Ruade

Original review posted 7/18/25 I’m so won and bowled-over by this perfume that I’m breaking my own rules: I’m posting my thoughts without having tried it on skin, I’ve only smelled this on a blotter. I’m a farm boy. I grew-up around horses, cattle, other farm animals and commercial vegetation, leather saddles and our own handmade leathers, barns, hay, and the rest of it. That was some time ago in a previous life long and far away. I just purchased a bottle of Ruade, and smelled it on a blotter just to test for authenticity and I nearly started crying. It transported me back to my childhood of those experiences and smells in such an effortless and precise way that I felt I was there in those barns, in those hay fields, riding atop my family’s horses and cattle, and the worn and sweat-soaked leather equipment we had. I didn’t expect something like this to happen to me at the end of the day, all I was doing was just making sure I got a legit perfume, but here I am, misty eyed at the precision and beauty of Marc-Antoine Corticchiato’s work of art. More to come when I can wear this on skin, but, for now, consider me completely captivated. Update 1/5/26: This was hard. It has never taken me this long to formulate any thoughts on a perfume, but here lies an exception. First off, it is not an oud composition. This is all hays, leathers, touches of a sweet civet-type note, salty skins, and warm breath. Is there an oud-type material in it? - That is as maybe, and very likely, but oud is not meant to be the point. Corticchiato loves horses, and he wanted a perfume to evoke his love for them. Last that I checked, oud was an Aquilaria tree infected with fungal rot, not a living, breathing, muscular and majestic animal that has emotions, a heartbeat, and eats and poops. To say that the two are the same is to say that either Corticchiato is a perfumer incapable of distinguishing them olfactorily for us, or that, two, they smell the same. Look to Christine Nagel’s composition for Hermes, Paddock, to recognize that keeping “oud” and “horses, stables, barnyards, and saddle leathers” very clearly distinguishable from each other is completely doable. Corticchiato certainly possesses the talents to do this. Secondly, if the former and the latter smell the same to you, please write to me in private so that I may know to ignore your perfume reviews in the future. Very thick and heavily tanned leather. The smell of hot and salty skin underneath stiff and earthy-dusty hair. Sweet hay and grasses to give nourishment; the hay smells slightly fermented - as it should after being compressed in bails in a field for so long - giving a slightly boozy quality, with the sugars naturally enriched for that pleasant and mouthwatering sweetness that horses love so much. The smell of aged wood and dirt from the infrastructure in the background, surrounding and underneath the domicile of the horses. And love. Something breathes here. Something is caressed here. There is nothing pushy about Ruade, nothing standoffish as can be typical of most real oud compositions. Maybe the slightly boozy opening is a bit funky for some tastes but it cedes so effortlessly (and rather quickly) that it shouldn’t detract even the most sensitive noses for long. To my mind and heart it is the tingly feeling of skin on skin, that tiny electric pulse that happens when you touch something living that you love. When that little pulse falls away you’re left with warmth, the familiar and the comfortable, the smell and texture of skin, and even the palpitation of a heartbeat. When I first smelled Ruade I said that the onslaught of memories was so overwhelming that I recognized I couldn’t be objective. In hindsight, why should I have been concerned with that? Just go with it. Ruade did this more than once, and so here I am finally able to be objective long enough to parse most of it apart without losing myself completely. Ruade has transported me into misty-eyed nostalgia several times since, and I’m certain at some point it will do it again. It does what the best perfumes do: they take a gentle hand, dig deep into your mind and heart, find something surrounded by love, and softly pull to the surface what you thought you’ve forgotten. If you do not have that memory that’s unfortunate for you, but, hopefully even still, you will be able to appreciate Ruade as a stunning work of love.

Ruade from Parfum D'Empire. First, I need to point out how many seem to have misunderstood what Corticchiato tried to achieve here. It looks like people expected this to be an Oud perfume. I heard someone saying: "He came a bit late to the Oud game." This is not an Oud-centered perfume. Yes, the oud is there, and no, it is not the usual accord or blue cheese fermented blast one will find in most commercial perfumes. The oud is cleverly used to create the theme of the perfume, not to define it. What Corticchitao wanted to do here is an agrestic perfume with a powerful nod to the equine theme. He pondered on the materials that would work best, and oud seemed an obvious choice, next to a few others like hay and narcissus. If you expect this to be an Oud perfume, you'll be disappointed. Another important caveat is to test this perfume on the skin. It should not be wasted on paper. I ran my first several tests on strips, and it didn't feel very dynamic. Once I applied it to my skin and wore it, it blossomed. Even now, I get slightly different facets each time as my body heats up or the temperature fluctuates. It is a robust composition yet highly multifaceted due to the nature of the ingredients. What does it smell like? Imagine a warm summer day in the countryside, approaching Dusk, a worn and rugged leather saddle still imbued with the sweat of the animal and the rider after a full day of galloping in the fields, nesting in the warm hay and some drying narcissus flowers. The barn is warm. The heat makes the scent of dry wood rise and permeate the atmosphere. That is Ruade in a few words and a little game of imagination. It is an agrestic through-and-through with a vivid equine character. Upon the first spray, I always get a dry and dusty smell. An amalgam of hay, pollen-ladened and dusty narcissus, a tannic, worn leather, and dry wood. It is a dry and devoid of sweetness perfume. In this regard, it reminds me of Oeilleres but drier. There is an almost boozy quality from the hay absolute. The dustiness stays for a good while, and once it dissipates and the perfume transitions to the heart, the Oud becomes more assertive. Together with the narcissus and perhaps labdanum, work to create the imagery of a worn leather saddle infused with the beastly aroma of the heated body of the stallion. A musky, sweaty-salty creaminess creeps in, but at this stage, what dominates is the leather accord. Dry, worn leather. There is a smokiness coming from the Oud, making me think of a heavy smoker's leather jacket. The more the perfume dries down, the more the focus shifts from the smoky leather toward the creamy and sweaty musk accord that evokes the animal's body. This later part lasts for a very long time and smells incredibly alluring. As mentioned, I never get the same wearing experience with Ruade. Sometimes, the agrestic character feels more prominent. In others, the emphasis shifts to the smoky leather theme while the dry-down is always salty and saturated with resinous-musky goodness. I still discover new facets with Ruade and I'm yet to wear it in colder temperatures which I sense might bring out more of the woody and smoky facets. I tested this perfume many times before committing to a bottle and I cannot stress the importance of not just sampling it on the skin but wearing it. Again, do not expect an Oud perfume. This composition has Corticchiato's signature all over it and will find real appreciation among those who love and understand Agrestic perfumes. Yet, it goes beyond that theme. It is an Oriental, a Leather, and one of the best Equestrian compositions on the market. I LOVE all these genres, hence, for me, Ruade is one of the best perfumes of the last year, next to Rauque, and easily my best perfume purchase this year. With Ruade, Marc Antoine proves once more that he is the absolute master of Agrestic compositions, adding another bucolic masterwork to his portfolio. IG:@memory.of.scents

The smell is fantastic, amongst the best; the only successful realisation of the fresh-fetid ‘field in summer’ that a fair few have tried and almost managed. I avoid horses so can’t comment there, but this is pleasingly reminiscent of a mown and slightly dungy field. Goes without saying that sharper notes are more present at the start; in this case, these are the elements some might find offensive, but if you’re interested in this you presumably already know why you’re here. Whilst this is obviously a perfume in which oud is a central pillar, it’s perhaps not ‘a oud perfume’ in the sense that it lacks other commonly-associated notes from Western ouds of the last couple of decades; no ambers, incense, sticky florals and so on. I wonder, without any understanding of the chemistry, if this perhaps leads to a surprising lack of longevity and projection; or perhaps an expectation of days-long endurance and riot-control sillage has been unfairly created by these other perfumes. Either way, this passes through its varied and interesting phases relatively quickly before reaching a much longer, stable and quiet position, very close to the skin. It’s still marvellous, but one for time at home rather than somewhere where it might face competition from stronger, less educated smells.

A compelling study in tension and texture. The leather here is dry, precise, and quietly insistent. It’s woven through with hay, resins, and something like warm skin under saddle-worn wool. In different ways, it has echoes of Montecristo and Rauque (two other favorites in my wardrobe), but it’s most certainly its own beast. There’s a clarity to the structure that rewards patient wear; what begins as slightly austere opens into something rich and atmospheric. The hay and narcissus are seductive together: mellow and honey-like, yet cool and dry. And I have never smelled such beautiful oud... For those who enjoy leather rendered through an animalic-ligneous filter with a dash of peat, this is a true standout. Corticchiato has slowly but surely become my favorite nose working today.

This smells amazing. The oud is animalic but it is blended beautifully. The sad part about this fragrance is the performance though which is atrocious. For the price you expect the performance to be on par with Fredric Malle for example but it isn’t. The performance is just plain terrible. For the price you can find so many better oud fragrances in the market with real oud and with much better performance. Edit: the more I wear it the more I love it. Wish I got the bigger bottle. 5/5.