Amber Oud Parfums de Nicolaï 2013

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7.5 / 1047 Ratings

Amber Oud is a perfume by Parfums de Nicolaï for women and men and was released in 2013. The scent is spicy-woody. It is still available to purchase.

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Perfumer

Patricia de Nicolaï

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Lavender Mugwort Davana
Heart Notes	Cinnamon Saffron Oud Atlas cedar Patchouli
Base Notes	Labdanum absolute Tonka bean absolute Styrax Musk Amber

Ratings

Scent

7.547 Ratings

Longevity

7.638 Ratings

Sillage

6.442 Ratings

Bottle

8.240 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 19.11.2021.

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Reviews

12/28/2019

9
Scent 8
Longevity 6
Sillage 10
Bottle

Bakerscookie

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Bakerscookie

Don't listen to the haters...

On my last trip to Paris, I paid less attention to the "big" houses, but rather visited smaller perfume brands - including Parle-moi des Parfums and Parfums de Nicolai. I took a handful of fragrances home with me and now I sit here, slightly shocked by some statements of the Parfumo Community.

Because it is not clear to me how a "Milky Musk" from PMDP should have musk as the main note and on the other hand hardly anyone here smells oud. This is probably because no one smells the real material anymore, but refers to Western mixtures that would never use real oud or real musk in their lives (even if they were allowed to).

For both materials are traditionally "fixative" and therefore appear on stage - if at all - only as subordinate notes. It would simply be too expensive to create a fragrance with a prominent oud note (made of pure oud). And it wouldn't be sustainable either.

What I'm getting at is, yes, that perfume has oud in it. Not much, but certainly more than in most mixtures that smell like "oud" (i.e. mostly the synthetic substitute). I find the combination with lavender particularly interesting, because I have not smelled that yet. All in all a quite transparent, slightly sweetish scent, which remains the same most of the time as in the beginning. Only it gets a little sweeter at the end. But I am happy about the change to the typical rose oud, which seems to exist in every house and which I deliberately avoided at PDN.

The Sillage could be better. It is rather a calm scent, which lasts for about 7 hours but is still very solid. Could also be due to the potent spray head. The processing is excellent for the price
So, friends, please don't be put off by the online world or the big houses and if in doubt always try it yourself ;-)

4 Replies

07/17/2019

8.5
Scent 8
Longevity 7
Sillage 8
Bottle

Carlitos01
328 Reviews

Carlitos01

Helpful Review 4

Peaceful? Animalic? Both! -- Fougére? Oriental? Both!

Amber Oud is an odd fragrance, very pleasant but odd.
It's undoubtedly recognisable as a fougére due to the strong initial (and enduring) lavender blended with minor herbaceous notes like thyme, mugwort, sage, artemisia and davana. From this celestial fougére, the blending direction twists then strongly to the woody and resinous scents of oud, cedar, labdanum and styrax, supported by earthy and animalic notes like patchouli and castoreum.
The final result is very agreable but be prepared for an evolution full of contrasts. As far as the perfume name is concerned, the fragrance is more "ambery" than "oudy".
The longevity is average for tis type of scent: up to 8 hours with 3 sprays. The sillage is probably under average as no scent is detected further than a radius of 5 feet, after the first 5 minutes. Another oddity about this perfume is its projection. Within those 5 feet radius space, the projection is fairly strong for 2.5 hours. It's like having an "oriental perfume bubble" around you.
The drydown is quite peaceful after the strong projection ceases, with resinous nuances enriched by vanilla and tonka.

For FOUGÉRE lovers - The greens, herbs and fougéres are nice and they last a long time. When you still smell a strong lavender and capture also animalic and earthy notes of later stages, you cannot help noticing you are wearing perfume, and the strong projection helps this effect. Like someone else wrote, there is a "stupendous skanky lavender" accord and you cannot avoid recollecting perfumes like the magnificent Jicky from Guerlain. But it's love or hate and not for all noses.
For AMBER-OUD lovers - There is amber for sure, but hardly there is any oud. The ambery accords does suggest a woody scent of both cedar and oud, but they are faint. Nevertheless the amber facets are very alluring.

In summary it's a very interesting oriental perfume with an overall feeling of sophistication due to the extreme variation between the different stages. As far as I am concerned, I really like it a lot. But it's not an universal pleaser and not really suited for a blind buy.

Here is my scoring for Amber Oud from Parfums de Nicolaï:
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Scent Opening: 9.0 (my judgement)
Scent Dry Down: 8.5 (my judgement)
Longevity: 8.0 (3 good sprays may last up to 8 hours)
Sillage: 7.0 (5 feet at its peak with 3 sprays but 2.5 hours of strong projection)
Uniqueness: 9.0 (Due to its odd evolution it's hard to establish other perfume similarities)
Wearability: 8.0 (Spring, Fall and little more)
Versatility: 8.0 (better versatility than expected due to its fougére facet)
Compliments: 7.5 (This fragrance is average in what regards compliments)
Quality: 8.0 (above average quality ingredients, nice flask, nice sprayer)
Presentation: 9.0 (no faults, very simple but very elegant)
Price: 5.0 (100 ml non tester with the €152 pricetag at an internet distributor)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Overall rating: 7.91/10.00
- between 7 and 8 =above average;
- between 8 and 9 = recomended;
- bigger than 9 = don't miss it;
Advice: This scent is aimed at "connoisseurs". You may love it or hate it. I like it very much.
Recommended?
No! Do try it before you buy it, as it is a bit of an unique scent. It's also to expensive for a blind buy even if you think that you are going to love it.

Music: David Bowie – "Space Oddity"

1 Replies

05/19/2019

7
Scent 8
Longevity 6
Sillage 8
Bottle

Taurus1967
3 Reviews

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Taurus1967

Does that fall under label fraud yet?

I don't even know what I'm supposed to be more echauffieren about. About the fact that in the last years really every perfume house wanted to jump on the Oud train fast ... or that one indicates Oud in the name, even if this plays as good as no role in the smell.

The former can of course still be explained with "demand" and "piece of the cake" - after all everyone wants to earn money, so it is more or less legitimate to throw something onto the market with oud.

I have experienced the latter quite often lately. Of course, oud doesn't necessarily have to dominate perfume, but the fact that there's virtually nothing to sniff out makes me doubt the seriousness with which I deal with consumers.

But this scent of Patricia de Nicolaï does not have to hide itself at all. Gentle lavender sets the tone from the first moment and can be accompanied by spicy and woody ingredients, especially some mugwort, cinnamon and patchouli to be later caught by the warm amber. Especially the sweet and resinous ingredients of the base note give the structure an additional touch of chocolate, but this is really only on the edge.

In principle, Amber Oud is a solid fragrance, though not the high flyer. But where the hell is there supposed to be Oud? Not that I would miss it personally, but I don't want to know who bought it because of the name and is now disappointed that the eagle wood was misappropriated.

It is well known that dog biscuits do not contain any four-legged friends or that marzipan potatoes are offered without earth tubers, as well as the confusion about mettigel and Leberkäse. With perfumes, however, one should remain honest or not pretend to have precious contents which are then almost not contained at all or in homeopathic doses.

Otherwise Lavender Amber would have fitted much better.

7 Replies

08/19/2014

9
Scent

ScentFan
331 Reviews

ScentFan

Far Exceeds its Notes

I first encountered this scent on a perfumed test strip and immediately ordered an FB, completely surprised that these notes could sweep me away. Lavender is not among my favorite florals by any stretch. Mugwort doesn't sound promising. However, in the course of ordering a sample to become familiar with it, I learned the Japanese hang it (with Iris) outside because "evil spirits" don't like the smell. Guess not. This is a heavenly fragrance, herbs and spice exquisitely blended with woods and oud over a magnificent animalic-resinous vanilla-tinged base. Lavender reigns beautifully over all. Bereft of its usual sharpness, this lavender is so bewitching, you'd almost think it was jasmine or a rose. Kudos to Patricia de Nicolaï for this spectacular creation. Twice I've fallen in love with a niche house and bought most of the line. This is my third Nicolaï and I don't think it's going to be my last.

6/27/16
Almost 2 years later and I'm more aware of synthetic notes which seem to appeal less and less the more I'm exposed to them. Today I wouldn't buy this perfume because of them, but that's no loss given the lovely others I have from this house.

05/28/2014

9
Scent 7.5
Longevity 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Bottle

Insense
25 Reviews

Insense

Helpful Review 3

The 3rd Dimension Of Oud

PdN's Amber Oud is a complex concoction, as always in this brand. It brings to me a tridimensional experience, from the top notes to the dry down. Lively at first, then balsamic, I notice the oud all the time, but not the more usual oud: here, it stays in the shadow, as if it were the 3rd dimension of a composition transporting us to the future, when the nostalgia of the great perfumes of the past century will lead us to a returning movement actualized for the technologic world of the present.
A bit skanky? Yes!
A bit well behaved? Yes again!
Out of the box? Definitely!
(And a plus: not too expensive, an excellent quality for the price)

12/19/2013

5
Scent 7.5
Longevity 7.5
Sillage 5
Bottle

Gold
470 Reviews

Gold

Very special, different, skanky

"Amber Oud" by Patricia de Nicolai starts with an extremely prominent lavender note accompanied by cedarwood, which is quite an unexpected and new approach to yet another "amber plus oud" fragrance on the market.
But to my great dismay, the heart-note is skanky and animalic in an unpleasant way. Is it the oud used by PdN or the castoreum also mentioned in the pyramide published by the house? I really don't know, but this particular facet of wild, skanky substances spoils the fragrance for me. Tonka bean and vanilla are the main ingredients used to create the drydown of this unusual oud-scent. Not my cup of tea, but an interesting alternative to other "Amber Ouds" which smell more conventional. This one is very, very special.