Tobacco Oud Intense

Tom Ford Tobacco Oud Intense. It pains me to review a perfume that is discontinued and sells for stupidly inflated prices on the aftermarket. Yet I realized I never reviewed this one properly and thought it might help people looking to purchase it blindly. In many years of collecting, I have witnessed all the "fragcom behaviors" and "trends." One that seems perpetual is hyping stuff that is discontinued and hard to get, only to feel good for having it. However, this is not the case with this perfume. The hype is warranted. At this point in my journey and after going through a major decluttering, I am left with only two designer fragrances. Tobacco Oud Intense is one of them. I find it sublime, and all around, flawless. By far, the best perfume the house has ever put out, at least to my taste. What does it smell like? To put it bluntly, this perfume comes across as a combination of Tobacco Oud, Oud Wood Intense, Plum Japonais, Tuscan Leather, and Amber Absolute. It takes bits from some of the most highly acclaimed Tom Ford perfumes to create this. It shares the original Tobacco Oud DNA and adds on top the heavy castoreum accord from Oud Wood Intense, the leather from Tuscan Leather, the fruity quality present in both Plum Japonais (and the spices) and Tuscan Leather, and finally, the sweet amber accord and smokiness from Amber Absolute. It comes across not as an "intense" version of Tobacco Oud but rather a "perfected" or "complete" one. It takes Tobacco Oud, stretches out its profile, irons its creases, and smooths everything out. More sophisticated, complex, and inviting. It opens up quite aromatic and boozy but also fruity somehow. Aromatic in the sense that it makes me think of a combination of artemisia, juniper, and perhaps cypress, with a faint boozy vibe, and a raspberry/plum cognac touch. It grabs your attention immediately, as the opening of every good fragrance is supposed to do. This part doesn't last long and soon makes way to the tobacco accord, here veering on the dry leafy side of the spectrum, that is paired with a hefty dose of fine smoke and a leathery castoreum reminiscent of Oud Wood Intense, but not as assertive, here the smoky tobacco leading the way. This interplay of smoke, tobacco, and castoreum pushes for a good while before it starts to melt into the base. Once it settles down, I get the Amber Absolute similarities, minus the heavy Santalol part. I get the "amber fossil" accord that smells like it is leaning heavily on benzoin, not labdanum or cistus. It is on the sweet, powdery, and vanillic side of the spectrum. The tonka bean provides a nice support to that as well. The smokiness continues to push alongside, while the tobacco accord slowly fades away. It has incredible tenacity and lasts for a good 24 hours on the skin and dies down to this smoky, sweet ambery scent with a touch of dirtiness from the castoreum. It is a complex perfume that transitions in stages, masterfully blended with seamless transitions, a graceful presence on the skin without overpowering, unique, and one that will make a lasting impression. Again, I feel it is one of those long-gone perfumes worth the hype. As for a good alternative, I haven't found anything similar enough, except maybe for Sultan Pasha's Tabac Grande. The latter feels like an intense version of this, more butch, if you will, offering a similar vibe and wearing experience, at least for me. I would love to know the perfumer who put this one together as I'd like to see what else he has under the belt. For me, Tobacco Oud Intense is a winner and among my favorite tobacco compositions ever. IG:@memory.of.scents

Let's not mention how much this differs from Oud Wood. If OW is a soft, delicate and sharp young man, this is the brazen, ambitious and relentless older brother. I chose the analogy of brothers because I can certainly detect a similar backbone in both fragrances. Let's break this down more. Scent: 8/10 Good overall, excellent dry-down Having been used to smelling resinous compounds and oud oils for a while, this one does not jar me at all. In fact, there is a metallic crisp that tells me straightaway that there is, once again, no oud oil in this fragrance. A clean dirtiness that penetrates from the base and jabs you in the nose - that's the opening. After a hefty first impression, the molecules retreat and settle on the skin, giving a harsh synthetic leather that is strangely pleasing. There is a slight herbal tone that reminds me of wormwood. As the harshness dissipates, more sweetness from the tonka envelops the skin like an invisible layer. The dry-down at the 2 hour mark is phenomenal. Sweetness intertwines and meshes with resinous labdanum, giving floral impression with vanillic undertones. This scent lingers boldly and never quite leaves the skin, yet it projects just enough for your own olfactory pleasure. Versatility: 5/10 Speaks only for a few This scent is brazen, but not wild. This is not a fun person to deal with. He means business. He has ambitions. He does not fear confrontation. Behind his fiery front lies a measured mind. This is the guy that hits so hard on first impression and never leaves your mind after passing the spotlight. I remain forever impressed at how Tom Ford manages to instill such a specific personality in a matter of seconds. So yes, this speaks to a select few with innate confidence and vitality. If you are the kind that wants to get big things done, this scent could be speaking for you. Projection: 8/10 Great In the first hour this scent blasts, but not quite as much as the likes of One Million or other clubbing fragrances. Indeed, the projection trails off quickly in an hour, but never quite as much as docile. It is comfortable and sticks to you like a scented leather jacket. The dry-down creates a marvelous atmosphere that rivals the artistic creations of Bortnikoff and older Areej. Longevity: 9/10 Mildly disturbing This scent coat lasts as long as 14 hours on me and survives shampooing. The initial jab takes only about an hour to settle, and sweetness becomes more prominent from there. Definitely stains the fabric. Can be mildly annoying if you're rotating fragrances. Overall: 7.5/10 Great It is perhaps unfortunate that I've added versatility as a judging criterion, but it is for the purposes of relaying more accurate information for your purchasing decisions. I'll say it again: this fragrance has a specific personality. You don't wear this fragrance; it wears you. And if it so happens that it vibes in the same frequency as you, then it creates an overwhelming resonance that no one could ignore. Otherwise, this is a pleasant addition to the niche perfumery world - one that is bound to remembered for decades, just as its younger brother.

Looking for the packaging/box for a 250 ml size, pm if you have one for sale. Just an empty box. The fragrance itself is amazing. Opens kind of harsh and animalic, but even then not unbearably so. The balancing act is a masterclass in managing notes, you have a sweaty, leathery castoreum along with a smoky, ashy tobacco and warm sweet amber. Yet somehow, despite all these notes and accords pulling in different directions it blends together superbly well. To my nose, the castoreum here isn't as harsh or medicinal as in Oud Wood Intense, but it really adds quite a bit of depth. The original does a fantastic job, but despite what the note pyramid suggests seems more heavily oriented around ashy tobacco. Admittedly the projection here can depend on your nose. For me I get 10 inches or so of projection for the first 2-3 hours, 6-8 inches off the skin from hours 3-6 and then 2-4 inches from hours 6-10, after which it becomes 1-2 inches. This is based on 2 sprays. Some people say that this projects like crazy, to me it comes off more as a parfum version than anything, richer and closer to you. The elephant in the room is of course how irritating it is to get. If you try to buy it outright good luck because eBay will have you selling both kidneys before you even get to shipping. Decants exist but are hard to find also. Although having hunted this for a good long while, believe me you're not likely getting a bnib of this unless Tom Ford is your uncle or you find someone charging you over 2k USD for it. I have tried clones for this, insider parfums' oud smoke intense and perfume parlour's wood leaf II. Neither of these clones truly get to the heart of the perfume to my mind. They'll give you an approximation of it. Both of them struggle I feel because the castoreum accord they use is much too chemical and smells like musty sheets. I would certainly suggest turn back now while you still can before this one grabs hold of you.

My all time favourite fragrance is the original TO, for three years it has been my signature scent and my go to whenever I needed an extra boost of confidence to teach a class of university students. When I heard it was being discontinued, I was gutted, and have been searching for a back up bottle ever since. Being based in New Zealand, that isn’t exactly easy. Imagine my excitement then when I came across a bottle of TO Intense for sale! I figured I’d snatch it up in leu of the original, and wow! I was not disappointed! Although I do still prefer the original, this is an absolutely gorgeous fragrance with the same DNA I loved in its OG. Upon first spray, instead of whiskey and spices, I am hit hard with a more potent Oud, combined with what I’m assuming is the Castoreum accord, as well as a few spices - cumin, mostly making it feel similar to TF’s London. Shortly after, as it begins to dry down, I get the most gorgeous dried fruits - raisins perhaps, soaked in a little booze. Beneath the fruits, I get the same ashy tobacco from the OG, as well as a little tobacco leaf absolute, lending some real complexity to the blend. The sweetness lasts for some time, transforming to a lovely, powdery/dusty blushing terracotta rose with a warm, delicious and slightly dirty vanilla. After this, I get a woody base with patchouli and zesty toasted coriander seed. These notes together bring a leathery sophistication to the mix, pulling it away from being a sickly gourmand into something loud, commanding, but also intelligent and romantic. It’s a very hot summer here currently, so I had to test this inside under air conditioning, but I cannot wait to wear this in Autumn and Winter, where I know it will truly shine!

All I can say is wow, smoother with more body/density than the original a little heavier. During the first stages it reminds of really old batches of Tuscan Leather, that "furriness" and "suedeness" (if there ever was such words as these two) that is accompanied by a fruit opening that like it's distant cousin Tuscan leather except with TOI its dried fruit and bot raspberry, and if you have Tuscan leather or any TL inspired fragrance then Tobacco Oud Intense will not be redundant because there is way more as the fragrance develops you get this clay- like (in a good way), realistic, vanillic and some tonka bean, In the opening it's slighlty smokey and (not intensely) animalic, well what the average person would describe as animalic. In my opinion sought of a clean animalic, which reveals the tiniest nod to tuscan leather, this quickly changes gear to that familar tobacco oud DNA, not to mention slight whiskey nuances in the backdrop melding the fragrance together from beginning to end, (at first I thought the whiskey note smelt like a dark rum with all the alchol evaporated out, but yes it does actually smell like whiskey, (with all the alcohol, or volatile nose tingling nuances evaporated out). As the fragrance develops it becomes more ethereal that caramely Tobacco which is mixed with that chocolatey patchouli looses the gourmand choclatiness and more and more begins to resemble Tobacco Oud but with more density, strength, depth, with that signature Tom Ford Dark yet somehow light in weight - etherealness, the animalic notes dissipate but there is still leatheriness, I can see why many say this is a masterpiece, and if Amber Absolute has some similarities then that may be next on my radar.