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.

Its not only oud and white chocolate. Damn its so creamy! This super woody. Slight green foliage thats dry. Slight earthy. The florals add character and make this perfume interesting. The florals are not minuscule. The oud stink but the nag-oil and white chocolate blend so well with oud stink. The cherry shift from background to foreground thruout wear. Will update review. Great perfume!

I am obsessed with Loudo. It’s incredibly sexy. My boyfriend wears this, and it is truly so yummy. It smells like success, confidence, sex, power and jealousy. HANDS UP, Sir you are under arrest for being to sexy, anything you say or do will be held against you in court. Lawyer up boys and girls I really enjoy the fact that Loudo doesn’t feel too heavy, it’s the subtle musky’ness for me.

My experience of Loudo is totally different from everyone else's, but I do adore this perfume. I get barely any oud. I would call the whole vibe Gumdrop Oud. That's it. Sticky, gently sweet gumdrops and the slightest hint of delicate oud. None of the other notes, and I don't even care. Loudo also gets me a surprising number of compliments and is suitable for everyday wear.

Very nice. Starts a little bit animalic, the oud settles down and smoothens out after 2-3 min and a beautiful, silky sweetness pops up. Unisex, maybe slightly fem, but as a man doesnt bother me at all, i love it! It is a little bit weak in performance, but therfore you have an oudy frag, which can be also worn in warmer days.

Definition of pure luxury and art: LOUDO! I love love love this scent so much. I can’t detect any cherry but the oud and chocolate are really strong on me. It’s sufficient with a couple of sprays. Not necessarily exagerate as it could be overwhelming. I really enjoy this during cold months. A masterpiece ♥️😍

This was a blind buy for me, but it turned out perfectly. Loudo smells like old mahagony chests, warm fur coats and black tea with chocolate and cherry cake. I wouldn't call it a gourmand, nor is it typically oudy. It really is in a league of its own.

I'll keep this short and sweet. Got this about a week ago, wore it three days straight now. If sillage was better, this would easily be in my top three scents of all time. It is a masterpiece. Decadent, animalic, gourmand masterpiece.

If Fran from The Nanny had a signature scent, it’s Loudo. I can only describe it as wearing a luxurious mink coat while indulging in white chocolate covered cherries. A seductive, striking scent such as the woman herself.

A breathtakingly beautiful gourmand oud! Wish it lasted longer but the smell itself is worth it. Pretty unique smell profile and a good buy for the price, the quality is here, it just lacks in performance.

Agree with every single review below me. This is great work. I did not like it the first time I used it, it grew on me. After finishing a sample I was hooked.

So long i have waited to have frags like this! Very delicious animalic oud but not overwhelming.. just with the right composition!!

I initially bought a sample of this perfume directly from Sarah Baker’s website after seeing a review by the Perfume Guy on YouTube. When it arrived, I was surprised at the musky scent at first. But as it dried down, it started to smell like this delicious white chocolate scent that has some kind of freshness to it. I’m new to the world of fragrance, but I do own some high quality fragrances. My husband does not like this particular scent, but I really enjoy it. I asked two men at work what their thought were, and one said, “it’s not bad, but it’s not my favorite,” and another mentioned the smell of “cheap musk.” Both thought it leaned more feminine. Perhaps it wasn’t judged properly since they only smelled it on paper, not on skin (how awkward it would be to ask someone at work to smell your skin.) But I really enjoy this scent. Something about it is invigorating and delicious at the same time, and it is a playful scent with smidge of grownup-ness. It seems to last for hours, but I do not think projection is very strong, perhaps because I only use a spritz or two at a time. For the price, being an extrait, I think it is a great value and absolutely worth buying. I bought a full bottle before using up my sample, and was able to use a discount provided by the house after ordering the sample. I recommend this one, but you should sample it first. To me, it is one of those happy scents worth using, even if just for myself to smell. Very unisex, in my opinion. Playful and delicious, like youth and a holiday spirit in a bottle, but not too sweet. Just right.

I have a sample of this perfume, that the truth, being a perfume extract, takes a lot out of it. This perfume lasts for at least 10 hours, with high intensity. My first impression with this perfume is that the perfume house Sara Baker enters with force at the entire end of the niche perfumery. With what I believe that this perfume is not for people accustomed to commercial perfumery or perfumery to please everyone. The main aroma of this perfume is oud wood, not animalic oud. That first moment the oud fills my nose but when it calms down it gives me very curious sensations because the fruity notes together with the gourmand notes fill the perfume with surprise. This makes oud wood sweet wood, creamy fruit wood. It is a perfume that I would recommend to people who like woody perfumes, of course oud wood, who liked to discover new sensations because this perfume does not remind me of anything I know. Unisex? possibly, but it is true that men are more used to perfumes with more prominent woods. It could be for women as long as she likes woods a lot. In my case I see it as a perfume with masculine features in which those sweet notes between the oud wood give it a game, a special spark. Time of the year? undoubtedly a fall winter or night perfume. Moments? special and elegant occasions

The initial opening has mild but stinky oud note, which thankfully fades after 20-30 minutes and leaves a beautiful, soft gourmand scent that that lasts 6+ hours. I bought this because of the advertised cherry note, but I really don't smell much cherry scent, if any. I definitely smell the white chocolate, white musk, and vanilla, with something floral and fruity, but hard to tell if it's the orange blossom or the pettigrain as it's very soft, in a nice way. Overall, this did not turn out to be a satisfying purchase, but I've only worn it for about 3 days now. I feel like the ingredient that makes it expensive, the natural oud, is the main thing that I don't like about the scent. I wish it were more of a sandalwood scent and toned up the cherry notes. But, I definitely will wear this, although it will be mostly for me; it's not a scent that others will notice unless you really overspray or they come in really close.

First came top notes of papyrus, sandy, almost immortelle and paper notes. The cypriol aspect is therefore what dominates, followed by more white, sweet and bold, vanilla amber notes. Then there's amber (vanilla) and a lemony aspect, followed by orange blossom, which go rather well with the dry/sandy/cutting (I don't know how else to describe it) aspect that sets in from the very first moments. I have a bit of a problem with fragrances that mix vanilla, amber and slightly lemony notes, but it's nevertheless rather original and well done. This disturbing aspect is quickly resolved, giving way to a heat-wave vetiver/woody, even powdery notes, and an impression of clarity and lightness that you have to wait a few hours to discover. On my skin, the lasting qualities are very good.