Often referred to as ‘liquid gold’, oud is among the world’s most expensive scents because of its intoxicating muskiness. Whether you want something floral, zesty, or oriental, we’ve found the best oud perfume that can give you an exotic and opulent fragrance experience.
The Top Oud Perfume Reviews
Best Oud Perfume Overall: Initio Parfums Prives Oud for Greatness Eau de Parfum
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A unisex and crowd-pleasing fragrance, the No products found. is the right oud fragrance for those who want a Middle Eastern aroma that’s divine yet slightly sweet.
Each spray starts with a sweet-spicy concoction of saffron and nutmeg. A hint of lavender creates a smooth transition to help your sense of smell adjust from light to more potent scents.
Aside from the luxury perfume bottle, this oud perfume justifies the term ‘greatness’ by making use of agarwood’s natural oud oil. If you want a distinctive oud scent in the middle notes, this perfume will give you that well-rounded aroma.
Finally, the perfume transitions into the base notes with musk and patchouli as supplementary musky scents. In effect, the projection and sillage have a solid, long-lasting effect. Consequently, the Oud for Greatness makes a great companion for cold, winter nights.
What We Like
- Combines fresh, spicy, and musky notes
- Sillage and projection outshine the other oud fragrances
- Luxurious aroma with a touch of mysteriousness
What We Don’t Like
- The powerful projection may not be ideal for indoors
- The definite Arabian aroma may feel too masculine for some people
Best Oud Perfume for the Money: YSL M-7 Oud Absolu Eau de Toilette Spray for Men
- For casual use
- This product is made of high quality material
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If you want a more oriental and woody version of oud fragrances, the YSL M-7 Oud Absolu Eau de Toilette Spray can give you that classic, earthy vibes in a subtle way.
Unlike Oud for Greatness, which optimizes complementary scent families, this one includes contrasting raw materials to create a unique smell. A brief opening of Mandarin orange emits a fresh-citrusy aroma. Since it contains rosemary in the middle notes, the main scent tends to be more grassy-oriental than musky.
Only in the base notes does this perfume introduce agarwood to produce a solid oud aroma. If you prefer an oud perfume that doesn’t scream for too much attention, this kind of layering can provide you with that balance.
Since this is an eau de toilette, its sillage isn’t as powerful compared to eau de parfums. However, the clever use of agarwood in the base notes ensures an excellent projection that can radiate within an arm’s length.
What We Like
- Softer oud fragrance
- Excellent projection
- Ensures an earthy, musky dry down
What We Don’t Like
- Moderate sillage compared to Oud for Greatness
- Oriental-citrusy notes tend to overpower the oud scent
Best Cheap Oud Perfume: Versace Oud Pour Femme Oriental Eau de Parfum
- Versace Oud Pour Femme Oriental Eau de Parfum Spray 3.4 Ounce
While oud is an expensive material, you can still experience this lavish scent with Eau de Parfum Versace Oud Pour Femme Oriental at a modest price.
If you’re looking for a beginner’s introduction to oud perfume, the spicy-oriental opening notes of rose, freesia, and saffron enable your nose to adjust. It even incorporates floral scents using Heliotrope, patchouli, and violet to create a gradual transition to the base notes.
Similar to YSL M-7, this perfume only brings out oud oil at the base notes. With a hint of sandalwood and vanilla, the dry down results in a velvety, creamy touch on the skin.
Finally, this perfume has a superb sillage and projection like Oud for Greatness, although the oud scent is lighter. This lighter mixture makes the Oud Pour Femme perfect for heat and humidity.
What We Like
- A feminine oud fragrance
- Floral notes make great dry down during hot days
- The smoky, musky scent
What We Don’t Like
- Powdery dry down
- May smell like dry leather
Factors to Consider for Oud Perfume
The best oud perfume should have these features to let you unearth a smoky, sexy, and warm aroma. When you’re considering which oud perfume to buy, these features will make it easier for you.
Raw Material: Oud
Oud can produce a myriad of scents depending on other ingredients it’s mixed with or your body chemistry. In general, it smells woody, damp, smoky, and slightly sweet.
It’s a resin coming from the mold of infected Aquilaria trees. The tree is lightly colored and has almost no odor. When the infection sets in, the tree’s heartwood produces a darkly-colored resin known as aloes that have a dark smell.
While its recognizable aroma is not everyone’s cup of tea, oud is a popular ingredient for those who want warm, aromatic, and musky fragrances.
Perfume Notes
The notes allow you to choose which ingredients make a lasting impression on the first spray, after a few hours, and on the dry down.
- Top notes: The lightest molecules evaporate quickly since they only need to provide an oud perfume’s initial impression.
- Middle notes: Creates 70% of an oud perfume’s scent, giving the perfume a fuller life.
- Base notes: The base notes create the dry down, which lasts the longest depending on how well the oud reacts with your body’s natural oils.
Initio Parfums Prives Oud for Greatness introduces oud in the middle notes, giving you a more bodied oud 30 minutes after spraying. Meanwhile, YSL M-7 Oud Absolu and Versace Oud Pour Femme Oriental make use of oud in the base notes.
Other Scent Families
Due to the depletion of agarwood as natural wood, obtaining oud has become a difficult and expensive process. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species has also considered agar trees as potentially endangered species, prompting perfume houses to find various ways of producing oud or oud-like scents.
Since fragrances smell best when mixed with other raw ingredients and sprayed in layers, check for these other materials when choosing an oud perfume.
- Spicy: To create a smooth transition, perfume houses, such as Initio Parfums Prives, use nutmeg in the top notes for a spicy introduction before moving onto other notes.
- Oriental: All of the fragrances here include oriental notes to add a seductive yet sweet effect. For example, both Initio Parfume Prives and Versace use saffron in the opening notes for a strong opening.
- Citrus: Oud perfumes also use citrus scents from ingredients like Mandarin orange and rosemary to create bursts of sparkle and freshness.
- Floral: The perfumes combine florals like freesia, lavender, and Heliotrope to radiate lightness in the initial sprays.
- Zesty: Rich, powerful ingredients like geranium, bergamot, and rosemary complement the bold and vibrant scent of oud.
- Musky: To enhance the smell of oud, perfumes use other musky ingredients such as patchouli, musk, sandalwood, leather, ambergris, and vetiver.
Perfume Concentration
Oud perfumes usually emit a strong aroma that leaves an excellent sillage and projection. However, since we have different reactions to smell, the fragrance concentration can impact how we perceive the scent of perfumes.
- Eau de Cologne: This concentration uses more alcohol content to tone down the scent of oud perfumes. In effect, each spray may cause the smell to stay for around two hours or less.
- Eau de Toilette: Has more oud oils, and thus, better concentration. The projection of fragrances like the YSL M-7 Oud Absolu Eau de Toilette may last for around 10 hours.
- Eau de Parfum: Has one of the most potent oud oil concentrations, giving a more unisex aroma to fragrances like Oud for Greatness and Oud Pour Femme Oriental. The concentration also allows these perfumes to have more substantial trails and better longevity.
Conclusion
People have been using oud as a fragrance for centuries, with oud oil being a symbol of warm hospitality. Even if it’s one of the rarest raw fragrance ingredients in the world, there are several options for you to achieve the best oud perfume for your body chemistry and liking.