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What started the oud craze?

post #1 of 8
10/3/09 at 7:21pm
Thread Starter 
So it's pretty obvious that many houses are doing some sort of oud-based fragrance these days.... everyone from Dior (Fahrenheit Absolute) to By Killian (Pure Oud) to Juliette Has a Gun (Midnight Oud). Houses like Micallef and even CSP have whole lines of oud-based fragrances,.and the super-small niche perfumers like Ava Luxe (Bois Fonce) have ouds. I'm not even getting to all of them, and I'm sure there are more to come as houses don't want to be left out.... how long before Serge Lutens, PG, etc. have their own?

Clearly YSL M7 was an early oud scent, and Montale put oud in the 'mainstream' of niche perfumery.

So what did it? When and why do you think oud became the 'thing' that perfumers had to do at least one fragrance based on? Thoughts?

(yes I realize that oud has been used in Middle-Eastern perfumery for a very long time, my question pertains to western perfumery)
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post #2 of 8
10/3/09 at 7:24pm
I think it was M7. At least that's what Luca Turin - as well as many BNers - have stated.
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post #3 of 8
10/3/09 at 7:34pm
Tom Ford, and Montale ran with it.
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post #4 of 8
10/3/09 at 7:38pm
M7, was back in what, 2003? I don't think M7 itself did much for Oud because it came and went, like a lot of other fragrances, from department stores within a year or so. I would probably give more credit to Montale for introducing it to the niche scene, but it certainly has become the "it" trend of the moment. Surprisingly, Corso Como 10 is the first mainstream fragrance I can think of to use Oud, from 1999.
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post #5 of 8
10/3/09 at 7:43pm
Even Caron has an oud nowadays. It's a rather strange trend, I must say, given that oud doesn't really fit in well with a lot of modern trends in perfumery.
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post #6 of 8
10/3/09 at 7:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thebark View Post

M7, was back in what, 2003? I don't think M7 itself did much for Oud because it came and went, like a lot of other fragrances, from department stores within a year or so. I would probably give more credit to Montale for introducing it to the niche scene, but it certainly has become the "it" trend of the moment. Surprisingly, Corso Como 10 is the first mainstream fragrance I can think of to use Oud, from 1999.

Good point. I remember reading in The Guide that M7 was created around the time that a high quality synthetic oud base was developed by some aromachemical manufacturer or another, so it's possible that the creation of quality synthetic oud materials was a significant factor in oud's rise to stardom (this significance may vary depending on whether or not you believe Montale's claims that his perfumes use all-natural oud oil for the oud note). Serge Lutens may have had something to do with it by popularizing middle eastern themes in perfumery even though he didn't use oud as a note.
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post #7 of 8
10/3/09 at 8:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by monsieur_sparkle View Post

Good point. I remember reading in The Guide that M7 was created around the time that a high quality synthetic oud base was developed by some aromachemical manufacturer or another, so it's possible that the creation of quality synthetic oud materials was a significant factor in oud's rise to stardom (this significance may vary depending on whether or not you believe Montale's claims that his perfumes use all-natural oud oil for the oud note). Serge Lutens may have had something to do with it by popularizing middle eastern themes in perfumery even though he didn't use oud as a note.

I would think there to be a heavy dose of synthetic oud going around-it doesn't make sense that it's become this popular when, in fact, it's suppose to be quite rare and expensive (though I have read where trees are being purposely infected in many cases to obtain the resin now, yielding lesser versions known as quality 2 or lower). I'm sure some of the Oud experts here can chime in, but I would suspect either synthetics are used in the more, mainstream version, or lesser qualities (or perhaps just very minute amounts).
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post #8 of 8
10/3/09 at 8:28pm
Thread Starter 
M7 was definitely one of the 1st to put oud front and center, but it wasn't a commercial success and it's been 6 years since it was released....and NOW oud is everywhere. There's no ONE answer, my inclination is that Montale's popularity is more of a factor then M7 in triggering the oud craze.
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