TwOuds and a floral

The next town over is having a food festival, featuring a dinner with tables running down the main street (see pic). If I had known. Sigh. This looks like it will be so much fun. This literally runs hundreds of feet along the High Street down to the quayside.

Last week, Portia wrote about a very pricey oud-rose in a fancy bottle. This popped up while I was struggling with two oud samples I’d gotten plus a tuberose. And it gave the impetus to finish a post that I’d been finding irritating.

I had gotten very excited about naming the post TwOuds to be cute. But then I wasn’t so excited about either of the fragrances. So, I moved on to the last of the samples, a now discontinued tuberose.

So, not the most focused of samplings/posts. Rather, a meander.

I preferred the tuberose to the ouds – but the tuberose is no longer available, whereas the ouds are. Do you see my point about meandering?

Anyway, this is where we’re going this week.

I have been on a hunt for ‘my oud’ for a while. I’ve sampled some I’ve enjoyed, one or two I think are really good, and quite a number that did not work. I like the Band-aid aspect of oud, and I want something that is darker and oudier vs oud and rose, oud and flowers, etc. I expect that when I least expect it I’ll sample ‘the one’. However, so far, I’m not there.

Kerosene R’Oud Elements from 2011. Notes: oud, sandalwood, orange bitters, amber, vanilla, lavender, iris. This opens with a weird, interesting chewy feel that I’d attribute to the orange bitters. I really liked the opening. But then it sweetens to orange soda. The sweet does recede and we’re into a more woody orange. The oud actually smells ‘off’ – ie, it’s not Band-aid but leathery or papery – I couldn’t decide which. And sort of damp. So, maybe wet Band-aid. Not for me.

DS & Durga Notorious Oud from 2019. Notes are saffron, camphor, galbanum, agarwood, Bulgarian rose, lavender, papyrus, civet and Cetalox® (appears to be another name for ambroxan – in any case I see it capitalised and with a trademark symbol). Starts with a great Band-aid note which 10 minutes in turns to burnt (not burning) wood, with something unpleasant and sour in there. After that, I get rubber and menthol, and the drydown is weirdly aquatic/marine. Thoroughly confusing and again not for me. And definitely not notorious.

So, on to the nice but discontinued floral.

I tried l’Histoires de Parfums three tuberose fragrances when they were released and thought they were nice but not astonishing. But when I was looking for a wildcard – ie, just perusing what was stocked and wanted something that simply caught my attention — I included the third, supposedly strongest, one in a sample order, Tuberose 3 Animale.

These (ie, the three tuberoses) were released in 2010 and I recall many perfumistas I knew being quite excited. They were meant to be ascending in headiness from Capricious (young? number 1) to Virginale (number 2; can you do a virginal tuberose?) to witchy (number 3).  Per the notes lists, these all look fairly heady, but my recollection of all of them back 15 years ago is gentleness.

Notes for Animale include tuberose, kumquat, neroli, tuberose, prune, herbs, tuberose, tabacco, immortelle and woody notes (the repetition of tuberose is per Fragrantica, it’s not me being odd).

Strangely for a tuberose – as noted above — this is muted. It opens powdery iris – I am sure it’s iris even though it isn’t included in the notes list – and I don’t get anything fruity.

As it heats up we’re still very powdery but there’s something I can’t quite put my finger on. Something candied. Maybe that’s the kumquat? And a very strange whisper of cigarettes (oy, maybe this is the ubiquitous menthol but usually menthol is cool-weird-minty whereas this is ashy and sour), which I find twitch-making and offputting.

Interestingly, after a few hours, I get bittersweet chocolate which provides a lovely grounding aspect and is my favourite point in the perfume: tuberose and chocolate. Quite velvety.

The drydown threw me for a loop. All I could smell was aldehydes (not on notes list) – everything else had receded – and I’m not thrilled by aldehydes except in the best compositions. So, after thinking three-quarters of this being fine, the end really let things down.

If this were still around, I’d call it a tuberose for people who like the idea of tuberose but are put off by the bigger fragrances: Fracas, Tubereuse Criminelle, Poison and Carnal Flower.

Clearly, this is still available on sample sites – and possibly discounters and eBay. I haven’t checked.

So, basically something of a samples fail here. But still an interesting journey.

Pics: Mine