Normally, Le Labo has a bit of an unfair advantage with me. Not only did I meet and talk to the owners of this line long before I looked at their site or marketing, I also sniffed four of their most stunning scents in a row (Neroli, Ambrette, Fleur D'Oranger, and my beloved Labdanum) before hitting something even remotely mediocre.
Seriously. If Eddie and Fabrice were movie directors, I'd be so in love I'd forgive almost anything. (Cue Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg giggling in the background.) So when I received the rather astoundingly generous sample of Oud 27 this past month, I was so excited I bounced. Yes, they made a near-40-yr-old bounce.
Therefore, the development of the top and heart notes on this scent were pretty devastating to me. I have tried a few times, and each time I wander around going "Where's the gaiac wood? Where's the saffron?" Well, I'll tell you where it is - it's waiting in a back alley to come sneak up on you and steal your wallet ~2 hours later... after you've come out of the theater, recovering from watching a version of Cinderella where all they do is throw buckets of dirty bathwater on the poor girl's fire. I kept thinking 'soaked ash can, ash can' for those first two hours. It's a pity, because the intriguing, oud-and-spice drydown is reminiscent of (yet divergent from) some of the more bold Montale oud mixologies. However, I can't wait two hours for my fragrance to get to a point of public wearability.
The positive bit is that I never, even during the ash can/soaked fireplace phase, felt compelled to wash this off. In a sense, it reminds me of Fumerie Turque in that way. I'm curious what FT wearers think of this scent!
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1 comments:
How right you are about the saffron and spice coming up two hours later to steal your wallet. Just went to Barneys in Chicago yesterday, spritzed my wrist, left the store, walked all the way across town and became posessed by what I smelled. Don't let the boozy scotch blast in the topnote scare you, right? I love that part too but would have to attend an AA meeting if caught smelling like it all day.
Ouds in the eastern world today seem all based on Firmenich Oud base, which Montale uses as a sledgehammer. Le Labo used this aroachemical as a paintbrush, blending it subtly with the most beautiful tobacco rendition I have yet encountered. White birch and gaiac give this a mirror smooth drydown with just enough of a camphorous tang to give the synthetic oud beautiful dimension, lift and woodiness.
The real surprise for me was the ambergris (Ambrox) which is the subtle canvas that wraps you in this beautiful fragrance all day long.
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