Putting the M7 vs. M7 Oud Absolu debate to rest for good + my newest giveaway!

i am writing here because i want to read comments on oud absolu that will be posted later..i have m7 vintage versions and love them

Also interested in hearing your impressions comparing the two versions.

It would be great to do this as a blind comparison.

Sweet cant wait for the results

Awesome idea. I'm in with an unbiased opinion.

May I suggest you leave them unlabeled?

That's very nice of you to do, spcmiller. I'm really looking forward to the results on this one, my guess is the vintage M7 will win.

Excellent idea, eg. one with red tag and the other with a blue tag.

You might even wanna swap the labels for everyone and tell which was the vintage after they've posted.

Sounds a fun plan. I'd be interested to see the results.

Sounds like a good idea! The real question though, I think, is whether is has been significantly reformulated AGAIN from the first reformulation. That one was quite different to the vintage, so it seems oud absolu will be too - unless they've gone full circle!

Looking forward to see the reviews and comparisons!

OK - I guess it's time to share my results. I was able to compare all 3 versions - vintage, reformulated, and the new Absolu. The two that spcmiller sent me (vintage and Absolu) were unlabeled, and the reformulated (old packaging, clear glass sides) was new stuff from Fragrancenet, I believe, when they had some in stock recently. Maybe it was Overstock - I forget. It's 2011 stuff according to the code.

Anyway, here are my conclusions:

(1) my results are totally in line with this thread:

http://www.basenotes.net/threads/296...Initial-Review

(2) I could definitely tell vintage from Absolu. The two vials looked identical, but they did not smell identical. I did a side-by-side on skin - different arms in an identical state. I won't say it's easy, but my son, who has a good nose, could tell, and he described the same differences I sensed. Because of the other thread, I am sure I can tell which one is which. I repeated the test, too, just to be sure. There may have been a slight difference in color, but it was so minor that it could have been just imaginary, or from the very slightly different fill levels (like half a millimeter).

(3) vintage has a note that I also describe as dark, like it is in the other thread, but my son (a musician) describes as bright in a musical sense. But it is that central, prominent, oudy note. My son also described the Absolu as "rounder" and "fuller", and I see this, too. Because the central oudy note doesn't stick out as much in the new stuff, and because the new stuff seems more blended and prominent in the peripheral notes, I would describe it as rounder and fuller, too.

(4) the reformulation is somewhere in between. I thought that the reformulated stuff was closer to the vintage than it was to the Absolu. I felt that the central oud note was still fairly obvious and strong in the reformulated, compared to the change in the Absolu.

(5) they are all pretty damn close together. I have no urge to go buy the vintage. If you compare any of these to Kerosene's R'oud Elements, which is the closest thing I've smelled to M7, there is a big difference that becomes apparent as they dry down - R'oud is WAY more oud-prominent and way richer, IMO. The difference between the versions of M7 is small. Detectable but small. Any effort expended to get extra "oomph" by buying vintage M7 can get 10 times that difference by buying R'oud.

(6) the slight difference of the Absolu seems adjusted to modern tastes, IMO. I state that as a good thing for people who want to smell good in terms of being current or trendy in fragrance fashion. For people who want to smell more authentically old-school, then the vintage is more like a true snapshot of the past. That slight difference of the vintage is in the direction of "old school powerhouse".

Stated another way, I can see BNers preferring the vintage, whereas somebody who is just passing through, and looking to BN for fragrance advice, so they can smell good to the general public, is going to be happy with the recent stuff, which will still smell classic but just very slightly less dated.

(7) on my skin, the drydowns were very similar, and they all seemed to grow increasingly similar in smell as they dried down. No big differences here.

Hope this helps people. No need to cry over any of these newer formulations, IMO.

Gotta disagree with ya there my friend. I and several others on that thread find Oud Absolu to be woodier and less sweet-balsamic-vanillic. In my case, it made all the difference and I am looking to procure a bottle of Oud Absolu as I found M7 too sweet.

But you've made me very curious about R'Oud Elements!

They're all similar, but the nuance breakdown of their drydowns is as such:

M7 - dark, heavy, vanillic,balsamic-incense with a poisonous facet.

M7 Reformulation - heavy, pleasant, benzoin-stick-incense

M7 Oud Absolu - dry, heavy, woody, still sweet but slightly less than the other two.

any more comparison results?

Yes I noticed that OA's far drydown is almost all stark woody Iso E, whereas M7 (vintage) is thick, sweet vanilla and musk.