Reviews of Black Aoud (2006)
by Montale

I'm all about originality, unconventional and... strangeness. I admire unusual fragrances even if can't carry them off. But Black Aoud is just too much to take. It's way to medicinal, bitter and artificial. At the beginning, I tried it on my skin for a few times. I knew that the opening would be very hard to take, so I didn't care much about it... I was eagerly awaiting for the scent to develop into something rich, deep and warm... Hours after, nothing happened, it was just as medicinal and synthetic as it was at the beginning.
Then I read some absolutely hilarious opinions saying that one should wait up to 12 hours for the scent to start developing!!! What??? Are you kidding me? Why in the world would I want a fragrance to become pleasant only after 12 hours? I'll probably be back home, sleeping like a baby when it would presumably start evolving. So what's the point? When the fragrance should smell good it stinks, and when the day is over it (allegedly) smells nice. I guess I should spray it on the day before going out, just to be sure that it will smell good when it should. As far as I'm concerned, it may turn into gold after those 12 hours, I just don't care, it would matter anymore.
Anyway, as I never spend more than 24 hours without showering, I tried it on paper as I wanted to see if it really does develop after many, many hours. It didn't... So I'm really surprised why so many people like this linear, simple, superficial and artificial fragrance.
As for comparisons with Czech & Speake No.88, none of them is apt. No.88 is light years ahead of Black Aoud. While No.88 is a masterpiece and one of the most complex, multi-faced and sophisticated fragrances, Black Aoud is just linear, medicinal and harsh.

Oh sweet lord, I smell like a robotripping whore covered in band-aids. Okay, seriously, I love to smell different and interesting, but I don't want everyone I pass to wonder, "WTH is that dude wearing?" I much prefer, "oh, he smells good, lemme get another wiff."
The rose here is wayyyyyyyyyy overdone. It's just too feminine. If I wear this again I'll start having to carry around midol. I guess I've learned that I don't do rose, or at least, I can only do it in very small quantities.
And Mr. Oud...
I can't say I'm too friendly with this guy. I'll repost my little Oud lesson from a previous review I wrote...

Oud is so pungently medicinal because it IS, in fact, medicine. Oud is an antifungal oil that comes from an infected asian tree. The "wood" part of the word agarwood is misleading as it refers to the brown, resin stained parts of the tree, but the smell is the antifungal oil itself, not the wood.

My biggest issue with oud is this. Have you ever passed someone and gotten a heavy medicinal odor? The first thing you wonder is, "what's wrong with them?" Even if it's pleasant.

Boy, I hate to be the turd in the proverbial punch bowl, but after sampling this, I'm afraid I cannot give it anything but the dreaded "thumbs down". I can pinpoint exactly what I dislike about this scent. It might be a total shocker so you should probably sit down for this one... the OUD! I just cant deal with it. In small, more discrete amounts, such as in M7, it's fine. But this is a full on oud-smack to the face. It comes strong and hard in the opening and even after several hours, it still rears its ugly head every so often. As for the actual "Black" part of Black Aoud, well it's very reminiscent of Czech & Speake's No. 88. It's dark, smooth, and handled well. At least the longevity is amazing, so if you do like it, you can enjoy it all day. For me, there are enough rose scents I absolutely love (the aforementioned No. 88, Le Labo's Rose 31, and L'Artisan's Voleur de Roses) that I won't lose any sleep over this one.

Try before you buy is something that's preached regularly around here, but I'm not sure I can stress it enough with this scent. Clearly, it has many, many people who adore it. It's pretty pricey, so there's no reason not to get a ML before you take the plunge.

And forget about that "unisex" label it has. This is hands-down a masculine scent. One of my worst nightmares is showing up on a date, only to find her wearing Black Aoud. I just don't think I could do it.