Candy Aoud

Roja is definitely one of my favorite houses, but I'm not thrilled with their new direction, and certainly not with the fact that Roger isn't the nose behind the scents anymore. I probably won't buy many of the new releases from the house, as the scents are simpler, more synthetic, and lack Roja's signature style. The older releases, however, have many that are on my wishlist. Even though I'm a known blind buyer, for the most part I've wanted to test them out to see if they're worth buying and I've been wearing this for a dozen times for now and I still don't know weather I will buy it or not. Tutti Frutti is a collection that many people covet and at the same time there has been a lot of wondering why the two fragrances in the collection, "Candy Aoud" and "Fruity Aoud" , were discontinued. Maybe they thought there were too many similar scents, because those two and "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" (I will write a review soon) have a lot of the same elements. I kind of understand why "Sweetie Aoud" was left out, it is clearly a very unique scent and completely different from the others. On the other hand, it was unfortunately decided to abandon elegant animalic nuances, which were considered difficult but so addictive. Unlike "Sweetie Aoud" , "Candy Aoud" opens with a slightly animalic, albeit very refined, Oud. The fruity notes are extremely well done and none of them are cloying or synthetic in any negative way, despite the fact that they really do remind me of very delicious fruit candies. So the fruits are not juicy and completely realistic, but they remind me of both a colorful basket full of fruit and a kip full of gummy bears. Still, I get a clear hint of banana and pear, especially. The feeling is just as unreal as the smell of a croissant in "Sweetie Aoud" - it doesn't smell clearly edible either, but rather like the scent and the vibe that wafts through a bakery, and that's what makes the scent so great. The sweetness is also nicely executed without being sugary sticky, but rather gentle and pleasantly natural. The note list is long for the type of scent it is. It's not as complex as I'm used to and the scent doesn't have as clear distinct phases as Roger's scents usually do. I'm actually surprised and disappointed with the scent after all the hype. Don't get me wrong, it's an excellent scent, and I don't know of anything like it, but something is missing. If some of my favorite notes - Labdanum, Iris, Leather, Ambergris, Frankincense, Oud, Musk and Oakmoss - performed stronger and brought more character to the scent, I would be completely enchanted. Now the scent is too easy in all its softness, roundness and lightness. The slightly dirty Oud from the beginning unfortunately disappears and it brought an interesting contrast to the scent. On the other hand, a darker and more serious version of the scent is "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" , although "Fruity Aoud" is apparently more similar to it. Unfortunately, I haven't tried it yet. Despite Candy Aoud's simplicity, the scent will remain in history for a reason. It is a masterpiece of many different and different types of fragrance notes, balancing everything so well together that it is difficult to distinguish the notes separately. It combines unrealistic deliciousness, edibility, even imaginary colors and connects them to notes that are perceived as dirty. The end result is infinitely harmonious, sensual and elegant, and at the same time playful and natural. Thank you for reading, I hope my review was helpful. I would appreciate a lot if you want to follow me on IG and/or YouTube (English subtitles): @ninamariahperfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more.

To my surprise, I enjoyed Candy Aoud more than Fruity Aoud. Candy is not as smoothly blended but it is more interesting to my nose! It is so effervescent and the candy feeling really shines through, like a sweet hard candy with oud underneath, this one was also more fresher. Fizzy apple, pear, green and fruity rhubarb, light leather (more leather in Fruity Aoud), woody oud (not too animalic). I could unfortunately see myself buying this overpriced scent haha. I just love it, unique and lovely. Maybe it was a bad idea with even worse odds when sampling it...

wasn’t expecting the oud to be so barnyardish or the musk so skanky. not complaining, just wasn’t expecting that. glad i finally got to sample this one.

There is only one thing more addictive than heroin: Candy Aoud

The oud in there is rather prominent as it should be, however oud being a pungent note overshadows all other notes and effectively ruins the differentiating factor. It's a good fragrance however it's absolutely not worth the price. No idea what Mr Dove thinks of his creations to price them this way. To me they are nothing spactacular to demand such buck. To be honest Mr Montale makes far better oud amalgamations.