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Soul Costume National 2015

7.8 / 10 211 Ratings

A popular perfume by Costume National for women and men, released in 2015. The scent is spicy-woody. The longevity is above-average. It is being marketed by Beauty San.
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Main accords

Spicy

Woody

Sweet

Leathery

Resinous

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Cardamom

Bergamot

Pink pepper

Heart Notes

Geranium

Leather

Oud

Base Notes

Vanilla

Patchouli

Ambergris

Perfumer

Dominique Ropion

Ratings

Scent

7.8211 Ratings

Longevity

8.1185 Ratings

Sillage

7.5186 Ratings

Bottle

7.4176 Ratings

Value for money

7.791 Ratings

Submitted by Michael, last update on 10/15/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

M7 (2011)

Grand Soir

Red Tobacco

Jazz Club

Bois d'Oud

Kalemat الكلمات

Reviews

6 in-depth fragrance descriptions

04/18/2021

9.5Scent 8Longevity 9Sillage

MrLawman
56 Reviews

MrLawman

Helpful Review 8

An open mind

Back in May of 2019, when the world was in its natural habibat, I went to my local mall to try some new fragrances. I went to the Kilian section, to explore some more from that house (I already owned Black Phantom at that time).

The assisting lady asked me how I like my perfumes. I answered: ''big and sweet, just like my daily coffee''. We had a good laugh and afterwards she starting thinking which Kilian might fit my taste.

She took a good few minutes to come up with the question: ''May I offer you another brand?''. With huge feelings of repulsion, I answered: ''Of course u can!''. Let's admit: we all have been in those kind of situation where you nod in agreement, mainly out of politeness ;)

The lady took this weird looking, orange colored bottle off the shelve and asked if she could spray it on my skin. In full repulsion, I, again, answered: "Yea, sure". My plans to only test some Kilian on skins just for thrown out of the window.

She sprayed it on .... I was positively surprised.

Soul by CoSTOME NATIONAL was (and still is) so rich, dense and sweet that my repulsion converted into shame: how could I be so condescending towards the suggestion of the assisting lady? I learned my lesson: we live to explore and can only explore when our mind and attitude are open.

Regarding the smell: a complete masterpriece. I know, the word ''masterpiece'' gets thrown around like a hot potato but in the case of Soul, its indisputably fitting, in my opinion.

Warm, sensual and pure. A true art of quality, especially given the price tag.

Its a sexually seductive perfume, where ambergris combines with woody and ambery notes, to sweet, lustful and spicy effect. The vanilla creates a soft aromatic accord that soothes the fragrance but does not change its slightly oudy and ambergris nature.

For people who have a sweet tooth like me: highly recommend you to give this one a try.

For people who want to explore certain houses (like me regarding Kilian): be open minded towards others too. Only with sharp eyes, we can find hidden gems.

11/14/2015

ColinM
516 Reviews

ColinM

3

Meh...

This new addition to Costume National’s fragrances range represents the unnecessary confirmation that the only good Costume National scents ever made where the early couple of ones composed by Bruyère – 21 and Scent Intense. It almost seems the guys at Costume National share this feeling as well, since Soul smells basically like an unneeded rewriting of Scent Intense crossed with influences from some of those contemporary Middle East cheap brands which are quite invading the market lately – brands like Arabian Oud, Lattafa, Swiss Arabian and countless of similar ones, with their nuclear, and often sweetish spicy-smoky oud and/or leather blends. Soul is for me exactly halfway all of that, and I wonder why they hired some renowned nose like Ropion for such an uninspired, clerical copy-and-paste job. Soul definitely keeps Scent Intense’s peculiar bone structure of powerful, sort of dry and extremely synthetic amber-musk-fruity notes, and boringly crosses it with a smoky praline of vanilla and artificial, sort of medicinal-nutty oud with a dark shade of leathery patchouli and a greyish salty feel of ambergris. The result is basically “Scent Intense Oud & Patchouli” with a whiff of M7’s trademark ambery-medicinal oud.

Is it any good? Well, sort of. If you like Scent Intense, then that’s still way above this, as it smells richer, more quality and more fascinatingly complex, and also kind of more focused; if you don’t care for it, then Soul may be a slightly more peculiar than usual sort of “futuristic”, androgynous, dirty yet sort of “aseptic” take on oud and synthetic leather with an initially stomach-piercing galore of powdery-musky vanilla tinged with a nondescript candy vibe. A powerful sweetish musky candy with a drop of cheap smoky oud & patchouli, and an everlasting artificial and linear drydown... sounds familiar, eh? Nothing that probably some Middle Eastern drugstore brand isn’t already doing for ten dollars a bottle. Not abysmal, but go for Scent Intense anyway.

6-6,5/10

06/30/2015

6Scent 7.5Longevity 5Sillage

Drseid
828 Reviews

Drseid

3

Soulless...

Soul opens with moderately sweet vanilla infused black pepper spice. Moving to the early heart the composition remains moderately sweet as cardamom joins the black pepper to support an emerging synthetic Oud accord that takes on the starring role, with traces of relatively sanitized patchouli and rough leather joining in subtle additional support. During the late dry-down the sweetness fades while remaining in modest fashion as a salty ambergris accord takes control of the composition with the sanitized patchouli remaining in support through the finish. Projection is average to slightly above average and longevity very good at about 10-11 hours on skin.

When I initially heard about Soul I really didn't know what to think. On the one hand, it is by Costume National, a brand that has produced some really great compositions previously, this one composed by my favorite nose Dominique Ropion. On the other hand, the last few Costume National releases were disappointing, and the published notes list looked uninspired. It was time to give the stuff a sniff to see if Ropion could work his magic on a brief that most likely would not have been his first choice... Unfortunately, one of the first things I noticed when Soul was applied on skin is the significant sweetness level. This sweetness comes from the vanilla in the base, but it permeates every aspect of the composition's development and not really in a good way. At least the early relatively sweet vanilla is not powdery, as that would have been the death knell early-on. Countering the unwanted sweetness is a pretty decent implementation of synthetic Oud. This stuff will not fool anyone who has smelled the real thing that it is not a synthetic concoction, but Ropion to his credit utilizes the faux Oud in a way that it blends pretty well into the spices and patchouli, never calling too much attention to itself even though it is the star for most of the composition's development. The most disappointing part of that development, however, comes during the late dry-down as salty and slightly musky ambergris takes over from the faux Oud as star, with the vanilla eschewing some of its sweetness, swapping it for a subtle dry powdery sheen late. All in all Soul does smell good, but somewhat ironically, apart from its note list being unimpressive it comes off as soulless. My guess is Ropion really didn't enjoy composing this one. The bottom line is the $150 per 100ml bottle Soul is lacking precisely that despite still smelling good, earning it a "good" 3 star out of 5 rating and a hesitant recommendation.

05/03/2017

8.5Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

Terra
646 Reviews

Translated · Show original

Terra

Top Review

Then I'll start....

I actually just wanted to write a statement about Soul, but I found it difficult to beautifully condense my scent impression into 160 characters, so I guess I must be the first to write a comment about this fragrance.

Costume National is a fashion label that was previously unknown to me. The clothes seem quite cool and modern, but ultimately, Soul is also a designer fragrance.

What is offered? Well, regardless of the scent impression, pragmatically speaking, you get an Extrait de Parfum for about 100€/100ml, which is quite a statement.

So how does it smell?

The opening strikes me as quite familiar, as Soul starts off sweet-ambery and slightly smoky. This has become more common in recent years. Added to this is a minimal, somewhat oddly sour note and a subtle, but very pleasant almond-like aspect.

So far, so nice and pleasant, so unremarkable.

But after a few minutes, the fragrance takes on a facet that surprises me a little. Fabric softener. Yes, really. As if the opening is being washed in. Because it continues to accompany the scent profile, yet Soul suddenly appears very clean and somehow, as if it were a Costume National laundry detergent, after which my laundry smells.

This may sound unusual, and I actually sniffed twice to be sure, but fundamentally it also feels incredibly rounded and pleasant. Moreover, it's a rather brief impression that only paves the way for the dry down.

Here, Soul reminds me again of other, already known fragrances. For example, I think I recognize parallels to L'Homme Ideal EdP, because a pleasant creamy-ambered vanilla is combined with a slightly medicinal-oudic leather note. Additionally, there is an indeterminate fruity-floral impression for me.

Towards the end of the development, I perceive Soul as somewhat smokier again. Here it is primarily a smoky vanilla. Just as rounded, harmonious, and fragrant as already known.

Now, this may sound like I find Soul totally boring. But no..., because the exciting part happens with this fragrance in the projection. There it feels incredibly pleasant and significantly more intriguing than when you smell closer to the skin. I can hardly describe how Soul affects me here. Essentially, the scent impression from the skin fits in the projection as well, but from a distance, everything appears much more multifaceted and even more harmonious.

Soul connects already known, but certainly very good elements of recent times. The result is a fragrance that may evoke memories of one or another perfume, but still has its own refinement, especially due to the exceptionally pleasant projection. Soul should appeal to fans of both niche and mainstream fragrances alike, and I find the price-performance ratio here to be appropriate.

10/12/2017

9Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

Minigolf
2503 Reviews

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Minigolf

Top Review 17

First domineering, then glorious...

This scent is not for the "delicate flowers," because it is strong.
And spicy.
And veeeery woody.
The scent of freshly cut tree trunks, as lumberjacks, wearing leather gloves and chewing on a vanilla pod, strip the bark.
This scent is animalistic, because it has "eaten half a blue whale"...
This scent seems to show off and brag like a "bag full of mosquitoes"
Accordingly, it also buzzes and hums.
This scent seems to be domineering like Napoleon in his prime.
Or like a creaky sergeant major during a maneuver with inexperienced recruits.
This scent seems to come from the deepest, darkest forest.
To lure its wearer into itself...Into the "fir"... into the underbrush...far away from all civilization.
This scent wants to let us dream of times when Europe was still one huge primeval forest.
This scent also wants to comfort the soul, to bring peace.
This scent is versatile, becomes wonderful, has been wonderful from the very beginning.
Is it domineering?...Not really.
Does it show off?...In a way, yes. But in a glorious manner.
Is it creaky? ....In its own way... Rough exterior, soft core.
This scent is rightly named.
It touches my soul......

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