Aoud Queen Roses

Applied on wrist....waiting, waiting. First reaction: there is a bracing, astringent, medicinal quality, reminding me of the antiseptic smell of a doctor's office. The aoud is a very strong note and quite strange for a "perfume". Perplexing. The top notes literally attack my nose and for the first few minutes I feel like I have been slapped in the face! Must be patient....Allow this formula to calm down..... The weird aoud character takes a bow and exits stage left. Next, a confident and quirky rose note strides to the front, making quite a grand entrance, and soon she stands alone in the spotlight on an otherwise darkened stage.... 30 minutes later.....in the afternoon a wonderful, heady, bruised rose is resting atop a bed of rich, wet earth after a spring rain; she seems to be sleeping off some sort of secret, indulgent activity, and woody aromas are swirling around, caressing the rose's petals. This is a softer, extraordinarily feminine rose - all woman, not spicy or sweet. She is not a shy rose, but she is on the quiet side. She seems confident and commanding, as well as refined and elegant - but one also gets the distinct impression she has a heretofore hidden, naughty side. Yes, a definite naughtiness and an invitation to come closer....closer...closer still.....that is, if you aren't too afraid..... Abandoning my initial thought to turn away, I place my nose into the center of the bruised rose petals and inhale deeply. 1 hour later.....creaminess, warm musky rosiness, sensual and satisfying earthiness. Soapy and dirty at the same time. Feminine sexuality - no, wait: masculine sexuality - no, wait: both. She is turning me on - I admit it even though I should stay in control. Confusing. Frustrating in a good way. No more dominatrix making my nose recoil. Just a wonderfully complex, very personal aroma which I want to explore. The Fragrantica description of this is ABSOLUTELY 100% right-on! It is an exploratory rose bored with her usual floral partners and instead dirty dancing with admirers from the narcotic and deep underground. I think I am loving this! It will require several wearings to really understand my relationship with this one! The next question for me will be to see how the husband reacts to this. In my experience, very few men like a strong rose note in women's fragrance. I have heard men remark that it reminds them of bathroom freshener or old ladies. Even if this scent turns me on, not sure what I will do if the men around me hate it..... Stay tuned, hubby will be home from work in a few hours and we shall put Aoud Queen Roses to the test!!

***** On Level 3 of the Tate Modern, London, there’s a mesmerising collection of Mark Rothko paintings called ‘The Seagram Murals’. Like segments of primordial DNA, these large canvases dominate and impose themselves on those who enter this inner sanctum with their ‘simple’ blocks of 2 colours entitled: ‘red on maroon’, and ‘black on maroon’. As part of a series they have a striking similarity to each other: literally variations on a theme with each painting expressing a density beyond the wall. Indeed, I recollect with fondness the time when my friends’ young son innocently and ironically remarked that ‘they all look the same, daddy’, as we adults admired this collection with degrees of intellectual critique! In this way Montale’s olfactory explorations with Aoud bear a striking artistic resemblance, as many of their dense creations are binary iterations comprising combinations of aoud and rose: the exquisite ‘Aoud Queen Roses’, for me, offering a centre-piece for Montale’s self-styled genre. As with the majority of Montale’s creations the impact of ‘Aoud Queen Roses’ is massive and unforgettable: huge brush-strokes of sumptuous rose adorning a canvas of bewitching, seductive aoud. Devoid of thorns, this is a warm, full-bodied rose and, extraordinarily, able to summon new physiological life somehow when making contact with one’s skin. The Aoud employed is similarly tantalisingly beautiful, resonating like an organic see-saw of contrasting qualities that flirt with dusty, earthy, animalic nuances, verging at times towards bitterness, to suggestions of impending sweetness as if masquerading as purest sandalwood. The crowning achievement, however, is the way in which the rose never withers on the vine, so to speak, and instead continues to flourish as if the aoud nourishes the flower above in symbiotic perfection. This creation sits closely to the wonderful ‘Midnight Oud’ by Juliette Has A Gun and less close to the Rolls Royce that is FM’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’. However, its closest neighbours are indubitably from Montale’s Collection itself: the latter a monumental achievement of opulence, grandeur and the highest artistic merit. Stunning!

Super beautiful. This was a blind buy and the only other real rose-oud fragrance I had tried was L'Autre Oud which just kind of missed the mark for me. It was nice but kind of elderly smelling, the oud was also quite a bit softer. This is just intoxicating deep dark roses, imagine a bouquet of DEEP DEEP red roses, this smells so rich. The oud balances the roses perfectly and yeah, it's just divine. Thick, heavy, but also very wearable. Super sexy. The oud is at the forefront on initial spray and over time the roses just emerge until they are neck and neck with the oud...the oud calms down to be less screetchy, more deep and complex...when I say screetchy...if you have smelled White Patchouli by TF, that's what I'm talking about. Almost burnt rubber. Weirdly this sometimes reminds me of WP, and I absolutely hate WP. Again, I think when you focus so hard on one note you tend to smell it more, so I try to focus more on the roses and then that goes away. Longevity 10/10 Sillage 10/10 I would really recommend getting a sample of this.

Let me start off by exclaiming that this is one saucy little Queen! The rose starts out authentic smelling, quite bright & frisky & flirty. It is not one-dimensional though, the oud lends this a smoky edge. It is quite lovely. The smokiness deepens and turns this rose from an ingenue to the dirty girl next door. It never descends into skank but it is alarmingly sexual in a vintage kind of way. I picture giggling girls wearing pink underwear with pin curls of all things! I could not identify what created this animalic energy, I guessed musk, but it turns out to be leather which makes more sense. I cannot actually smell the leather note itself but it speaks through a veil of rose, wood & smoke. Incredibly sexy. I do really like this scent but I keep expecting someone to come up to me in the office & ask why I smell like frilly knickers! I am going to keep this one at home, in the bedroom, from now on. PS - Agent Provocatuer can only dream of being this good.

Boy! When this fragrance turns, it really turns!!! I have been nursing a 2ml decant for two years, and when I got down to the last couple sprays, I realized it had turned...sour spoiled roses, mossy boggy overtones, and no trace of aoud left. A real scrubber in this state! So I can agree with Sherapop's first review when Aoud Queen Roses has spoiled. But when it is fresh and new, what a divine scent!! The top notes are bracing, medicinal, and icy to my nose. The rose, leather, and aoud are so masterfully blended in the heart, that the fragrance feels light and dry on my skin, although this is really a powerhouse scent with extreme sillage and stunning longevity. The leather note intensifies in the finish and feels like the perfect earthy counter-balance to the icy, medicinal start. I would buy a bottle of this if I knew it wouldn't go bad before I had the chance to finish it! If anyone can advise on the shelf life of theirs, I would greatly appreciate it!