*) for me it was
First of all: I have lived and worked in the Gulf State of Qatar for years - passing Oud in a mall there is like going to the Oktoberfest and not seeing a beer. Accordingly, several years ago I fell in love with the wonderful world of the oud, with its mysterious and powerful nuances, with the beguiling and seductive! There was simply no way around it.
For some years now I have been living in my homeland again, always looking for good, authentic oud scents. Per se I love of course a lot of scents - with Oud it is like with Spaghetti Bolognese: I love them, but not every day. It's the same with the scents: depending on the mood something else comes on.
Now the prologue is finished.
In spring I fell in love with Oud Wood from Ford, who had to leave me again after a very short time, because he had disappointed me because of his poor durability and Sillage - it was probably batch dependent, because many others had confirmed an enormous durability to me and I had made in the form of a sample exactly the same experience, namely that the smell holds damn well. So the poor durability of the 100 ml bottle was the early outcome of our short, dramatic love.
Now the prologue is really over - the main part may follow:
OudTouch.
During my research on good and woody oud scents I came across OudTouch sometime after a long search, which was praised here in the forum already very strongly. I could not imagine anything at all among the fragrances listed above and decided to make a blind purchase on the Internet due to the unbeatable price (approx. 25 Euro). As soon as I was ordered I regretted my decision again: how can one be so stupid and buy a scent that one had never smelt before so blindly. Sure, the price is relatively very low, but still, what was going on with me?
During a week of tense waiting, I kept reading through the scents again and again, how would that smell? On my skin?
I read comments and statements, felt partly encouraged and partly discouraged.
In the end the scent finally arrived again. Like an addict, I ripped the pack open, briefly inspected the bottle before taking down the lid and spraying the first sprayer OudTouch onto my wrist.
Holy fuck!
The first impression: the full drone of bitter sweetness that completely takes me by surprise and attacks me here.
My girlfriend said, "This place smells like an Arab mall." It's hot outside, breaking hot, almost unbearable. The air's dry, it's standing, no draught, no refreshment. Then you enter the opulent, luxurious and modern mall and first you run into an icy wall. It gets cold and smells of spices, luxurious scents, rich sheikhs and their wives. It smells of tart, almost bitter Arabic coffee, which is enjoyed together with a Khalas date from Bateel. It smells of the opulent Arab sweets from one corner and of high-quality incense from the other. But one by one...
In the beginning you are attacked by a spicy, bitter sweetness... i clearly smell toffee, but also something fruity, maybe actually oranges and raspberries, but basically it could be anything. It smells highly elitist and spoiled, it smells like 'Hui'.
A moment later, the woods come in. I might think I can smell Oud very clearly: Oud in its cleanest and noblest form, not faecal or animalistic, but very, very present and clear. Only: There is no oud included.
Beside the wooden tones one takes now also very clearly the incense and the rose was. It smells woody, slightly sweet and smoky, almost wicked - and yet the fragrance radiates aloofness and inviolability. Just like the sheiks in the luxurious mall of Qatar: they appreciate you at most one look, but you never get into their inner circle. And this is exactly what this fragrance radiates in its most beautiful and elegant way.
Curiously enough I hear the Fucking Fabulous of TF again and again in the drydown, I can't explain it to myself why. Maybe so a little bit of this inflatable plastic synthetics, but significantly screwed down and for me a thousand times better than the original. I also hear OudWood in the Drydown, but also in a better version: much more extreme and louder, much more arrogant and distant. This fragrance is not playful, except when it comes to winning. Even when vanilla is used so discreetly and harmoniously in the deepest drydown, the fragrance is still an untamed beast.
A smug smile, an arrogant look, unapproachable strength, endless power and merciless uncompromisingness radiate this fragrance.
And despite all that he has something romantic, something incredibly seductive and uninhibitedly breathtaking about him... the longing for golf begins.
Durability and Sillage: The best fragrance in my collection - and I have a few beasts among them. But this scent really breaks all records.
Finally, the reference to the title of my comment remains. Elli Khan is a song by a well-known Lebanese singer, Nancy Ajram. My Arabic is rather basic, but Elli Khan is about a heartbreaking love filled with longings. One fragment of the lyrics is something like: 'How could I live before I met you and how could I ever go on living if you left me'.
I love you, OudTouch.
Peace oud ähhh... out!