Oud Wood (2007)
by Tom Ford

The advent of a decent synthetic version of the oud note has made for a proliferation of scents featuring this note. This could be a good thing, or not. Not all ouds are created equal. There is no doubt in my mind that oud fragrances based on Western perfume traditions are best done by Pierre Montale; but now that the oud vibe can be done more economically, the competition is getting fierce, and the new competition is still charging as though they were using the real thing. When the general public catches on, I wouldn't be surprised if they were pissed off about the price issue for the synthetic-based fragrances. Still, I'm not reviewing perfume prices; I'm reviewing perfumes. On that score, the Tom Ford version is fairly imaginative and sufficiently distinctive to merit a good rating. The oriental base is a good support for the whole, and in particular, the tonka bean seems to give the overall fragrance a bit of a fougère-style cast. the rosewood and gentle spices in the top lend the kind of freshness one associates with a fresh aromatic fougère as well. The heart note, of course, is the oud and wood part, justifying the name. The scent has a fairly short top note, but that part of it blends into the heart well, and the base helps with persistence overall. There isn't a lot of development, but there is some, and the structure is good enough for the whole to stand on its own. I'll give this a thumbs up.

Both Tom Ford and By Kilian seem pretty intent on muscling in on the whole oud phenomenon. While both of these houses command highly inflated prices for their so-so creations, they’re obviously attempting to do this very much at Montale’s expense.

Like Pure Oud, Oud Wood is a blantant rip-off of Montale’s Original Oud – in other words, a light and fresh oud with a slight nutty creaminess. However, with Tom Ford’s ‘interpretation’, this is a completely synthetic hodgepodge with the same medicinal unpleasantness as his other atrocious oud effort, M7.

If you really want a more satisfying interpretation of oud, in the form of an EDP, invest in one of the many offerings from Montale.

A fresh oud fragrance? Who would have thought?

Oud Wood by Tom Ford smells to me like a hybrid of a fresh fragrance and some sort of dense vanilla-sandalwood-oud fragrance. In other words, if you took some generic fresh notes (a la Aqua di Gio), some raspberry liqueur undertones and then mixed them with oud, vanilla and sandalwood, you might get something along the lines of Oud Wood.

Don't get me wrong though, it doesn't smell generic or cheap at all - the choice of ingredients here ends up smelling expensive and sexy. While the combination of notes gives off a strange and unique vibe, the end result is still somewhat conventional, due to the use of synthetic oud instead of natural oud (meaning it luckily never goes too far into animalic or medicinal territory). If Luca Turin says that S-ex by S-Perfumes smells like "space leather," then I say that Oud Wood smells like "space oud."

Those who like M7 will definitely enjoy Oud Wood, however the two fragrances are worlds apart if you take away the synthetic oud note that they both share. While the price is definitely inflated (I smell lots of synthetic agarwood), the final result is just right. Tom Ford has managed to once again westernize oud into a fragrance that smells both conventional and exotic at the same time.

9.25/10

Tom Ford Oud Wood

My first exposure to oud as a note came through a sampling of a number of Montale scents. Those scents are beautiful but they have to be worn with care as they are all powerhouses. The thing that stands out in those scents is what a versatile note oud can be. The mix of slightly sweet, the woody character, and the hint of an almost medicinal edge make it something that perfumers can use to enhance one of or all of those characteristics to design their perfume. Most people's introduction to oud came in Yves St. Laurent's M7 which was designed by Tom Ford. Tom Ford has gone on to his own signature line and part of that is his Private Blend Collection. In 2007 he released his first 12 Private Blends and among them was one called Oud Wood. As the man responsible for most colognoisseur's exposure to oud I was expecting a scent that would rival the Montales in intensity. Instead I got, perhaps, the most easily wearable oud-based scent out there. Oud Wood begins with a light woodiness of rosewood and paired with it is the softness of cardamom. This is a beautifully light beginning as the choice to go with a lighter wood like rosewood which also contains some sweet facets to it makes an excellent lead-in to the heart which is where the oud comes out. The oud appears and it has more intensity than M7 but somehow it is less "loud" than M7 or the Montale ouds. This is probably due to a healthy dose of sandalwood, which is also present. The sandalwood becomes an almost equal partner to the oud and particularly the interplay of the sweeter aspects of both woods intersect amazingly on my skin. The base is a mix of vetiver and vanilla. The vanilla again enhances the sweeter qualities of the woods but the vetiver brings out the medicinal edge of the oud and makes the base have a little more of an edge than the scent has had previously in its development. Oud Wood is a long-lasting scent with modest sillage. It is that modest sillage that I think makes Oud Wood a much more versatile oud-based scent than many of the others out there. I own Oud Wood for precisely that reason because there are some days I want a full-on oud experience without feeling like my cologne is preceding me into the room by five minutes. Oud Wood feels like M7 after its left the club and is getting ready for work in the morning.

Not bad at all, but not great. Unimpressed. I know it's not supposed to be a scent for oud afficionados/purists but I think it could have been formulated a little better. The vetiver takes away from the potential oud drydown but this could be a result of the aromachemical used in the formula, Givaudans oud, which is nice but dries down into vetyver like Tom Ford's scent.

"Oud" is Arabic for "wood" but it specifically refers to agarwood, also referred to as aloeswood. Real quality agarwood extracts can cost upwards of $1,000 an ounce and are very difficult to blend, because they have a high terpene content that can very easily come off smelling like turpentine if one is not careful.

Tom Ford's "Oud," on the other hand, smells very much like Firmenich's synthetic agarwood product ("Oud Blend"), which is almost surely used in this fragrance.

All in all a very nice fragrance, but probably not worth the price.