Oriental Oud

Inspiration
Oriental Oud takes Al Ambra back to the material most closely tied to Arabic perfumery. Oud stands at the centre of this extrait, yet the house is clearly after balance: intense, certainly, but with controlled projection and a gradual evolution. That restraint shows in the design. Where Black Forest, Dubai Musk and Loren come in cobalt glass, Oriental Oud wears a white bottle with gold lettering and a golden sunburst, packed in a deep blue box. It is also the only one of these five in a 100 ml size.

Fragrance Family
Woody oriental

The Olfactive Composition
Top notes: Sicilian bergamot, pink pepper, davana
Heart notes: agarwood (oud), white amber, rosemary
Base notes: Haitian vetiver, leather, white musk

The Signature of Oriental Oud
Sicilian bergamot opens brightly, but pink pepper and davana warm that light straight away. Davana, an Indian herb of the wormwood family, has a strikingly fruity, slightly liqueur-like scent and rounds off the opening. Then the oud steps forward. White amber wraps it in a warm, gently resinous glow, while rosemary offers a fresh, herbal counterpoint that stops the wood from becoming too dense. The base of Haitian vetiver, leather and white musk provides structure: vetiver adds dry, smoky earthiness, leather a supple darkness and musk a soft finish. The outcome is an oud with character but no bravado, and with real staying power on skin.

What our ParfuMaria team thinks of this fragrance
Oud is an ingredient customers tend to have strong feelings about: you either love it or feel a little wary of it. We see Oriental Oud as a lovely bridge between those two camps. Rosemary and davana make the opening approachable, and the oud itself is warm and rounded, without the barnyard or medicinal edge that puts some people off. On skin it develops calmly; after a few hours mostly vetiver with a soft leather tone remains, and we find that phase very elegant. On cool autumn and winter nights this is, to us, the strongest Al Ambra in our range. And to be honest, that white bottle stands out beautifully on our shelf among all the dark glass.