Classic Collection III

Russian Oud II Areej Le Doré 2023

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8.6 / 10 131 Ratings

A new and limited perfume by Areej Le Doré for women and men, released in 2023. The scent is gourmand-resinous. Projection and longevity are above-average. The production was apparently discontinued.
Limited Edition

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Main accords

Gourmand

Resinous

Woody

Oriental

Animal

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Deer musk

Ambergris

Heart Notes

Cocoa

Indian oud

Base Notes

Cedar

Resins

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

8.6131 Ratings

Longevity

8.8123 Ratings

Sillage

8.3122 Ratings

Bottle

9.2117 Ratings

Value for money

7.698 Ratings

Submitted by BenniB, last update on 18.04.2024.

Interesting Facts

The fragrance was part of the collection "Classic Collection III".

Reviews

4 in-depth fragrance descriptions

03/06/2024

6
Pricing 10
Bottle 10
Sillage 10
Longevity 9
Scent

M50
1 Review

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M50

Russian Oud is (m)a dream!

After a long time, a perfume has managed to earn a review again. It really made my fingers tingle.

It starts quickly too!

I ordered this perfume blindly based on my gut feeling! After researching Areej le Dore and getting interested, I wanted to make this relatively spontaneous decision.

According to Russian Adam, the top note is natural deer musk! Cocoa and Indian oud join it in the heart. The base notes are resins and cedar wood, which round off this perfume. Overall, it is an animalistic, gourmand fragrance. Oud is more in the background here.

The "performance" of Russian Oud is intense, dense and long-lasting, so just 1-2 sprays are enough. However, caution is advised, as this perfume may be too much for many people. But if you want to make a splash, it can be more. The bottle is an even 10/10 - really beautiful to look at!

I associate its warm and sensual nature with an oriental night. On that night, a lot of cocoa is drunk with Asian music in the background, while profound conversations are held by fragrance enthusiasts about the art of perfume. Under the clear starry sky, of course.

I simply love this fragrance and see it for special and special occasions. A fragrance I would give to my sons in 30 years. It's definitely not for everyone. Only a few could wear it confidently as you need a certain aura and alpha personality to do so.

It is a masterpiece of perfumery and one of the most exciting fragrances I have ever put under my nose. This is the fragrance that makes typical designer/niche fragrances obsolete and whets the appetite for more Artisan perfumery.

For me, it's worth every penny despite the high price!

12/19/2023

10
Bottle 8
Sillage 9
Longevity 9.5
Scent

Mads361
5 Reviews

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Mads361

Helpful Review 7

Visiting Willy Wonka in the Orient.

With Russian Oud 2, I feel like Obelix, except that I have fallen into a deep black, cast-iron cauldron full of dark chocolate. So infinitely strong and viscous that it seems almost impossible to escape.

Alarmed by the mishap, Willy Wonka intervenes, who was pouring his latest oud distillate into a 53ml glass art and lost it when it slipped on the melted chocolate scattered all over the room.

An evocative scent of the deepest dark chocolate mixed with wild, fine oud.

This powerful composition is mixed with a pleasant, underlining layer of deer musk and resinous-animalic notes. The air began to stick. Enveloping and mystical, the scent wafted from the factory to every corner of the city. Opulent and oriental.

I left Willy Wonka's factory enveloped in a veil that I never want to take off.

For me, the fragrance is a demonstration of the highest art, disguised in one of the most beautiful bottles I have ever seen. The legendary "Golden Ticket", the cap, is majestically enthroned on the imposingly decorated and finely detailed body, which carries the dark magic within it.

Noble, elegant, opulent and powerful, Russian Oud 2 envelops everything that comes close to it.
Nevertheless, I don't want to leave it unemphasized that I have no direct comparison to Russian Oud 1. But for someone who only knows Part 2, I am very impressed.

09/19/2023

9
Pricing 10
Bottle 8
Sillage 9
Longevity 9.5
Scent

DrB1414
148 Reviews

DrB1414

LESS is MORE with this one

With Russian Oud, LESS is MORE. I like to see this perfume as a continuation of Zen and Picante. But this one is the player, the seductive one. Adam toned down the Oud, the smoke, the spices, and the animalics, added dark cocoa, and turned it up to an 11. The result is something truly perfect, brilliant in its barbaric simplicity. Hindi Oud, Resins, a hint of Castoreum, and Dark Cocoa that turns into a molted Chocolate accord. But it really boils down to 3 main players, the Oud, the Cocoa, and the Resins. That's it. But it's more than enough. It almost feels linear, though not quite that boring. The opening is a massive blast of dark, unsweetened Cocoa powder. Like someone just sprinkled some in your face. This opening is fantastic and it literally takes my breath away each time. It wears off quickly and it moves to the heart, where the Hindi Oud is present, quite bold, backed up by resins and a sweet, leathery castoreum. At this stage, the Cocoa envelopes the previously mentioned notes, as these are always portrayed through this Cocoa dust-screen. As it settles into the base, the Oud recedes and the Cocoa together with the resins fuse to create a dark chocolate accord. The woodiness just lingers as a reminder that this is still, an Oud perfume.
This is very close to the original, but I actually prefer this version, as the Cocoa is more prominent, whereas I feel the Labdanum/Resins were more prominent in the OG. Also, there's a more vivid showcase of notes here, and the composition feels clearer. I believe Adam improved upon the original, with this one.
To me, Russian Oud is the best Oud-Cacao blend ever and an incredibly satisfying and comfortable wear. Nothing is off here. Everything fits perfectly within the blend and is dosed accurately. If you are a Cocoa lover like myself, this should be one to sample. Bear in mind though, that this is no plain gourmand perfume, nor the commercially sweet stuff. It has a noticeable Hindi Oud note and Castoreum. I don't really find them to distract much, but I am quite used to them. The way the Cocoa accord is showcased here is my favorite. It has that dusty, velvety quality, before turning into a chocolate-toffee-like texture. For me, this one, alongside Lutens' Borneo, and older iterations of Slumbehouse Ore, reigns supreme in this genre. My Cocoa Trifecta. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

09/14/2023

8
Sillage 8
Longevity 6.5
Scent

Ropanski2020
11 Reviews

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Ropanski2020

Top Review 45

Adam's memento mori: Shut up, next!

To a certain extent, studying the world of perfume can degenerate into work and, on top of that, does not always pay off, sometimes even forcing a dispute when existing foundations are shaken by misguided set pieces of a supposed art.

It is impossible to talk about the Areej Le Doré brand and remain silent about the conflict it ignites. The recently published Classic Collection (in a bundle) is nothing less than an attempt at a detailed re-presentation of what has become (supposed) classics in the perfume scene in recent years and at the same time allows a critical look at the brand itself.

In its early days, Areej Le Doré was a very exciting artisan brand, which made it worthwhile for many to spend a little more money, as it promised a unique fragrance experience. A certain amount of hype developed around the brand and the person relatively quickly, not least as a result of the limited release policy, which in many places culminated in a soft-spoken elitism that increasingly glorified the flacons as prestige objects. As a result, the brand has degenerated into a contrasting foil for blinded hype advocates and collector fetishists, who have made the "resell thing" in the perfume segment really socially acceptable - thanks for that! And although almost every sparrow has already whistled the swan song from the rooftops of the republic at least once, the releases are eagerly awaited each time and the scene is followed almost blindly like a cult.

There is a certain tragedy and a no less annoying, but in any case revealing irony in the fact that the way Adam announces his new releases in videos resembles that of a time-honored statesman who mentally recites from his memoirs while the owl of Minerva takes off. In recent years, Adam has increasingly generated himself as a chronicler on his own behalf, setting out to complete the catastasis. The self-referential frugality he displays in the process seems stylized into a painting and somehow thrown out of time due to the constant use of the same camera angle.

As much as the brand stood out from the rest at the time, it should be emphasized at this point how little the (artificially inflated) price says about the actual quality, even though there are quite a few who see Russian Oud Extrait de Parfum as an independent top dog, a contemporary replica on the subject of the niche. One may therefore be willing to add a "but" to the previous statement, but a great deal of surplus has accumulated in the past; much could already be said about this. And quite a few people emphasize emphatically how much this lean period was preceded by tireless procrastination, the end of which should now come soon.

I'm not saying that Adam would have scraped together the last pitiful crumbs here to make a real profit once again. However, certain signs of wear and tear cannot be denied. And those who are keen to find something new in the old have either run out of ideas or have simply become overwhelmed by the environmental factors under which their own existence is languishing. In the end, the fans' demand seemed appealing enough to finally comply with.

Underpinned by a truckload of cocoa, the new edition seems almost hermetically sealed. This is probably primarily to give the heart note more weight and scope, which is often pushed into the background by the vice of an overly heavy base. However, this does not succeed, not even in a distinctive sense. The cocoa note shatters the classification of a fragrance pyramid, almost reducing it to absurdity. The virtuosity with which Adam switched between the individual levels of the fragrance pyramid in the original is completely absent from the successor. The powdery dryness of the cocoa is overpowering. This may be due to the choice of oud or the balsamic notes, which take a backseat to the old fragrance; possibly even both. At the very least, I am surprised by the far-reaching sillage, which is almost atypical for this brand. At this point, a certain adaptation or reorientation to market requirements may become clear, from which even a Russian Adam can no longer fully absolve itself.

Russian Oud II is by no means a bad fragrance, but it is not a really well-composed one either. In terms of craftsmanship, it comes across as half-baked to unfavorable (coordinated). Even the supposedly great name and the experience of the person responsible behind it, which circles over the latter like a sword of Damocles, do nothing to change this.

For me personally, this is a kind of conciliatory conclusion for a brand that has not managed to develop decisively across the board in recent years. At least not in a direction that really appealed to me. The lighthouse proved too often to be a will-o'-the-wisp, the supposed glow in the night resembled at best that of distant, already burnt-out stars and is merely an echo of days long past. The more important the current release is presented as being, which it is not at its core, the greater the disappointment.