Shams Oud

This is an unusual fragrance. I did not know that I liked unusual fragrances. At all. I bought this at a fine indy perfume shop in my city and I honestly did not know what to do with it. It was strange and powerful. That was in 2012. I did not wear fragrance then. I did not know a Tonka Bean from a Tonka Truck. In 2013, the bottle was still full. I was in a rush. I did not have time to spray, delay and walk away. I sprayed it directly onto my skin and rushed out the door. In the car on my way to a meeting, my heart was racing. The driver was listening to what sounded like a muezzin's call to prayer. I could smell myself and a tingle ran up my spine as a trickle of sweat ran down. I closed my eyes to try to get my heart rate down and as I did this gorgeous Yemeni song about heart-ache (I asked) came on and I realized I was having a moment, a fragrance moment. I arrived at my meeting and Shams Oud had arrived several seconds before I did and made nice. My client said, "What is that intoxicating smell. God that's nice." before Hello. Without even so much as a pencil (the shavings of which could be a valid descriptor here) I was energized and outgoing in ways that being late to a meeting usually prohibit. I went back to the shop and sampled more, and different but not better. I have since taken to scent and fragrance with more than passing interest. I invested in other ouds. A few loose nickles in my sofa found a receptive welcome at Frederic Malle and The Night went home with me one day. Also a strange and powerful scent. But that one rolls over to let you rub its tummy. This one swats you with its paw, purring loudly. Your G650 has just landed in Sharjah. The doors open and you step onto the Tarmac of the airport swept out of a desert oasis. A fire is burning some distance away and they are stoking it with pink peppercorns. To check if you are still asleep and dreaming you pinch yourself with a clothes-pin made out of camphor wood. You wake up. It was a Shams Oud fever dream. 10/10

If African Leather and Laudano Nero had a socially awkward child. Shams Oud took me by surprise today, I didn't expect it to be so good. This wasn't particularly exciting or memorable when I first tried it a few months ago but I was immediately impressed when I wore it today. This is an amazing sweet ambers and woods scent, it reminds me strongly of Laudano Nero from Tiziana Terenzi minus the charred/ashy quality of that scent. There's also something kind-of-aromatic, kind-of-spicy that reminds me of African Leather, but to a much lesser degree than the overall scent reminding me of Laudano Nero. During the opening hours there's also a slightly smokey and leathery finish up close on skin that's really nice. Performance is really underwhelming, however, I wasn't calling this Laudano Nero and African Leather's socially awkward child to make the opening catchy. Projection is moderate at the very best and sillage is on the light side. It also doesn't help that this becomes a skin scent in less than two hours. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt as my sample's atomizer is really bad but performance in those aspects left a lot to be desired. Longevity is good, however, lasting 8 hours on skin with relative ease.

I'm glad to finally try out Memo Shams Oud as it has a good reputation in the fragrance community. Slightly spicy hints of ginger and pepper in the opening give way to a blend that's sweet and woody, mainly,the resins of labdanum and tolu balsam taking center stage, flanked by vetiver and oud on onside and the curious tonka on the other. After the initial spicy blast, it's noticeably sweet throughout its life, primarily due to the resins but also the tonka lend its signature sharp sweetness, and this group contrasts the oud and vetiver and keeps the whole blend in homeostasis. It's sweet, woody, creamy, and slightly earthy. Pretty pleasant and unisex, though I figure this to be a cold weather fragrance more than a warm weather fragrance. Shams Oud is a great performer, strong on projection and even better on longevity. At relatively standard pricing for the line of $250 for 75ml, though, it's surely in the category of one needing to love it in order to buy it. I do think I love it but am not sure I'm in need of that much juice for this fragrance in particular, which would fit in among an assortment of quasi-similar resinous cold-weather-ideal scents. 8 out of 10

This is an absolutely gorgeous seductive scent that starts of as a musky peppery fragrance and after about half an hour you start to get the ginger coming through and also the sweet, smokey luscious smell of vetiver. You do not need much of this perfume and it really does last and is a very seductive, sexy fragrance that will have people asking you what that fragrance is as it is very unusual and throughout the day will change slightly in a good way during the dry down and as the hours pass by. This fragrance will easily last a good 5-8hrs without needing to respray and will last the next day minimum on clothes or on your bedding Lol! Yes it is pricey but you don't need much and you won't forget you have it on either because of the subtle change in the fragrance throughout the day. I don't have much of this left but when I have saved a few more pounds I will buy the 75ml size as that will last for ages. It's definitely not for the fainthearted this is for the person that wants to ooze classiness, sexiness and class and wants to tempt people and get them to notice who they are but with subtlety at the same time xxx

Shams Oud is a real knockout and top marks for creative vision, I can't recall smelling a fragrance like this? Shams opens with the full on might of the rest of this line, definite oud quality with a balsamic warmth and pepper sharpness. This is an onslaught, a total envelopment of quality ingredients like saffron and oud taking on that strange, other worldly smell. The top notes remain and I get a definite spicy sweetness like clove/cinnamon/ginger throughout this fragrance which along with the deep resins and precious woods make Shams oud a very special brew indeed. I only tried this in store first on a card then on my skin, so I need to get a proper sample to wear. However I wrote the review because I was dying to comment on this wonderful stuff. Still far too much money to shell out for one of these and far too much juice in the bottle for me. For the record I do have full test size samples of Moon Leather (not in the database yet), African Leather and maybe a couple of others so I have the opportunity to see if they stack up. My opinion of Memo from what I have tried is pretty high though.