Suggestions Please: an Aoud fragrance for me

[Chuck Norris]

Hello Gang. This is my first thread here so please forgive any naivety.

I'm fascinated by the Aoud/Oud note, but haven't found anything bottle worthy. Many of them (esp Montale) seem to pair Aoud with Rose which i'm not a fan of, so that's got to narrow it down a bit right?
Pure Oud by Kilian was OK, but not worth the money IMO. I find Tom Ford's Private Blends to be too sweet (my skin has a way of making sweet stuff even sweeter so i avoid it like the plague)

In general, i'm a bit old-school and British-Barber-Shoppy in taste and hate the dept store aquatics. I seem to gravitate toward:

Lavendar
Neroli, Bergamot, Citrus in general
Fir
Sage
Pine
Vetiver
Patchouli
Oak Moss
a little Leather
Clary Sage
Juniper
Jasmine
astringent and medicinal
Green frags in general

Currently I'm wearing GFT by Trumper's

THANKS!!!

[perfaddict]

Please sample Aoud Homme by M Micallef. In the spirit of full disclosure, does contain rose, but is not rose-y in any respect. The rose mainly counterbalances the bitterness of the oud, which in turn is well supported by saffron. Aoud Homme is all about oud, but in a wearable way. I am yet to come across an oud frag which trumps Aoud Homme, to my nose.

[SculptureOfSoul]

Bond Harrods Swarovski Ltd Edition. This and Aoud Homme, mentioned above, are the two finest ouds on the market, IMO. The Bond is more like Pure Oud By Kilian, but is fleshed out and is sweeter and has many many more facets to it. It has green notes (I pick up some violet leaf and aglaia odorata, patchouli perhaps) woven into the resinous, leathery oud-laden base. An amazing fragrance. It's pricey, but you can get the bottle w/o the Swarovski crystals from the Bond site and that cuts the price just about in half.

Other than that, try M7 if you haven't. Actually, the Bond oud could be seen like a far greener, oriental, and more natural take on M7. They are both quite resinous and both have about the same levels of sweetness, even though the notes (and odors) are quite different.

[hednic]

If you want a pretty straightforward Aoud, perhaps - Montale Original Aoud

[sirsmellzalot]

I'll second the Micallef Aoud Homme. Also, Micallef has a wonderful vanilla-aoud combo called (very creatively) Vanille Aoud. It's marvelous.

[BradW]

I tried Steam Aoud by Montale. Yeah, Montale seems to like to combine rose notes with their Aoud.
I think M7 is a decent designer oud to begin with. Some feel that it is a bit medicinal, and I can see their point.

[sarıpatates]

I am an oud lover and I don't like m7 at all. your favorite notes and your dislike towards sweeter stuff overlaps with my preferences as well, so maybe m7 isn't for you either. To me it smells like 5$ mosque-vendor attar mixed with cough syrup.

if using oud oil is an option, I'd recommend that.

[rickbr]

It`s not so oud dominant, but i think i`d like the Korres Saffron Agarwood Cardamom Fragrance. It`s a very nice spicy, woody fragrance. And it`s not that expensive, you can find it for 40-50 dollars at ebay.

If you don`t mind of trying an expensive oud fragrance, i`d also recommend Amouage Epic Man. It`s one that matches leather with oud and produces an elegant fragrance. You notice the leather and oud and there is also a fine spicy detail that seems to be more detectable at distance than at close.

Other two agarwood fragrances without roses that i would recommend are Vanille Aoud and Aoud Gourmet, both from M. Micallef. Vanille Aoud has a warm gourmand aroma, not food, not too sweet. The vanille on it smells like the smoky vanilla-benjoim accord of Un Bois Vanille, and blended with Oud the sweet sides of vanilla are softened and the animalic sides of oud gets subdued too. Great for winter. Aour Gourmet is more sweet at first, having a burnt sugar and caramel note at first, which goes darker when the scent starts to develop on skin. The Aoud here is more animalic and woody than in vanille aoud.

If you have enjoyed M7, but would like something woodier without the sweet ambered and muskier notes of M7, i`d recommend you Oud Wood from Tom Ford.

[cacio]

For what I have smelled, there is sweetness in regular oud, so some sweetness will be there in most oud reproductions as well. Aged oud oils are a different story, extremely dry and woody. But they are very hard to find and super-expensive.

The leather ouds by Montale discussed in a recent thread (Oud Cuir d'Arabie and Leather Aoud) are very bitter and have no sweetness. However, you need to like a lot of leather. M7 is inexpensive, but, as others were saying, it does have some berries up top, though they later recede a bit.

cacio

[Chuck Norris]

Wow, thanks guys. There's a few things being mentioned that i hadn't heard of which is great. Keep them coming.

[6of1]

And the not-so-often-mentioned Bogart Citytower is a nice and inexpensive agarwood oriented fragrance. Also, swerving away from the agarwood as the main player, Dior Fahrenheit Absolute is worth trying.