Tom Ford OUD FLEUR

Product Information

Among the many scents inspired by this mystical material, Tom Ford's Santal Blush is a gorgeous, clean, dry, and creamy sandalwood fragrance with an immediate message of sensuousness and no boozy aftertaste. Both beautiful and wearable, it was composed by talented perfumer Yann Vasnier. As its name suggests, Private Blend Tobacco Oud features a tobacco accord inspired by “dokha,” a blend of herbs, flowers and spice-laden tobacco that was smoked in secret five centuries ago during a ban on smoking — and retains its allure as a widely used tobacco today.

The opening of Oud Fleur is much about the oud, at least to my nose. What I do get is a pretty strong use of sandalwood, but mainly rose, with a very resinous amber. That’s a positive for me, as I enjoy sandalwood and amber, more so than oud. People’s reactions to Tobacco Oud seem highly mixed, and generally much less enthusiastic than the response to Oud Fleur. On Fragrantica, almost all the talk about Tobacco Oud centers on just how much of those two namesake notes are in the scent, and the degree of similarity it shares to Amber Absolute. A number of people find the two perfumes to be very similar in their opening stage, but dissimilar in overall development, weight, and feel. A few find zero similarity, no doubt because they experienced a heavy amount of tobacco. (Oddly, a number of those bring up Sahara Noir instead.) Obviously, the more the tobacco element manifests itself on your skin, the less you’re likely to think Tobacco Oud resembles Amber Absolute. Royal Mail will attempt to deliver the parcel twice. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon later that same day

The bet wasn't an easy one. Composing a sandalwood fragrance evocative of the Indian splendors of the Mysore variety, revered for centuries, but without actually using the raw material due to its regional restrictions on use as an endangered species, was a Herculean feat. The result, however, more than compensates, entering into sandalwood fragrances' Hall of Fame, a genre always popular with perfume lovers. If you like Tam Dao, but prefer a luxe rather than bohemian presentation, this is a refined take on that scented cult memory.

Part of Tom Ford's exclusive Private Blend line for 2016 presented the four new interpretations of the classic "green" notes in perfumery: Vert d'Encens, Vert de Bois, Vert Bohème, and Vert de Fleur. A juicy, completely dark and mysterious rose enters the ring, which wants to fight a battle with the spicy oud. So at least the first impression.The Middle East’s Damascus Rose heritage is evoked with a blend of Rose Bulgaria ORPUR, Rose Absolute Morocco and Rose Absolute Turkey ORPUR, said to combine fresh petal, nectar and stem-like scent signatures.