The Middle East’s Damascus Rose heritage is evoked with a blend of Rose Bulgaria ORPUR, Rose Absolute Morocco and Rose Absolute Turkey ORPUR, said to combine fresh petal, nectar and stem-like scent signatures. That said, my dear friend has what I affectionately call “unicorn skin,” because she gets longevity from all fragrances to a degree that is simply unique. I’ve never seen numbers (from anyone!) like what she regularly gets from a single, tiny, split spray of perfume. (Any perfume, any brand — doesn’t make a difference.) She’s in a whole other territory, beyond even “glue skin,” and verging on something completely epic. It fills me with the deepest envy, but it also requires me to caution you that you should not take her longevity numbers as the typical norm. This floral heart is enhanced with ginger CO2, cardamom seed oil ORPUR, cinnamon bark Laos ORPUR and pimento berry. The composition is completed with a touch of Geranium Egypt ORPUR, tagette, osmanthus, davana oil and a date accord.

I have to say that, to me, Tom Ford Noirfeels like the snuggliest body powder imaginable, a fantasy of a groomed body waiting to be ravaged. Delicious on clothing too, with its lingering balsamic and lightly animalic notes. It takes some getting used to, for men raised on butch "blue" scents of the latest crop, but it's so worth it. I love this on men, and it gets so rarely worn, compared to others in the line, which is a shame.There is an underlying spice which peaks through the composition, during the entire wear, but really feels at its strongest in the opening act. Most of that, is the patchouli note, though some of it is due to the wood notes interacting and the amber. Cosmic Swirls Beige” by Jeannie Atwater &Jordan Allen at fineartamerica.com http://fineartamerica.com/featured/cosmic-swirls-beige-jeannie-atwater-jordan-allen.html On my skin, the scent starts off with a decent dose of oud. This reminds me very much of the beginning of Tobacco Oud (without the smoky elements). This has something very spicy with a small shot of boozyness. At the same time you can also draw parallels to Tom Ford's London. Here, however, without the too sweaty cumin note. Nevertheless, the With an established je ne sais quoi about the brand, one needs to explore deeper into the scents themselves. Do they deliver the fantasy? This first half feels very rosy to me. I’m not sure how many times, that I’ve had to test out a oud and rose combo fragrance, but it’s getting repetitive. This one, however, is actually one of the better examples I must say.

The opening of Oud Fleur is much about the oud, at least to my nose. What I do get is a pretty strong use of sandalwood, but mainly rose, with a very resinous amber. That’s a positive for me, as I enjoy sandalwood and amber, more so than oud. Years ago, there was once an article about Generation Z, there titled "Generation Maybe", and was about the fact that this generation Maybe has lost itself in the either-or, can not decide, has no answer to any question, would not like to commit.To me it's a sweet, milky skin scent that clashes with its aluminum foil accents, which reflect its message to space for aliens to catch, as if it's our human signal on how we smell. Odd and strangely likeable, it's something to make heads turn. True Tom Ford style, I might add. Oud Fleur, as a whole, has one major problem that runs through Tom Ford's entire Prive Blend line. The naming. Really, this fragrance is not floral in my eyes. Sure, it has a floral approach due to the rose, which becomes one of the main components over time. But the entire fragrance is so much more trimmed towards spices and oud by its make that the epithet "Fleur" should have been left out here. "Oud Spice" would have been a better and more appropriate name for this fragrance. Ten minutes in, other nuances appear under the top notes. There is a whiff of something floral, something almost rose-like, but it’s very minor at first. Much more noticeable is the subtle aroma of burnt beeswax, along with the merest suggestion of a darkened leather coated with honey. Both are side-effects of the labdanum. My skin tends to amplify the note, but it also makes patchouli act like a bullhorn a lot of the times, and Tobacco Oud is no exception. It takes the patchouli and runs with it, bringing out a definite syrupy, fruited, almost fruit-chouli like sweetness. Less than 30 minutes into Tobacco Oud’s development, the patchouli merges into the floral note to create a jammy rose sweetness that completely overwhelms the tobacco. I’ll be honest, I was a bit baffled, but, clearly, it’s the patchouli at play and, as usual, my skin wreaks havoc with it. It’s one of the better examples of this sort of perfume, but still not an amazing one. Most of these rose and oud based fragrances, are around this same Tom Ford level price point. People’s reactions to Tobacco Oud seem highly mixed, and generally much less enthusiastic than the response to Oud Fleur. On Fragrantica, almost all the talk about Tobacco Oud centers on just how much of those two namesake notes are in the scent, and the degree of similarity it shares to Amber Absolute. A number of people find the two perfumes to be very similar in their opening stage, but dissimilar in overall development, weight, and feel. A few find zero similarity, no doubt because they experienced a heavy amount of tobacco. (Oddly, a number of those bring up Sahara Noir instead.) Obviously, the more the tobacco element manifests itself on your skin, the less you’re likely to think Tobacco Oud resembles Amber Absolute.

Oud Fleur does not want to be understood, I am convinced of that. Not every question needs an answer. Not every decision needs to be made. Not everything needs to be committed to. I tried Oud Fleur twice, and I realised mere minutes into my first test that half of the things I was scribbling on my notepad weren’t on that list. From cardamom to ginger, apricot-y osmanthus, and more, the notes I detected didn’t match up with Fragrantica’s bare bones description. So I did some digging, and I found a much more substantial list at The Moodie Report which is presumably quoting a Tom Ford Press release. It describes Oud Fleur as follows : Out of the lot that I have sampled and god knows I haven't sampled them all, I rate WHITE PATCHOULI the best for its wearability and unique special character.

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The longevity was also good, I got somewhere in the 8-9 hour range, during testing. Was it amazing, in that regard? No. Though, it does its job for almost any event or standard work day. A juicy, completely dark and mysterious rose enters the ring, which wants to fight a battle with the spicy oud. So at least the first impression. Tobacco Oud is standing in front of the hearth and warming your hands, a brief respite from the cool outdoors. Amber Absolute is curling up in a luxurious blanket in your favorite chair and settling in for the night.

To me the domineering note of Vert d'Encensis the pine resin, which couples with the incense to give a far-away-lands atmosphere; like I would imagine one standing in Kransnoyarsk, Russia, instead of Corsica, with the river bringing on an odd freshness, and the smoky fires within and the central heating belying the outside cold. It's one fragrance that really benefits from the cold outside, when its warmth rises forth and makes the heart grow fonder. If you're expecting just another "rose/oud" candidate from Oud Fleur (something the majority of comments and statements here would lead you to expect), you're mistaken. Oud Fleur finds a completely different approach to this already worn out topic. In the next moment, however, the floral units already come into play: here, however, in my opinion, some went wrong with the naming - the so floral a rose may also be, so much all other floral chords are completely missing.Vert d'Encens is meant to represent the scented interpretation of the coast of Corsica — sophisticated, aromatic, and wild. The composition includes notes of incense, pine resins and fir balsam, heliotrope and woods.