combination that opened the perfume and is still going strong into the dry down and skin scent. It is just on the correct side of smokey, on the correct side of resinous, on the correct side of green stems, and on the correct side of earthy. It is a beautiful incense accord acting as the glue to hold the entirety of the perfume together. Not oud, and don’t expect such. But this false name is not due to a creative misstep, it is due to aggressively mediocre and uneducated noses of the time period - which, before you put yourself on a pedestal, is not much different from where we are now. Those who love and live with the popular are always behind those of the new. So, before you go poo-pooing Al Oudh, take an honest assessment of your tastes relative to the continuum of current perfume culture; if you like the popular, you are likely not nearly as far ahead as you think you are. This also means for all us, the newbs and the long-in-tooth - including those that think they are - should recognize Al Oudh for what it is: a gorgeous floral incense wood perfume of exceptional smoothness, delicacy, and beauty. This is right up there with Passage d’Enfer, Dzing!, Timbuktu, Dzongkha, and Traversee du Bosphore. Excellent work.

Smell of sweat after a game of soccer... Back in college I had many good friends from the middle east. Best friends ever. They wore fragrances all the time which smelt very elegant and nice. During early fall and late spring we'd get together on campus to play soccer, and many of them came wearing colognes. After the games I smelt like man's sweat, like stinky and sweaty occidental man's sweat; however, they exuded this particular smell that was not pure sweat, but something unique and recognizable to me: a mixture of sweat and what I know now is oud. I have to say however still stinky we all were, their sweat smelt much better than mine because of the oud--I theorize that Bedouins of centuries past (long ago) discovered that oud served to disguise the smell of sweat in the desert. Heterosexually speaking, I dare to say that possibly they smelled animalistically and sexily attractive and that a small number of women who have smelt this perfumed sweat might concur. When I smelled Al-oudh, it was taken immediately back to my post-soccer games memories. Al-oud smells like my middle eastern friends smelled after our soccer games. But sweat is still sweat and why parfumeurs still insist on mixing civet and oud is beyond me. I repeat, the combination of civet and oud (and possibly dates thrown into the mix as well), as I don't think oud alone mimics perspiration. Parfumeurs, please stop the non-sense and the mixing of these 2 ingredients to mimic perfumed sweat. I think there is some attractiveness in this but I dare to say not in high numbers. Al Oudh would be so much better than what it is with less or no civet at all. The combination of spices and dried fruits/dates is delicious. I personally might buy a bottle of Al-oudh because of the fond and great memories Al-oudh brought me of my friends and our soccer games back in college.

This is quite a scent. I disagree with those who don't think it smells like oud - sure, it doesn't smell like Montale's horrible medicinal oud, nor does it smell like a high quality oud oil. What it does smell like is agarwood chips and the smoke one gets when burning them. The wood chips have a very complex aroma of wood, resin, rot, and a funky fruit aroma that smells a bit like raspberries if they were old and moldy. The smoke is similar but of course smoky, and has an even more pungent quality. Al Oudh smells like I'd imagine a temple to smell that was burning oud and had rose petals and spices on offer to various gods on altars spread throughout. The castoreum is quite noticeable here (I've smelled real castoreum from profumo.it - it is dark and leathery and has hints of tar and oil, but is surprisingly smooth), not so much as a note but the way it influences the texture of the scent. There is quite a bit of cumin but it blends so well that it simply adds a hint of a human note to the scent. Body odor - yes, but not in a negative sense. The most alluring smells imaginable emanate from the human body - not all of them are nasty or funky. Al Oudh captures the beautiful scent of human skin and sweat - prior to it becoming fetid - and incorporates it masterfully into the very Moroccan atmosphere of the scent. One of if not the most velvety smooth and downright *dark* scents I've ever smelled (I feel the box represents the impression of colors I get from this scent very accurately - mostly black with some red and gold woven throughout). As far as oud scents go, M7 is probably the closest comparison, as M7 also goes for that raspberry, fruity, spicy, funky agarwood wood chips impression. But while M7 is more earthy and rugged, Al Oudh is more refined, velvety, more overtly sultry and heck, downright sexual.

L'Artisan offers a good oud with a very spicy facets, an animal touch and a rare bittersweet effect. It is very relevant the good dose of caraway that has causing in this oud a wild, animal and even sexual effect. This belongs to the same family of cumin, the aroma is similar, also very aromatic, spicy, bitter and sweet, penetrating, but nuances different, is nasally less incisive and also with a less sweat effect than this (which is appreciated) . The animal point is placed by the civet and, to a lesser extent, the leather, which, although noticeable, are not very strident, the animal note is not too dirty and is very well integrated with the oud. There are many sweet notes from the nuts, dates and balsamic notes that cause a very positive impact on the resulting aroma, softening the animal's dirty, powerful oud note making the fragrance less aggressive, warm, sensual , Cozy and portable. The effect of the vanilla with the musks makes the drying cause a good general impact and the skin fixation is good, a slight smoky touch provided by the incense creates an aura effect of mystery. It's true, it does not project much, but the duration is good. This is a good oud, it develops under a modern concept with a rather monolithic aroma. It strikes me as soft, warm and resinous as it is, without being overwhelming, however, this oud exploits well the animal facet in conjunction with the spice (caraway) and makes it somewhat deep, untamed and different without becoming heavy Or dense as an oriental classic might be. Rating: 8

This is a gem. Whatever your mind sets out to smell it will. Yes I had a biased nose already from the get-go with all the bad, bodily scented reviews here when I first smelt AO, so my first reaction was to agree with the negativity. However, I gave AO a 2nd chance. I got rid off my mental bodily secretions ideas and revisited AO. I was surprised once I did set aside my biased mind and predisposed nose that the animalistic tones are very little if any. What suddenly hit me in a big way was this beautiful sandalwood/cedar combo (big time sandalwood note here) mixed with dates, incense, dried fruits, saffron, pistachio at the top, a little dark rose, some dusty spices, and classic leather (another prominent note), with a tiny pinch of syrupy oud in the background (I wish it had more). And that's it. Not civet or caraway or cumin bomb as people say. No butt crack or armpit anymore. Try breaking the notes apart with your nose, give it a real sniff, get in that armpit and butt crack smell that people describe and when your mind and your nose get passed this nonesense and hone into the gamma of beautiful and exotic notes behind this frag you will be rewarded as many have with the beauty of Al Oudh. I am not missing out anymore. Note apart, I think AO is a men's frag. I disagree with Fragrantica's heading at the top of this page. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few ladies who might like to wear AO, but for most part I don't think this is a woman-friendly frag.

I've been in a mood for an animalic stinker kind of perfume lately, and Al Oudh, unfortunately, does not fit the bill. For stinkers à la Musc Koublai Khan or any other civet-loaded Lutens (even his floral bouquets like Fleurs d'Oranger) I am not ready and probably will never be. I only want a touch of naughtiness in my perfume, not that real stench which I have discovered in a couple of SL creations. I thought that Al Oudh with all these "hot summer public transportation" and "Middle Eastern soccer team" comments is exactly what I'was looking for... I mean, a petite well-groomed woman that smells like an Arabian knight, that might be interesting ;) Alas, Al Oudh, as beautiful it is, does not provide me with any bodily smell, absolute zero of stench here. It's just a floral-woody combination with some spice (saffron, cumin) and a touch of fruitiness. Rose, oud, patchouli, dried fruits - all these accords are here, and the composition is very good, inoffensive, and nothing I was looking for. What also was disappointing for me is the subtlety of Al Oudh. It's a skin scent, and it's very transparent. I would say, faint. However, it's very pleasant and warm. If it was twice as concentrated I would love to have it im my collection as a woody floral, as to my nose this one is incapable to play a "sweaty animal" kind of role. I thing I will check if MFK Absolue Pour Le Soir might fit this role.

To my nose, it's a pretty simple fragrance with only 2 stages. It opens with a blast of rose, then caraway, peppercorn, and a subtle -but present- warm oud. Shortly after, the oud leaves, and leaves the stage to an animalic spice blend (cumin/caraway/civet), and a hint of myrrh, until the end. While the name may be a bit misleading (it is not an oud-centered fragrance), this is an excellent spicy oriental blend. While I understand and respect that some may interpret this notes as urinal/skanky/body odor, I would suggest these persons to get their nose on Lutens MKK to get an idea of what animalistic really means, and on Lutens Fumerie Turque, to get an idea of what an urinal note is. And after that to get back to Al Oudh.... I am ready to bet they will then have the sensation to walk in a field of flowers in comparison haha! To me, this one is not offensive at all and very enjoyable. It reminds me of the sensation of the Moroccan and Turkish markets (suk) when I travelled there. 1001 nights in a bottle! I wish the projection was slightly better, but it would have probably become unwearable in public. An A+ for me! 30+, Fall evenings/Winter days.

Been living with this one for some years, and it's ultimately my second favorite L'Artisan perfume. Incredibly pleasant. Totally agree with those who think it's like Camel. They're related, but still different. Both are kind of dirty/dusty, semi-sweet, spicy, exotic things. Both transport in a similar way. I don't get the cumin overload that others do. I know what cumin smells like, and I just don't smell it strongly in here. Nor do I smell a post-coital thing. If you smell like this after sex, I envy you. I do think it's sexy, though, and would welcome it on a woman. But most people would probably expect this on a man, even though it's not super-masculine. The only drawback to this perfume is that the performance kind of sucks. But at the same time, it's also an opportunity to spray freely, unlike those bombs that you can only spray once or twice a day. The price on the gray market is pretty low right now, so if you're having a hard time acquiring Camel, this is a very decent alternative. Older the better, I'd say. It's quite a bit more gritty and exotic than Aziyade, by the way, which is more of a spiced soft drink.

This has to be one of my favorite perfumes at the moment. Its one that will divide people but those who can wear this should. As with many Bertrand Duchaufour there is a lot that has gone into this. He is so skilled at creating a perfume that relates to a particular place or setting. This to me reminds me of a hot dry desert. I love how this can be classified as a "dirty perfume" I would say that there are many similarities to "Timbuktu" but Timbuktu comes across as an overall cleaner perfume. This was an essential perfume when I was in India. I found it suited the hot conditions of the country so well and worked with the environment extremely well. In the UK it does not work as well. I often worry with this perfume if people will say it smells like sweat as many reviews have pointed this out. In my opinion this is only an issue if too much of this fragrance is applied. It is one of the perfumes that I love asking people as to whether they like it or not. Personally I think it's both amazing and underrated as a perfume.

Disclaimer: Erotic content, foul language - be warned! Smelling this for the first time in the shop yesterday had me screaming for joy. Here it is; the ultimate carnal oud, sexy as hell! Whatever turns you on; for my fancy I got the pleasant odour of hot, hairy, sweaty, musky middle eastern hunks I may have encountered in my past... You know, men who could be Turkish mud wrestlers.... Funky and tantalizing at the same time. Some say "butt crack" - I say cum... cumin... Strong on the cumin (wrongly listed as caraway?) initially, then dades and dried fruits appear, before landing in a spicy oud. All the time with hints of hot, musky sweat. This is one of my absolute favorites, I don ́t grow tired of it. But I need to save its strong impact for special occations... I don ́t wear it around the office because wearing this can make me feel energetic, but oh, so horny and unfocused...! This is what an orgy would smell like... Extremely sexual smell to my nose. I absolutely LOVE this fragrance!!! 10/10

This is probably the most interesting fragrance I've ever smelled. To put it bluntly, it smells like sex. No, I mean really. It smells like hot sweaty dirty sex. Now, I think that smell is hot, but I can't decide if I actually want to walk around smelling like this all the time. Something about this scent is so intense... I love it, but it's a tough decision for me. I have a sample and I'm going to test it out on different days and see if I actually want to buy a bottle. When I smell this scent from the bottle it smells like richly spiced and woodsy, but on my skin the musk comes out. Again, it's musky in an incredibly sexy way, but it might just be too much. On a guy I think that this would be mouth wateringly amazing. I might have to spritz some on my husband and test this theory. Edit: I continue to smell my sample and spritz myself whenever I am near a bottle of this stuff. It smells like sexy magic and I have to get a bottle.

The opening is a sweet smoky dry cinnamon roll. Spices and dried fruits are well blended, which makes it smells like cinnamon roll although there's no cinnamon in the perfume pyramid. I got only a tiny amount of oud, it provides the powerful woody dryness from the background. Oud is definitely not the protagonist! The dry down smells like a Turkish pudding with cardamom powder on top. Warm, dry, soft and sweet. The scent of cardamom is quite obvious for me, mixed with soft sweet vanilla and tonka bean. The animalistic amber touch of civetta is appropriately subtle, gives the sexy deepness vibe while u ar taking a big sniff. ( It might related with body chemicals, the sweetness is exaggerated on my skin than on the paper. Overall this fragrance is exquisite and sophisticated. Unisex. Suitable for autumn and winter. Not a typical oud fragrance but I think it deserves more attention 10/10

This is my all time fave! It really does smell like fucking for three days and then spraying some spicy fragrance instead of taking a shower. I LOVE IT! It's the sexiest scent I've ever smelled. It's even better if you actually haven't showered for days and then wear Al Oudh with your unique sweaty odour. The dirtier, the better. I don't get why some people here have the need to insist that Al Oudh doesn't smell like sweat, sex and buttcracks. C'mon guys have some fun and embrace the delicious scent of a warm buttcrack! Saying that a perfume resembles bodily odours is not an insult. If you think it is, there are lots and lots of clean scents on the market and, with all due love and respect, maybe it would be better if you stick to those. 10/10

Take heed -- sample this fragrance first and do not blind buy it. To me Al Oudh reeks of pungent body odor and doesn't offer much else beyond that. Think of what someone would smell like who worked out in a gym for a few hours every day for a couple of weeks and never took a shower at all. That is pretty much what you get with Al Oudh. This stuff stinks to high heaven. If that is what you want to smell like then go right ahead, but you shouldn't wear this to work or around other people. There are some (probably many) who undoubtedly will find the smell offensive. I am beginning to think that some reviewers on here are so caught up in the art of fragrance that they are incapable of telling when something just plain stinks.

The excellent ripe fruit top notes are so Duchaufour. He has mastered his technique beyond perfection (Timbuktu, Dzongkha, Bosphore). Pure bliss. And adding a touch of caraway to this already brilliant start makes things even more fascinating and interesting. I have mostly ignored the Oud mania that ruled the last few years, though the one that probably started it all (M7) is one of my all-time favorites. But when i saw that one of my loved houses had an Oud, well, i surrendered. And gladly so. Al Oudh is a masterful creation - Sultry fruity, richly woody, decency defying spicy temper that touches all the right spots. And all done without too much noise. Hm, so how many masterpieces can just one niche firm create? *****

This classy, skanky, exciting, intimate, and cozy fragrance is aromatherapy for my animal soul. It smells like sweaty human skin in the best possible way. Yet this isn't merely a physically sexy scent, it suggests a deeper sort of eros, like falling in love on an arid summer night under the stars. Thrilling and addictive, it stimulates the mind, the heart, and the imagination. Strong cumin usually smells like food to me, however the cumin note here—which apparently comes from the caraway—is thankfully animalistic and greatly enhances the sensual properties of the scent. This is desire as art, and an instant love for me. I'm going to need a bigger bottle.

I can't get enough of this stuff. It was love at first smell. I get an initial blast of bold masculine rose and then lots and lots of musk. Very little oud but I'm ok with that. There is a very animalistic, just had sex super skank vibe to this. Definitely not for everyone. My coworkers are of the opinion that it smells like BO. If you like Bertrand Duchafour, and you're ok with rose musky scents try and get a sample of this. Probably NSFW and maybe not the best choice on a really hot day, but there is no other fragrance that makes me want to constantly sniff my wrists during the day like this does.

Got a sample of it today together with Dior Mitzah, Amouroud oud du jour, Xerjoff oud stars al khatt and 2 other samples from the house of Puredistance. I was actually quite impressed by this one. It is not sweet and it is not oriental, it is just in the middle there with oud and woods mixed with spices. The oud in here reminds me very much of the oud in Indonesian Oud from the house of E. Zegna. I would say that it is rather on the masculine side than on the feminine side. The longevity on my skin is not good but on clothes it can stay for hours. Scent: 8.5/10 Longevity: 5/10 Projection: 7/10

Rose is the dominant note. This is a rose/oudh combo that is prettier and different from most because of its complexity with saffron, cardamon, patchouli, cedar, pepper and myrrh. These are the only notes I detect. Not the fruits or civet. I have many date and civet fragrances. This is not one, at least not this time of year to my nose tonight on my skin. A very soft and close fragrance. Not a powerhouse oud and not skanky or barnyard. Oh, and in the base, it is ALL about the very very dry cedar. This becomes a woody fragrance and loses all the other notes on the way down.