King's Precious Oud

What with all the vitriol being hurled at this brand at the moment, I think it's time for some balance. So here are a few caveats I wanted to mention before going into the review proper. Firstly I paid cold hard cash for this bottle, I havent been "bought" off with free samples as people accuse anybody who says good things about Dua these days. Secondly, I dont care if the oils were bought in a head shop in London or the perfumer hunted down Musk deer in the Himalayas and scraped its sac or dived down into the ocean and induced whales to vomit. ( I am not endorsing animal ingredients in Perfumery, that was Sarcasm!) What's in the bottle is what counts, how it got there is immaterial and Perfume companies can claim all kinds of things to justify pricing. Also maybe it's a cultural thing but I live in India and perfume oils created by small street side perfumers do not have a negative connotation for me. Walk into an attar shop anywhere in south asia or the middle east and sniff and you will get an education on perfumery. If you think only big corporations in Grasse know perfumery, that's just plain snobbery. On a side note, Dua has put up their IFRA certification on their website and it shows clearly where they source their oil compounds. Thirdly, the charge that they are all crap and overpriced clones. I have so far smelled about 10 of them and bought 4 full bottles. I loved 2, liked another 3, thought another 3 were ok and disliked 2. That's about the same ratio I have with any brand like Tom Ford or amouage or Xerjoff. Do I feel some of them are overpriced for what they put out per ml? sure but I feel the same way about certain Creeds and Xerjoffs and Amouages as well. If you feel something is not worth the price, vote with your wallet and dont buy it. As always, I am a firm believer that the market will correct pricing in the long run. Lots of other companies like Montale or Mancera or Afnan come out with clones of popular frags although they call them interpretations if pressed. I mean Montale Aoud Leather is Tuscan Leather, Full Incense is CDG Avignon, Mr.Aoud is Creed Royal Aoud, Cedrat Boise wants to be Aventus, Al Wisam Day is Creed SMW, so why hate on Dua for doing the same? If you dont want the clone go buy the original. This is their marketing strategy. Why hate on them for it? Just accept that it's not for you and leave it at that. There are other people who might just love Dua's creations. Fragrance is a very subjective thing after all. Lastly, I dont care for marketing ploys or youtube fragcomm politics, people getting overly butthurt on both sides or any of that nonsense. As far as I am concerned, Whats in the bottle should be the only thing that matters. Smell it, if you like it buy it. if you dont, move on to the next one. the rest is just background noise. For me personally, the perfume is what is important. It is what I choose to sniff, and put on my skin. The Perfumer,his company, antics of associated people, who gives a damn. It's like going to a restaurant and saying I will not eat this dish, this dish is crap because the Chef's business partner insulted a food critic! WTF? To the review and I will be brief. Kings Precious Oud is Dua's take on Amouage Interlude. It's slightly smokier take on it and is closer to older versions of Interlude. Projection is good and longevity is about 7-8 hours on me with about 2 sprays. I bought a full 30 ml bottle of this as I just have a decant of vintage Interlude left and I am trying to save it. This fills in nicely in the meantime and I have enjoyed wearing it the past few days. In conclusion, this is a good fragrance, if you can see past all the BS and try it, you might just like it. I certainly do.

@ D-Bo Fair enough. Point taken. Anyway I think I need to clarify the context in which those comments were made. That review was made a while ago and was entirely Dua specific. It would have been easier to place the comments if couple of the reviews before mine had'nt since been deleted. The point I was trying to make was in response to somebody saying Dua uses all cheap oils from Headshops in London. My point was that We as an end consumer have no real way to check what goes into the perfume. The ingredients could be from a headshop or hunted from Musk deer, Whales, etc etc. Get my point? I can only judge what is in the bottle in front of me. A lot of the rest I have to take on faith. So my point had nothing to do with ecological sustainability nor am I advocating and promoting animal ingredients in perfumery. Secondly, since you travel to India quite often, I suggest you take a trip to Ujjain in North India which has been the attar capital of this region since ancient times. Some of the ways the oils are made and the people involved in the work are not glamourous or for the faint hearted to put it mildly but sniff the end result and it is heavenly. A lot of these products are then sold by small street sellers and you wont find them in glamorous malls or showrooms. Not all good things come in fancy packages was my point. Thirdly, those comments were written in response to a lot of the vitriol that was being hurled at Dua which had nothing to do with the perfumes, by lots of people who had not even bothered to smell them. What irritates me no end is all the hypocrisy. There are very few original ideas in Perfumery these days. I can quote you a few more examples. Tiziana Terenzi Gold rose oudh is Montale Black Aoud, their Orion is Aventus. Laudano Nero is Black Afgano. So why is Dua being held to a different standard? I dont see anybody bashing TT. I mean nor should they and it's one of my favourite brands but you see my point? I am deleting my previous comment as well since it's without context now as well. Cheers, friend.

yep... I get most of the notes as listed above! And boy is this a room filler! If you like the smell of sweet campfire smoke, this is for you. I get the sweetness off the top from the berries mixed with smoke. Once the sweetness wears off comes the smooth leathery patchouli oud mixture with smoke. Into the drydown the smoothness is rounded off by the very slight amber and sandlewood with smoke as a skin scent. I haven't put my nose around Interlude Man so I cannot compare, but on the cheap this must hit the mark. Did I mention that I get a smokey vibe from this fragrance... You must know that these DUA Fragrances are fragrance oils, NOT as what most people are use to... These are NOT alcohol based perfumes. This oil sits close the skin and has less projection and airiness. On the other hand, what makes this kind of fragrance work from DUA... is that they are very very strong, almost nuclear... which also adds to having good longevity. So how they work is a toss up. I have tried many cheaper fragrance oils in the past with poor results. DUA Fragrances are an exception! WOW... 14 months later... 10-25-17 Smoke - what glorious smoke... This morning I was going through some decant testers and noticed I had made one of this dark juice. I sprayed it on and filled the room with the most intoxicating scent. It seemed by having this juice sit in a small tester... let it oxidize... and it really opened up the fragrance! I could smell all the notes nicely separated and full of life. I think these fragrances from DUA need to breathe...

I was a little hesitant to order this after reading all the BS from the now obvious "jealous haters" out there. I went with my gut, I decided to give DUA a chance. I must say that I am extremely satisfied with my purchase, now, I am looking forward to getting more DUA fragrances. I have been trying to decide which ones. I am leaning towards "Evening with the Mobster" and "Poseidon's Elixir". Also, I am very satisfied with the speed of delivery. I am in Florida, I ordered on Monday and it was delivered on Friday. It is unfortunate and obvious that there are some people clicking the "dislike" on all the DUA just to be a-holes. Shame on you. Pulled the trigger on "An Evening with the Mobster" and "Poseidon's elixir". Neither of which are listed on this website. I will check back in a couple weeks, if they're still not listed I'll leave a comment here. 01/17/17

yup ... amouage interlude. perhaps slightly lighter, and a tad less longevity, but pretty darn close to internlude ... 97.5% ;)