Perfect Oud

You'll read & watch a lot of reviews that will refer to Perfect Oud as a "Clean Oud". Its not exactly a Clean Oud. Its not exactly a "Fresh Oud" either. What you'll get here is notes of Bergamot, Coriander, & Iris working to enhance the Bulgarian Rose. It smells like a Pink, Powdery Rose with Green accents. This combination of notes supporting the Rose is whats giving reviewers an idea of "Clean" & or "Fresh". The Coriander is playing two roles in this fragrance. On one hand its adding an herbaceous nuance that lends a greenness to the Pink Rose as if you can also smell its Stem. On the other hand the Coriander is adding a soft warm Spice like a mock cinnamon note that you can smell throughout the opening & mid. The Cedar note adds a nuance that makes the rose go from Powdery to smooth & Lotion-like towards the mid. The Oud here is very Woody, & in combination with the Cade Oil it makes the Oud smell dark, like Wood Chips thats been soaked in Crude Oil. The Oud here isnt of a Barnyard, nor Medicinal type. This Oud smells like a Mechanics Shop. So its not at all a "Clean" or "Fresh" Oud, it just doesnt have a barnyard funk, but its still dirty. In the dry down I also get subtle Leather nuance. In fact its that same Gasoline-like Leather you get in Killian Dark Lord, & Gucci Guilty Absolute. But its smooth like the Leather in Dark Lord. The Rose in this fragrance is absolutely beautiful. Like, its literally beautiful. Like a Princess in a big pink poofy dress. But then in comes this dark, oily, woody, undoubtably masculine Oud note. It literally smells like a Princess with a Chainsaw. Perfect Oud is just that, & its also Perfectly Unisex. However, if you are a woman considering this fragrance, or you are someone who doesnt like Oud, the base of this fragrance is all about Oud & Leather. Its a 3 season fragrance. The only season i wouldnt wear it in is Winter. However, for me its best Seasons are late Summer nights, & Fall nights. Its airy, but not as light as reviews will have you believe. It performs with about the same projection, sillage, & lasting power as Tom Fords Ombre Leather.

I am on a quest to try all the Morillas Oud/GGA fragrances. I do this because I feel GGA is this era's iconic masculine scent. An era otherwise dominated culturally by sweet men's colognes (nothing wrong with that) and the push towards unisex (nothing wrong with that). In this time GGA has made a cultural footprint in the fragrance world like no other, thus I have a scholarly curiosity to explore this "family" of fragrances as made by Alberto. Of course there are others inspired by GGA, not made by Alberto - Bvlgari's Falkar, Black Incense Malaki, Amber Kiso and so on. Great fragrances but more distant cousins. This brings my search to Mizensir and to Perfect Oud: So far this is the only one of the bunch (GGA, Agar Royal, Dark Lord, Gold Oud) that has more of a distinct personality and sort of breaks away from family tradition. It retains the gasoline like accord, the shared DNA, but it steers into a direction that I can only call beautiful. The iris is well blended and thank the gods it is not dior homme-esque and the composition smells oily, smooth, woody and floral, but nothing sticks out, yet all are apparent. Encens Suave by Matiere is the last fragrance that on first sniff I felt the sheer beauty of it, this is the same, though the fragrances are not, however they both feel like they were created in the spirit of beauty itself. Honestly I was not expecting to like this fragrance so much, but it sings to me and is a love. If I were to sum it up, I would call Perfect Oud the "gentle masculinity" of the GGA family.

A light and airy rose/oud scent. If you like western ouds and wanted something for warmer weather/office Perfect Oud could be exactly what you want. It's not off putting oud; it's purely western/synthetic oud (that warm and fuzzy woody scent that has been handled here far better than many designers that slap "Oud!" on the name of their scent). This feels classy, sophisticated but light and very wearable. Soft and pleasant, mass appealing oud you can wear in almost any occasion. Morillas's oud scents tend to have a common-feeling base to them. In fact, this reminds me of Voice of the Snake in some ways - just far lighter and warm weather appropriate. Longevity is weird as the top notes last for an hour or two on my skin and then it recedes to more of a skinscent. In the first hour it projects hard but comes close quickly thereafter. It then remains as a skinscent for 5-7 hours (not great longevity on my skin). I think the base of aromachemicals that I'm usually nose blind to make me feel like this disappears more quickly than others perceive it. That first hour or so is awesome, however. A 8.25/10 for me. Longevity could be better but it's hard to find a light, warm weather ready oud/rose scent that leans masculine. Great for spring/summer evenings.

Revisiting my review after 3 years. Surprisingly this has not ended up on the chopping block! I don't wear it often but I do fancy it in spring or intermediary seasons, when the weather transitions from warm to cool or reverse, but that's just me. Anywho, on with the review! First off, no oud here, frankly if you're a seasoned collector looking for real oud in this line-up, what are you doing? Secondly this is the best one from the mizensir "oud" line, it's the best blend, the most interesting, wearable and easy to like of the family. Original oud is bland, golden oud is simply an upscaled gucci guilty absolute. This does it's own thing, it's rather nice but nothing mind blowing, the price is way off, if it were 40% discount I'd say it's a steal. I don't regret getting it, again surprised I haven't axed it, suppose it's because it is so easy-going that it's not really worth getting rid of and it has a certain modern western perfume charm to it. But if you go into it you should set your expectation to a sephora+, not niche perfumery, if you want to enjoy it.

There’s no real oud here, just Alberto Morillas signature 'oud accord', which is great on its own and shows up in a lot of his work, like the Chopard Agar Royal line btw... This non-oud and non-rose-oud kind of thing actually works well in summer. I really like wearing scents like this in tropical weather. It’s a fresher take and the rose isn’t dark, heavy or velvety like in typical rose-oud blends.. it’s fresh and even a bit fruity like rose jam. I always pick up a cocoa note in Morillas 'oud accord'. I dont know why.. There’s nothing animalic here at all, nothing funky or barnyardy. Overall it’s a light, sweet, cheerful fragrance, a good pick for the younger crowd who are into fantasy-style ouds kind of a smooth, cute-as, seductive pseudo-oud freshie..for guys definitely.. I guess that’s why they called it Perfect Oud it’s not like real oud, it’s light fresh easy to wear and everyone likes it.