Loudo

Thanks a million to Sarah Baker Perfumes and Cafleurebon for kindly sending me a bottle of Loudo! My review follows: Loudo, a play on the Latin word “ludo,” meaning “play,” harkens back to childhood memories of ice cream sundaes: a rich gourmand with a literal black cherry note on top. What makes Loudo stand out among the somewhat maligned trend of gourmands is its inclusion of Laotian Oud. Brash and bold, the oud comes in straightaway and grabs for your attention. This would be polarizing to some, but fortunately I’ve already cut my teeth on Sultan Pasha’s work and learned to treasure the complexities of oud thanks to his marvelous attar collection. Where my experience with oud has primarily included Indian, Cambodian and Bengali examples, the Laos oud note in Loudo is not nearly as grassy, barnyard-esque or animalic. It has a spicy, leathery, tannic quality that reminds me of aged bourbon. I’m unsure how much of this is the oud itself or whether it is aided by the cypriol, which is another note that is new to my nose. The resulting impression is a fragrance that smells almost drinkable; bittersweet and aged, but also creamy and luscious once you sit with it for a while. I come to crave Loudo the more that I smell it! With time, the tannic notes mellow and merge with the sweet white chocolate and vanilla, and I pick up on the faintest scent of petitgrain. I was hoping for a greater burst of bergamot as it smells exactly like Fruity Pebbles to me which is the epitome of overly sugary childhood cereals, but perhaps I’ll be able to detect it after more olfactory exploration. The drydown is incredibly comforting while still retaining a bit of incense-like woodiness, making it the most (and only?) meditative gourmand in my collection. Sarah Baker’s description of the idea behind the scent fits perfectly: “As adults, we are taught that sophistication is desirable and childish tastes are bad ... We pose the question: what kind of sophisticated adult do you want to be, one trapped by category restrictions, or one liberated by your inner child?” Not surprising for an extrait de parfum, Loudo’s longevity is quite good. The projection is relatively soft given its concentration, which I don’t mind at all. Loudo feels more like a scent that one would wear for their own pleasure and encouragement rather than something to wear to impress or enchant others. By definition, Loudo is supposed to challenge the notion of taste. What’s wrong with blending the old with the new or the childish with the mature? Who said we must box up the joys and passions of our youth, put on our business casual clothing, eat boring cereal and lose touch with our playful side? Why can’t we make space for playing with our children, nieces and nephews to teach them that adulthood doesn’t have to be as humdrum and monotonous as it’s made out to be? Loudo asks and answers these questions with a single spray.

I was surprised that the avant-garde house of Sarah Baker was releasing an oud fragrance, as this house does not follow trends. I needn't have been concerned, you won't find any rose here as Loudo is a fragrance that brings something different to the oud genre. I personally find the notes misleading so just ignore them as the notes suggest a lot of sweet gourmand aspects. I don't get much sweetness from this but that may be because of the subtlety of the notes and the blending as I can't individually identify the gourmand notes. This scent will not give you instant gratification unless you are an oud connosiour. You have to let it live and breath on you and slowly get to know it to see if you get on. If you find you do get on then you will surely fall in love with it. I find this a transportative scent, it conjures up the image of being on an African safari whilst wearing a leather jacket. As the scent developes it becomes furry and musky on me like whilst on Safari you came across a lion, you got the better of it in a standoff and rode it back to your hotel. The wind is wafting through the lions mane and carrying the scent to your nose. The oud is there throughout the life of the fragrance, but the leathery animalistic aspects fade to leave a well behaved nose pleasing oud. My nose picks up on a lot of orris in the base which helps to clean things up (although it's not a listed note). The drydown is akin to entering your hotel foyer following a long day on safari. Everytime I wear this the scent feels like it is alive moving and shifting shape as it transitions. Slightly challenging at first until it decides to reveal its beauty, another one that will be getting added to the to buy list!

Ambery and vanillic with a hefty backbone of animalics. I love this stuff. It's rich and warm, creating a nice bubble of sillage around you. The white chocolate offers a notable hit of sweetness but without becoming cloying. It is the perfect accompaniment to the resinous and animalic notes. The oud in it has a nice bit of funk to it but it's balanced so deftly that there's no worry of it being offensive. Chris Maurice is a master of ambery ouds and was the perfect choice to create this fragrance. I have tried the other two fragrances in this mini trilogy of sorts (Symmetry and Gold Spot), and while both are wonderful, this one remains my favorite of the bunch. It's more complex than it's predecessor, Symmetry, and not as overtly gourmand as it's successor, Gold Spot. It's the perfect middle ground. I give this one a solid 9/10. I feel as if I cannot leave without mentioning the exquisite packaging this came in. The bottle and box are heavy and feel luxurious. The typed script inside that details the "scene" of the fragrance is a wonderfully creative touch. The outer sleeve that wraps around the box is gorgeous and I love it can be reclosed. As weird as it sounds, though, the star of the experience for me was the way the fragrance was packaged in its shipping box. The care and attention to detail in the shipping materials was unlike any other I have seen. The signed card, the beautifully wrapped free gift, and the included samples were affixed to the packing paper using sticky gum so that they stayed on top and in plain view, instead of just jostling around the box. It's small details like that that give a customer a complete luxury experience that they will fondly remember.

Loudo seems to open briefly with a warm Animalic fur-stole aroma, but this melds very quickly into a melange of creamy chocolate enveloping a low-key dark fruit (cherry I presume) and a deftly applied touch of cypriol (anyone who has smelled Tyrannosaurus Rex by Zoologist will forever have it's odour imprinted on their olfactory memory! And no, this is not even close to being as strong!) This combination is particularly delicious without ever feeling overtly gourmand. I think the use of the charred nature of cypriol oil is the perfect counterbalance, along with the rich woodiness of oud. After several hours ambered vanilla extends a warm afterglow to the heart notes, and is the perfect end to a particularly enjoyable, accessible oud based experience. Loudo is indeed unisex (leaning ever so slightly masculine) - interesting, sexy yet surprisingly easy to wear. Super stuff!

Beautiful sweet gourmand combined with oud. Such a rare combination, and I am experiencing it for the first time. The sweet notes are the fruits, chocolate, with the light present of vanilla (not the vanilla we use in cooking, but rather vegetative green vanilla). It's gorgeous, sophisticated, rare and addictive. It's an obsessitve fragrance for sure. It's also incredibly sexy and unisex in my opinion.