Empathy

Another fantastic delight from THOO. If you are an appreciator of the fragrance from Argos called Bacio Immortalle, this is similar to what you can expect. The difference between the two is Bacio heads toward a leathery / suede raspberry note on the drydown whereas this lovely gem goes to a beautiful airy ozonic raspberry type vibe. Both of these fragrances on my skin appear to have the same strength and projection which is a small personal bubble. I prefer Empathy over Bacio because it works better with my skin chemistry. If any of you have smelled Jul Et Mad's Stairway to Heaven...that is about the projection and airy type quality you will get. This is not an overly sweet fragrance btw. I have seen on the reviews some say it was super sweet and I would disagree. A super sweet syrupy fragrance would be Mancera's Black Vanilla. This is far from that due to its more ozonic air-like quality. Note: I am in no way trying to discredit anyone else's thoughts on what one feels is sweet, just to my nose from the many fragrances I have smelled, although sweet, this is not overly sweet and cloying like some richer and darker gourmand like fragrances are, due to its light scent profile. And I do love my gourmands btw. :)

I have to share that I agree with whoever said the scent on dry down becomes a bit like ashtray (this impression comes and goes so perhaps this depends on other circumstances like skin ph or mood?), obviously due to strong tobacco note which probably should have been a tad lighter here. This does not make me dislike this scent at all. Just a fair warning if you don’t like tobacco you might be in for a disappointment. Why I like it? I can’t really say, there’s something special about it. I keep coming back to this scent, I’m drawn to it! I adore the opening and first couple of hours, definitely pear and raspberry blossoms shine here. The scent is fruity and a bit floral but not at all sickly sweet due to tobacco, spruce and oud. I believe aforementioned combo of fruit, spruce, oud makes this scent so very interesting and, strangely, fresh. I love it, it’s not a blind buy safe scent but worth trying! Oh, forgot to add. If you’re new to oud try THOO. They do oud very well. My nose is really sensitive to it and I’m not the biggest fan of this note but Empathy has lovely oud, barely detectable but you know it’s there... magic. (I had to order a full bottle, yay!)

I love raspberries. They taste amazing and are beautiful and light. That being said, i dont often like raspberry perfumes. They just dont do it for me. The wrong facets of the scent are highlighted, to my nose, not presenting the fruit's scent at its best. I love Empathy! This is my second blind buy from this house. This is probably my favorite raspberry perfume. It is so well blended!! I love the raspberry contrasted with the spruce against the tobacco and wood. It has a little powdery lilt to it as well. I am guessing it is the blooms that almost gives it an almost raspberry zinger smell. I would say it is like a more complex, more adult version of the rasperry fragrance by Bath and Body Works or similar company.

You're crawling in the desert, dehydrated and exhausted. For a moment, you look up from the dried sand, past the scattered and twisted, dried trees, and you see a siren. She's dancing in a cool mountain forest, breathing deeply behind a mist. She's picking raspberries out in those woods, singing, and you see yourself with her. You're paralyzed as she looks in your eyes, as she puts a raspberry in her mouth and chews once, as she leans over to whisper in your ear. But, you're in the desert, and now she's in the desert, off at a distance, teasing you with her naked form and a basket of fresh raspberries, laying on those twisted, dried trees. Empathy by The House of Oud.

Sniffing this gives me butterflies. How good is this, I’m swooning. This is a fruity raspberry tobacco bomb. I never thought I’d be into tobacco but here I am. This is so dreamy and addicting. Opens up with a juicy realistic pear. I remember as a young teen walking through the streets of the old town and seeing the hipster young adults and smelling delicious tobacco in the air, that scent lingered around quite prominently and I detect it in here. This smells like a rich and international girl. This is by no means a juvenile girly fruity scent. It settles into a mossy and woody fruit infused tobacco. I will absolutely purchase a full size.