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Notes05/03/2020
Drseid
746 Reviews
Drseid
Spiced Faux Oud a la Ropion...
Oud Malaki opens with a slightly sweet warm spiced tobacco before moving to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart the tobacco vacates, leaving the slightly sweet, smooth saffron and clove led warm spice to co-star with a faux Oud/dark woody accord with just a hint of underlying aromatic lavender in subtle support. During the late dry-down the spice recedes, leaving its remnants to pair with the now subdued synthetic dark woods through the finish. Projection is excellent, and longevity outstanding at around 15 hours on skin.
I blind bought a bottle of Oud Malaki many years ago after learning my favorite perfumer Dominique Ropion was behind the composition and my bottle seemingly has been in stasis ever since as I worked through my ever-growing perfume backlog. After finally getting around to wearing it again many years after purchase, I'm reminded of the positive first impression it made on its arrival from overseas back then. While I would like to say that the composition was comprised of real Oud, I'm afraid at this price-point that would be a near impossible feat, and sure enough, the perfume has the trademark fingerprints of nagermatha to approximate the Oud wood, and norlimbanol (sigh) for the vague dark synthetic woods. I am really not a fan of either of these ingredients, but under Ropion's skillful hand, disaster is deftly averted by balancing the woods with some relatively warm, smooth spice that is just as much the focus as the (fake) Oud, maybe more. There is also a hint of sweetness that permeates the composition's relatively linear development after the tobacco led open, but the sweetness never approaches anywhere near "yellow flag" territory even to the sweet averse like this writer. At the end of the day, Oud Malaki may not take the ridiculously crowded Oud genre to new heights, but it does ultimately impress for what its worth. The bottom line is the $67 per 80 ml bottle Oud Malaki may not be particularly innovative, but perfumer Ropion tames the worst aspects of its relatively inexpensive ingredients, yielding a "very good" 3.5 stars out of 5 rated result that is recommended to fans of warm spicy-woody compositions like Royal Oud from Creed.
I blind bought a bottle of Oud Malaki many years ago after learning my favorite perfumer Dominique Ropion was behind the composition and my bottle seemingly has been in stasis ever since as I worked through my ever-growing perfume backlog. After finally getting around to wearing it again many years after purchase, I'm reminded of the positive first impression it made on its arrival from overseas back then. While I would like to say that the composition was comprised of real Oud, I'm afraid at this price-point that would be a near impossible feat, and sure enough, the perfume has the trademark fingerprints of nagermatha to approximate the Oud wood, and norlimbanol (sigh) for the vague dark synthetic woods. I am really not a fan of either of these ingredients, but under Ropion's skillful hand, disaster is deftly averted by balancing the woods with some relatively warm, smooth spice that is just as much the focus as the (fake) Oud, maybe more. There is also a hint of sweetness that permeates the composition's relatively linear development after the tobacco led open, but the sweetness never approaches anywhere near "yellow flag" territory even to the sweet averse like this writer. At the end of the day, Oud Malaki may not take the ridiculously crowded Oud genre to new heights, but it does ultimately impress for what its worth. The bottom line is the $67 per 80 ml bottle Oud Malaki may not be particularly innovative, but perfumer Ropion tames the worst aspects of its relatively inexpensive ingredients, yielding a "very good" 3.5 stars out of 5 rated result that is recommended to fans of warm spicy-woody compositions like Royal Oud from Creed.
Spenc2016
