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08/26/2012
Coutureguru
223 Reviews
Coutureguru
Top Review
8
Lauder's Oud
Wood Mystique is definitely a release that harks back to Lauder's glory days. I have a long association with this company and their fragrances (even having worked for them briefly in my youth) and imho their fragrant efforts of the last 10 years or so have been lackluster and boring.
I have two bugbears about this fragrance ... the first is the damn Pink Pepper in the top (thankfully short-lived and to my nose not a necessary addition) and secondly the obtuse addition of Raspberry. Who needs the fruit? Certainly not I!
Other than that, this is a very nice attempt by Lauder to use the 'note du jour' of Oud. In typical fashion, there's also a healthy dose of Patchouli here but along with the Rose, Ylang and Leather (which are the most prominent notes to my nose) Wood Mystique becomes a viable player in the 'Mid East-esque' panoply of new (ish) fragrances. Truthfully, it's very Lauder but with a fabulous twist. I like it a lot!!
According to some sources, it's specifically aimed at the Middle East marketplace and as such is not available elsewhere (indeed I bought my bottle in Dubai), but very recently I noticed that it is available at the counters here in SA. I have a few friends who work for the company and have been told by them that they absolutely insisted on being able to have the chance to sell it.
They do some strange things (at least to my mind) at EL ... as the new Aramis release called Perfume Calligraphy is simply Wood Mystique in a different bottle ... very weird! The saving grace is that it feels as if the Pink Pepper and Raspberry have been eliminated in PC ... a good thing!! Both frags are marketed as unisex but I guess the execs over there realized their marketing blunder because the Aramis version is available everywhere ... go figure!
Wood Mystique and it's twin Perfume Calligraphy are both possessed of great sillage and longevity and I find them to be the most exiting pair of fragrances by this company in a long time. I agree that the price of them is steep, but at least it feels as if one is getting what one has paid for here ... not something that will have to be re-applied every 3 hours.
I have two bugbears about this fragrance ... the first is the damn Pink Pepper in the top (thankfully short-lived and to my nose not a necessary addition) and secondly the obtuse addition of Raspberry. Who needs the fruit? Certainly not I!
Other than that, this is a very nice attempt by Lauder to use the 'note du jour' of Oud. In typical fashion, there's also a healthy dose of Patchouli here but along with the Rose, Ylang and Leather (which are the most prominent notes to my nose) Wood Mystique becomes a viable player in the 'Mid East-esque' panoply of new (ish) fragrances. Truthfully, it's very Lauder but with a fabulous twist. I like it a lot!!
According to some sources, it's specifically aimed at the Middle East marketplace and as such is not available elsewhere (indeed I bought my bottle in Dubai), but very recently I noticed that it is available at the counters here in SA. I have a few friends who work for the company and have been told by them that they absolutely insisted on being able to have the chance to sell it.
They do some strange things (at least to my mind) at EL ... as the new Aramis release called Perfume Calligraphy is simply Wood Mystique in a different bottle ... very weird! The saving grace is that it feels as if the Pink Pepper and Raspberry have been eliminated in PC ... a good thing!! Both frags are marketed as unisex but I guess the execs over there realized their marketing blunder because the Aramis version is available everywhere ... go figure!
Wood Mystique and it's twin Perfume Calligraphy are both possessed of great sillage and longevity and I find them to be the most exiting pair of fragrances by this company in a long time. I agree that the price of them is steep, but at least it feels as if one is getting what one has paid for here ... not something that will have to be re-applied every 3 hours.
ChicoRoch1
