Oud Samples

Oud is the material most people are curious about and most likely to get wrong, which makes it the single strongest case for sampling in this entire shop.

It is resinous wood from agar trees, and it does not behave like other fragrance notes. Depending on the blend and on your own skin it can read as sweet and balsamic, sharp and medicinal, smoky, leathery, faintly barnyard, or close to sacred incense. Those are not variations in intensity - they are different smells. Someone describing an oud they love tells you almost nothing about how it will land on you.

It is also the note most often described as an acquired taste, and that reputation is earned. A significant number of people meeting real oud for the first time dislike it immediately. Some of those people come back to it a year later and cannot understand what the problem was.

Spending forty pounds to discover which camp you are in is a poor bet. Spending three is a reasonable one.

Five ouds sit in this collection, ranging from the traditionally Arabian to lighter modern treatments, in 2ml, 5ml and 10ml. All decanted in the UK from sealed bottles. If you have never worn oud, start with a 2ml and wear it twice before you decide - first impressions of this material are notoriously unreliable.