Oud Imperium

I feel compelled to write about this one as it seems unfairly smashed and Stephen vilified as a result. Firstly I smelt this looking for the venom of love. Instead I was captured by the sweet and stinky oud. This is not full barnyard but animalic and in the good way, not like an armpit. I can really appreciate it and find myself really loving the smell. You know the silage is huge when you duck back in the room to get something you forgot and smell yourself. It lasts ages and for people to have rated it weak it’s simply not true. As for people hating on Stephen, grow up. All perfumers and owners put the fragrance out there for you to try, if you like it then great if not, move on as there are thousands of others.. I’m glad that someone has put this fragrance out as personally I love the citrus/apple mixed with the oud. There are no floating bits or cloudiness in my bottle, it’s just a well presented great oud that was a combo of notes missing from my collection. Very glad to have it. Try it and make up your own mind.

Navitus Parfums Oud Imperium is one of the two oud-named fragrances (the other being Oud Luxuria) in the initial release of seven fragrances from this then-new brand in late 2019. Oud Imperium is an accessible, elegant, floral/woody oud, with jasmine, lily of the valley, guaiac, woods, and a heavy use of musk, which greatly smoothens over the entire mix. It’s reasonably sharp, though, somehow both sharp and smooth. It’s not particularly sweet or fresh but sort of hints at both. It’s not overwhelmingly heavy or dense, or challengingly winter-only option, though I unsurprisingly would prefer to wear it only in cooler weather, myself. I tend to lean toward this type of oud fragrance than the over-the-top, fecal/animalic type, which, for all its authenticity, generally is a bit too much for me, personally. Oud Luxuria is the more animalic oud offering in the Navitus line, a bit more intense but more challenging for it. Oud Imperium performs very well, with loud projection for a good several hours before remaining pretty dense thereafter for many hours, unsurprising with its parfum concentration. Priced at $195 for 50ml, currently on sale on the house site but also sold via Perfumology and Osswald NYC, Oud Imperium (and Oud Luxuria) is priced higher than most of the rest of the collection, mainly due to ingredients. I wouldn’t say I’m wholly smitten with Oud Imperium but it’s a strong entry as a far as oud that should not scare away the oud-averse, while still being a robust performer with an interesting variety of contributing accords, not especially overdone in any one way, given the smooth/sharp balance. 7 out of 10

I already wrote on my previous review (Absolutio) my big concerns about this brand and Stephen, and this review will be shorter and focus on this specific scent only. I'm pretty surprised that such a scent was released to the market, it doesn't smell like any oud I've tried from other brands. It's very sour, funky, with little bit sweetness to it, my guess was iris. To perfectly describe it, it smells like if you just woke up, rubbed saliva on your hand before you brushed your teeth, let it dry for a few seconds and smell it. Now imagine that there was a tiny bit of Dior homme on your hand left from the previous night. I do get interesting scents such as some of the offerings from ELDO or Min Newyork, but this one here just smells like it all went wrong, and I'm not sure why they would release such a thing, and not only that, shamelessly hype it. I lost all respect i had for Stephen.

Agree with Donkar, I met up with a friend and smelled all of them. I found all of them to be inspired and nothing original was happening. In fact I would buy Office and Date for men before these. Further, Steven gives all glowing reviews to every perfume ever. That should be a clear sign to *stay away*. Hard pass. Wait for the buy one get 2 free promo to hit as they liquidate this mess of a house. The bottles might look nice on your shelf and the fragrances will be nice room scents.

This is Armaf style oud with higher quality ingredients. Sad. Hype such fragrance and tell people to blind buy it, is a crime in my opinion.