Tom Ford OUD FLEUR

Product Information

I like its darker and spicier aspects. I find it intriguing and the somewhat damp woodiness and rose note, was much better than I would normally find it to be. The resin and spice is a nice touch in Oud Fleur to create a more distinct aroma versus all of the others on the market. Tobacco Oud opens on my skin with a burst of amber and labdanum, then hints of tobacco and oud. For those of you who may mistake the two, labdanum and amber have very different smells. As one perfume nose told me in her studio, labdanum is “real amber,” while “amber” is often the compilation of various other notes to create that overall impression. Labdanum has a very particular, completely unique aroma that is dark, slightly dirty, very nutty and toffee’d with subtle, underlying nuances of honey, beeswax, musk, and/or something a bit leathery. It is almost always a deeper, richer, denser, stronger, darker aroma that is less soft, creamy, and cuddly than regular, lighter “amber.”

My expectations were quite low for this one given the number of mediocre scents that Tom Ford has been releasing lately (the excellent Sahara Noir aside). Thankfully, this one was better than I expected it to be.The opening of Oud Fleur has a bit of that pissy oud funk the Western synthetic oud materials from Firmenich and Givaudan like to implement, aka "civet oud" if you really want to get down to it. The sadly-discontinued Dior Leather Oud (2010) used it best, and I missed the boat on that one, so anywhere else it appears with few exceptions just makes me upset that it isn't done as well, and with Oud Fleur, it fades into saffron after some time. Cardamom, damask rose, pimento, davana, and dates seem to come in next, offering a bit of dried fruity spiciness with the rose oud blend, before things peter out into pedestrian patchouli and benzoin with the Tom Ford "raspberry leather" accord the house clearly overuses. The brand seems to think castoreum is in this perfume, but I get none unless it is so micro-dosed as to not matter. Caron Yatagan (1974) or Bogart One Man Show (1980) this is not. By the end of it, we get what is basically fruity synthetic oud/rose/patchouli soup that has been done way better and way more boldly than Yann Vasnier did it here, and cheaper too. Performance is average, and best use is pretty much when you want because this is still a rose oud out of context for most situations. Projection will be very loud at first, as Tom Ford private blends tend to be front-loaded to sell at the counter, but afterwards things begin falling apart into a single one-two base accord. Silk. No. Maybe it is. I was sceptical - but it was love at first sight. What's behind that scent is the mysterious. It is not a deep secret that this fragrance carries - but it is the mysterious, it is the thoughtful, it represents for me the multi-faceted and at the same time complicated human being. Whoever wears this fragrance doesn't necessarily want to please - and yet he does. This fragrance is literally a veil, a dark and romantic companion. And by romanticism I don't mean the eroticism of a cuddly scent, it is the romanticism of the ambivalence of being human. The human being who is searching for meaning, and not despairing - no, he feels comfortable in this search. On my skin, the scent starts off with a decent dose of oud. This reminds me very much of the beginning of Tobacco Oud (without the smoky elements). This has something very spicy with a small shot of boozyness. At the same time you can also draw parallels to Tom Ford's London. Here, however, without the too sweaty cumin note. Nevertheless, the

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.

Oud Fleur, as a whole, has one major problem that runs through Tom Ford's entire Prive Blend line. The naming. Really, this fragrance is not floral in my eyes. Sure, it has a floral approach due to the rose, which becomes one of the main components over time. But the entire fragrance is so much more trimmed towards spices and oud by its make that the epithet "Fleur" should have been left out here. "Oud Spice" would have been a better and more appropriate name for this fragrance. This first half feels very rosy to me. I’m not sure how many times, that I’ve had to test out a oud and rose combo fragrance, but it’s getting repetitive. This one, however, is actually one of the better examples I must say. Oud Fleur is a little more complex than it seems -- I'm still compiling notes on it, but I'll post something once I feel like I've got it pegged down a little more. An initial impression is that it's a more thoughtful, subdued version of the kind of screechy rose-oud chemical stuff Bond tend to throw in many of their scents. It's tasteful, and a little bland perhaps, but the rose note is very good although somewhat buried (I think it's an otto, but if it's not, it's a fractionated rose -- hyperrealistic). Sandalwood give the fragrance in the drydown a wonderfully adult, profound and confessed character, which clearly distinguishes the Oud Fleur from all other oud-rose combinations. Completely detached, down-to-earth and sophisticated appears the wonderful combination of rough, spicy, edgy oud with the juicy, dark and dirty rose after the sandalwood brings the fragrance the necessary creaminess, smoothness and calmness into play. As the fragrance unfolds, hints of cardamom, saffron, and cinnamon add a touch of exotic spice, adding depth and complexity to the composition. These aromatic spices dance with the floral notes, creating an intriguing balance between sensuality and sophistication.

Even if individual chords over and over again remind of the spicy, striking Booziness paired with pipe tobacco and exotic oud, and other chords quite evoke associations with the most seductive rose that the house of Ford has to offer, Oud Fleur does something quite brilliant in the later course:

My Account

The fragrance consists of incredibly tasteful rose scents - and these are also enveloped, and I don't like to explain what it is. Sandalwood? Oud? Patchouli? In the meantime I have tested so many fragrances, and it is often easy to extract the beauty of individual components. Here it's different: the interaction of the components creates something wonderful and very unique and for me indescribable. At the heart of Oud Fleur lies the legendary oud wood, renowned for its captivating and mysterious nature. The deep, woody aroma of oud is enhanced by a delicate bouquet of roses, jasmine, and magnolia, infusing the fragrance with a sensual and floral warmth.

Because Oud Fleur represents exactly that, but without any negative connotations, but full of euphimisms: either-or. According to CaFleureBon, Oud Fleur was created by Yann Vasnier of Givaudan who has made a number of fragrances for Tom Ford. The perfume’s notes on Fragrantica are extremely limited: Years ago, there was once an article about Generation Z, there titled "Generation Maybe", and was about the fact that this generation Maybe has lost itself in the either-or, can not decide, has no answer to any question, would not like to commit. Tobacco Oud continues to devolve, reflecting neither of its namesake elements in any noticeable way. Near the end of the 4th hour, it loses the remainder of its incense, turning into a scent that is primarily gauzy, wispy labdanum with a hint of nebulous woody dryness that can just vaguely, barely, be made out as “oud.” Even that goes by the end of the 6th hour. From that pointon, until Tobacco Oud’s final moments, the perfume is a mere smear of soft amber. All in all, it lasted 9.5 hours on my skin with generally low sillage after the third hour. Do I like Oud Fleur? As much as I can, personally. Again, I’m not a big fan of rose or oud, and not at all the target demographic for this fragrance. I definitely don’t hate it and wasn’t at all put off by it.

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Oud wood with its “noble rot.” Source: The Perfume Shrine via Dr. Robert Blanchette, University of Minnesota – forestpathology.coafes.umn.edu