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.

Bestial leather for Amazon riding. RUADE immerses our noses in the real thing. Certainly we have never made fun of the customer at Parfum d'Empire. But this is very, very serious. Instinctive, bold and characterful like the eponymous gesture it evokes, RUADE is not a figurative kick and it is better to be well equipped to cushion the olfactory shock it delivers to our senses. From the first breath inhaled the perfume takes us without warning into the court of the very great, this place of excellence rarely trodden by artisan perfumers in general and the niche in particular. The olfactory realism is so brutal that we wonder confusedly in which dimension we have just stuck our nose. It takes time to understand, a lot of time. And triple the time to get used to the world offered by RUADE. It's not chaotic like a famous Omani perfume. RUADE's disorientation comes from the totally confidential and little-known universe that he approaches, that of horses after a race. Stable atmosphere guaranteed or refunded. Only an authentic passion for this world could push an experienced perfumer to risk putting such scents in bottles. Is it still perfume? Most people will ask themselves when reading this. Certainly, yes it is, but diametrically opposed to what we have known or even imagined about a perfume. How to feel truly good with materials that suggest the opposite. You have to be an expert master to achieve this feat and change the polarity of materials to this extent as RUADE proposes. M.A Corticchiato is a modern alchemist from another era. Some people will not recover from having felt RUDE and will leave the experience feeling overwhelmed, preferring to forget. We can't blame them. No one in the Western world of modern perfumery is prepared for such an encounter and even less so in our time when the olfactory trend is towards a gourmand fruity scent. Taking part in this saddleless ride masterfully designed and executed by M.A Corticchiato requires a corresponding level. Wearing RUADE means having the honor of being invited to play a game of chess against the reigning world champion. You need the confidence and flexibility to accept smelling such a perfume on yourself and it's not just a simple question of loving perfume. It will require intense effort from its rider to tame the animality of the scent and its hoof kicks. Which all sets the bar very high, without even addressing the question of its admittedly high and yet modest price given the goldwork produced and the raw materials used. The natural Oud reigns supreme here as it has been overdosed. The entire bottle of distilled oil seems to have been there, light years away from the few micro drops that our perfumers usually dare to add feverishly for fear of offending the mass of sensitive little noses, congratulating themselves in the process for being rebels of olfaction. Marc Antoine Corticchiato does not offer this fragrance to appeal to the greatest number of people. Ruade would even be the exact opposite. This is one of his biases with his house Parfum d’Empire and with Ruade there is no compromise possible. The lowest common denominator seems to be the limit that the perfumer imposes on his works; and I sincerely think that with this proposition of beastly leathery faceted Oud, we have achieved it. Ruade moves on the razor's edge above the void, without a safety rope and yet in perfect balance from start to finish, as confident as a horse determined to overcome the obstacle in front of him can be. Its rider has only one choice: become one with his mount or fall to the ground with a crash. The perfume does not care and will continue his fantastic ride until the end. A monolithic Vietnamese Oud from the cultivation of organic forests sits at the top of this composition. Imperial, majestic, overwhelming, victorious, brutal, animalistic, racy, powerful, subtle, sensual, sexual, fecal, intriguing, intimidating, daunting, impulsive, electric, radiant, luminous, leathery, smoky. These adjectives are not an olfactory transcription in the figurative sense. These words are truly the physical and real evocation as they are carried in the perfume like rocks falling on our heads from the top of the mountain. We are overwhelmed by the authenticity of the ingredients, the veracity of the materials. Ruade takes his time. The opening with pronounced accents of virile and astringent sweat lasts more than an hour on skin. Almost linear, the composition moves on the skin at the nonchalant rhythm of the thoroughbred drained of its strength in the last winning race and which returns to the stud at a slow and monotonous trot, the bulging muscles shot through with nervous flashes by the last ones. thrill of adrenaline release. The warm and fragrant scents of the animal's athletic body, resulting from its strength displayed on the clay, give it a spectacular pheromone aura. This slowness in the evolution of the fragrance is a real luxury, a mark of generosity from the perfumer. Thus it leaves plenty of time to smell and feel until saturation and then to return again, this fabulous Oud, warm, spicy, soft and dry at the same time like a sumptuous animal fur, impregnated with its natural odors. It opening lingers on the skin with this breathtaking musky cumin accord that never stops unfolding. Take the spices of Fougère Bengale, the animality of Musk Tonkin, the dry herbs of Tabac Tabou, add to the center the most authentic block of distilled Aquilaria wood and you can then get a little idea of what Ruade will be like . The floral note of narcissus is not easy to discern because it is not the flower that is used here but rather its stem as an absolute and which restores green fragrant facets such as floral woody foliage, spicy notes, herbaceous and earthy. My nose guesses the narcissus more than it identifies it, but it is definitely present. It barely manages to exist between hay and Oud, but ends up finding a more remarkable place in the heart and base of the perfume. It will take a fair amount of patience before this happens. 2 hours at least. The drying then takes a more oriental turn, warm, sensual, rounded, although the embers of animal passion still glow, ready to rekindle its flame. However, even the descent is not easy to accept. Some might say if I cross the hectic threshold of opening it then it will be fine. Nothing is less sure. For me Ruade is the most realistic leather scent ever. Real leather from muddy boots, perspiration-stained saddlery, harnesses, riding crops. A bestial leather that breathes. The skin of the animal skinned according to the rules of the art, carefully assembled, tanned then generously embalmed with rich plants. The most surprising thing in all this is that Ruade remains totally portable in this triple natural alliance Narcissus, Hay, Oud. Only three raw materials, but done so masterfully that the result is worth all the efforts. With Ruade it is not you who sets out to conquer it, it is the perfume which conquers you. Duration 5 hours maximum - moderate projection and sillage. M.A Corticchiato did not want to give into the ease of amber woods such as Ambroxan which we smell on every street corner, as a fixative in its composition which explains the very modest performance of the perfume. This is its only "Achilles heel" given its price. Those who buy Ruade will therefore not do so for the outfit but rather for its artistic composition, for the pleasure of owning a piece of reality in a bottle, as a collector would own his piece of AAA+ Agarwood Dont' forget that we have here a racing horse, unbeatable over short distances, not an endurance horse.

Marc-Antoine Corticchiato, being a true connoisseur of oud, classic Hindi in particular, has created a truly remarkable composition for those who share the same appreciation for its scent profile. Imagine a field in an Indian village on the hottest day of summer: hay scattered across the ground, animals grazing nearby, and wild Assam agarwood slowly fermenting in earthen pots. Assam? Nagaland? Hard to tell, but I have no doubt it contains real Hindi oud, especially considering the price tag. In perfumery, you’re either working to tame an ingredient or to extend it. You simply can’t fight the raw, fermented power of Hindi oud. In the case of Ruade, the perfumer chose to extend it by adding hay absolute, which gives a slightly sweet and warm undertone, and narcissus which is most likely just p-cresol or p-cresyl phenyl acetate, the molecules responsible for that realistic “horse stable” aroma. By the way, these same materials are often used to recreate the scent of natural Tonkin musk tincture. I wasn’t even aware of this fragrance or the brand at all. Back at the niche store, I asked for an oud fragrance, hoping to discover something more interesting than yet another Oud Wood clone or a guaiacwood-heavy composition. After testing about twelve different perfumes, I went back to the very first blotter the consultant had handed me and I was genuinely shocked by how naturally oudy it smelled compared to many other high-end niche fragrances I’d just tested.

After all the threats of oud central this is mostly immortelle once it settles: dry, brown-yellow, straw-like. Its traditional rum-sweetness suppressed by the rich, natural oud which gives Ruade a spectacular barnyard... stables... you-name-it accord in the opening — truly poopy — but calming to a benign, suede-like immortelle, so familiar from this house, with a bit of oud funk and smoke, and the browner, horsier end of narcissus. Not half as scary as I’d feared. I love the dry, smothering, dustiness of immortelle, here with a little salty sweat laid over it. Ultimately the oud is not for me but Ruade is both reassuringly wearable and enjoyable.

Reviewing a sample from 2025. Ruade was launched in 2023. This is a realistic aroma of horse stables. Ruade opens with the scent of horse manure. Over time this settles into sweat soaked animalic saddle leather. The dry down is softer with hay and faint whiffs of green notes and narcissus. This is a perfect rendering of the aromas from my horse farm particularly the tackle and saddles. It is a nostalgic scent for me but not something I would want to wear. Quality - excellent Masculine Performance - excellent This is a potent and authentic evocation of the equestrian life. Challenging to wear but fascinating to experience. 8/10

Warm woody animalic scent that accurately captures an olfactory snapshot of the world of equestrian and dressage. The main animalic note is captured by using an animalic accord composed of leather and oud. This is softened a bit using a hay like accord and slight narcissus and cumin. I cannot detect anything else in this scent. The masculine leaning scent has moderate sillage and good longevity. The perfume whose name means an equine kick is not for everyone and will need strong unafraid personalities to pull off. The price is reflective of the generous amount of real oud used in the composition. Enjoy!

The Black Bull : Gustav Klimt 1900 . Brown bull . The mental image of the color of the perfume

Lilith ( Jean Seberg ) in Lilith 1964

This opens with something reminiscent of oud, but it’s definitely not the conventional Western oud, less real oud at all, but I’m perceiving it as something more on the civet side of things (or animalistic/black musk from CE), somehow like Lui by Mazzolari, but not quite the same due to the other notes here and the civet component being different from what’s in Lui. I would even say that it alludes to the same kind of articulation drawn out in Corpus Equus by Naomi Goodsir. By this comparison, Ruade is a bit more barnyardy than CE, while being a bit less leathery at the same time, and having hay absolute (which CE lacked of). Ruade in the sense of CE, is more true to the “lived through barnhouse” experience, but doesn’t smell grossly of feces. Sure, it might seem that way with the initial smooth, sweetish (comes from the narcissus) civet-like note, but it tones down considerably over time (and even after just a bit after application), allowing the hay and narcissus to show their character. If there is actually oud in this then it's probably the fermented kind of oud (dirty), and not some emulation of it (in which case would be a first experience for me). This (animalic, barnyardy) character is stronger than what’s in Cuero by Boyd’s of Texas, and still even so in the drydown. Well done frag, but not something I fancy.

Animalic oud, hard leather, deep and rich, but not too dirty. There are some floral notes, more like rose to my nose, I don’t detect narcissus. Smoke and resins are in the base. Overall, it smells natural and earthy. Not bad, enjoyable but forgettable.

This is a tough one. It's clearly an oud overload to my nose. I don't get much of the intended equestrian vibe, I guess the green-hay thing is in there but I truly struggle to pick it up behind the wall of skank this is. On that subject, it's very much in the blue cheese, sour, acidic animalic kind. I'll give it that it has grit and texture that I've never smelled to this level in any other perfume but it's quite repulsive to my nose. I tend to struggle with higher pitched animalics (Leather Oud, Hyrax) compared to the warmer, rumbly kind (MEM, Salome, MKK and such.) and this is no exception. Even in the drydown I can't really ever shake that feeling off, many reviews point out that it softens up into socially acceptable territory, which it does but by that point it's a really quiet skin scent that I just don't care for. I simply don't think I enjoy Hindi oud that way. Corticchiato is no doubt a master and usually does well on softer animalics, and it's great to see him foray into new territory here. This is well conceptualized and built, I just don't connect with it on any level.

I have to agree with Dr. B. Ruade, while featuring oud, is not an oud centric composition. So what is it? It’s the scent of desiccated woods, it’s the aroma of equestrian saddles and horse hair. The sweat of a mare and a beating heart. There’s a certain amount of heat that radiates from the center of Ruade that feels like the breathe and soul of a wild mustang. To my nose Ruade is a spicy, brown leather centered around an incredible use of agarwood. The dry hay, warm woods, leather saddles, and pastoral nature of this fragrance elevates Ruade into one of the best uses of oud I’ve ever smelled in perfumery. The blending is incredible and smooths out any raw edges that would be found in the material neat. I get a citric quality that softens the whip of leather into something smooth and warm. Every material here was used expertly and it’s truly a magnificent fragrance. The reasons I don’t feel this is an oud fragrance because the oud isn’t the star of the show. It’s the accord that is front and center and while makes up the backbone of that accord it is neither purely oud nor indicative of the material on its own. Instead it’s elevated. Anyways this is a 9/10 for me. Performance isn’t as bad as what others say. This is intimate but you’ll smell it on yourself. Will everyone two rooms away be able to tell you’ve entered the building? No. But who wants to walk around like that anyways.

I wonder if those who criticize this house's prices are aware of the world of perfumery? If there's one house that can boast of not using cheap synthetic materials and not cheating with a bottle that costs 10 times the price of the perfume, it's PARFUM D'EMPIRE! We're talking about a concentrated natural oud, according to some sources in Paris, around 10%... Many of the perfumes that people adore are based on oud, but they are simply accords and not real oud... No synthetic fixatives at PARFUM D'EMPIRE; it's one of the house rules: let nature express itself, let's not disrespect it.

I read the 1st comment, and I thought "wtf? Seriously?" Yup; €420/600 ml.50/100!! Not that long ago, they used to cost £110 for 100ml. Then suddenly all 100ml were discontinued and replaced with 50ml, but the price was still the same, so actually, in reality, the price has doubled! I tried lots of their perfumes; some are nice but not long lasting at all. We're all being taken for a ride...

A while back, I asked for the most animalic scent at a niche shop and i was presented with this. Today i went to smell it again just to recall the insanity. Horse saddles and beaver's ass is what i get. Not sure why somebody would want to smell like this, especially given the price tag, but i am sure facinated how they managed to create such a realistic smelling animalic element.

Initially, it smells like manure. Yup. Manure. On a farm. Yes, indeed. That bit fades with some time, so don’t let it prevent you from taking a sniff. It’s one of the most interesting, nuanced fragrances I’ve smelled and I can’t stop thinking about it. I’d never wear it again and wouldn’t want to smell this on anyone ever but I appreciate the artistry.