Al Oudh (L'Artisan Parfumeur)

By Andrew

Bertrand Duchaufour’s recent Havana Vanille for L’Artisan Parfumeur was quiet and short lived on me. Not Al Oudh, which arrived right behind it this winter. Al Oudh is a robust, assertive Orientalist composition that sets incense, animalic leather, fruit and spices alongside its titular ingredient. Anyone expecting the kind of stark, piercing oudh-dominant arrangement Pierre Montale offers in Black Aoud or Oud Cuir d’Arabie will be disappointed. Al Oudh’s structure and development are complex and its mood dark and weighty, but the oudh note is more of an ensemble player than a soloist. In its ingredients* and general style Al Oudh is more akin to Jubilation XXV, which Duchaufour composed for Amouage a couple of years back.

Al Oudh’s opening is a busy assemblage of citrus, spices, and saffron that leaves an impression of heat and a tart prickle in the nose. Frankincense and the unmistakable medicinal accent of oudh fall into place with a few moments, while the scent begins to darken and sweeten under the influence of vanilla and a potent dried fruit note. These notes arrange themselves around a rose, patchouli, and leather core in a configuration that delicately balances the sweetness of fruit and vanilla with the astringency of the incense resins. Over the course of hours the sweet hay flavor of coumarin (tonka bean) and the otherworldly tonic of myrrh emerge to reinforce each end of the structure. As a result, Al Oudh gains density while retaining its overall balance.

Online reviewers are divided over a cumin note in Al Oudh. Some enjoy it, while others find it intrusive, or even repugnant. I don’t find Al Oudh’s cumin all that conspicuous, especially in comparison with scents like Eau d’Hermes, Cologne Bigarade, or Diptyque’s L’Autre. Then again, cumin smells to me like an ingredient in south Asian cuisine, not unwashed armpits, so I don’t object to it on principle. Al Oudh does have an animalic aspect, courtesy of civet and castoreum, but they contribute to the scent’s dense, warm foundation rather than acting as conspicuous individual notes.

Al Oudh is tenacious on my skin, and it wears for a solid six to eight hours before drifting slowly into a cedar, patchouli, and powdery vanilla drydown. It doesn’t strike me as a gender-specific scent, but its weight and intensity might make me uncomfortable in an office setting. I enjoy Al Oudh’s assured character and I think it extends the L’Artisan Parfumeur line (if not necessarily Duchaufour’s creative range,) in an interesting direction. It’s certainly worth sampling if your taste favors the dark and exotic.

* The two scents have in common coriander, Atlas cedar, frankincense, rose, myrrh, patchouli, and (yes) oudh.

Year: 2009
Perfumer: Bertrand Duchaufour
Notes: Cumin, cardamom, pink pepper, date, rose, neroli, incense, saffron, leather note, oudh, Atlas cedar, castoreum, civet, sandalwood, patchouli, myrrh, vanilla and tonka bean