Oud Royale

My first foray with the brand, I'm digging into this as a lover of oud-based fragrances and it turns out the perfumer is Luca Gritti, whom I'm already familiar with with his own brand. To be frank, his fragrances are hit and miss for me, however some of his works are crazy good, like Duchessa which is one of the best, criminally underknown cherry fragrances, in my opinion. The man is a bit of a rebel coming from a family of politicians and even as a perfumer he's self-taught which I know is taboo at times in the fragrance industry but I tend to like this "against the current" nature. Here, Oud Royale surprised me quite a bit. This is Luca Gritti's interpretation of the oud-rose combo which he gave freshness to with citruses and I'm not sure how he pulled it off but there's a certain tinge of metallic-ness in the background here which I was looking to identify and I finally found it: Ganymede. So, if Ganymede was a rose-oud fragrance, it would be Oud Royale. Make no mistake, this is not a knock-off or an imitation and definitely not a potshot at Mr. Gritti, this is simply to say that it has the gentlemanliness and class of Ganymede while making it a bit edgier and introducing a rose-oud accord to the forefront. This is something you dress up, absolutely. This is actually for the special occasions, I would say. Nighttime ideally and for the cold seasons. It will get you noticed and will give you an air of sophistication. It also lasts for a very long time, well above 10 hours on me and seems to project very well. A very good calling card for the Venezia 1920 brand and fantastic work from the perfumer.

Very pretty oud fragrance. The start is fresh, citrus goes interestingly with oud. And the rest of the perfume is very cosy, rose is not intrusive. All in all, well balanced.