JaeJ

In my eyes, La Rive Gallant comes very close to Gucci Guilty. At first it smells a bit cheap synthetic, but after about 10 minutes the synthetic is gone and it spreads a sweet fresh surfer boy scent. This is of course a very subjective assessment but for me Gallant falls into a similar category as Fierce by A&F: very youthful, pleasing and seductive. The durability is not outstanding but by far okay, I would guess depending on the weather on 4-6h, which is really remarkable in this price range of drugstore fragrances in my opinion. The bottle was clearly saved, but because it is kept very simple, this is not overly negative.

This scent was the first oud scent I tried. I had already heard a lot about Oud Wood and the hope with this dupe for less money to get an idea of what this pleasing oud fragrance, of which so much is raved about, constitutes. In the first 10min I was a bit confused, because Private Oud didn't seem as pleasing as the reputation of Oud Wood promised. After about half an hour, however, it made sense: somehow this scent radiates an incredibly warm coziness without being particularly sweet. Since I'm not really a fan of sweet and warm fragrances, I was happy with my purchase and put the bottle on my nightstand for a while. There it should remain for several weeks, because it developed almost to a ritual shortly before going to bed again briefly to dive into this pleasantly warm scent feeling. For comparison, I tried a sample of the supposed original: Tom Ford Oud Wood, but this could not convince me as Private Oud. Somehow OW was just a little shallower and more pleasing, but did not trigger this intense feeling of security in me as it was the case with Private Oud
As a conclusion, I can therefore say that Private Oud surpasses its big brother (OW) in my opinion in the intensity and atmosphere and is only a little stricter in the top note. Also in terms of durability and sillage, Private Oud seems to me to be a bit superior. If you then also take into account that Private Oud costs only a fraction of Oud Wood I would definitely recommend to give the little brother a chance.