Testing Cacao Oudh was a real joke, in the truest sense of the word. I tested this fragrance creation together with my sister and my mother. I started. Sprayed the scent on a test strip, waited a few seconds, held my nose to it. A sound of disgust escaped my throat, and my mouth corners dropped as low as my facial muscles allowed. My sister already had a grin on her face. Then I passed the paper to her. You know that emoji that is about to bring its breakfast back up? That expression was reflected on my dear sister's face - big grin from me. Then it was passed on to our mother, who, quite daringly despite our previous reactions, cautiously held the paper to her nose. And what did she say? "Clogged drain" - 5 seconds pause - "and poop!" My sister and I rolled on the floor laughing. After about 10 minutes, my niece walked into the room and innocently asked, "What smells so much like cow dung here?" - Laughter from all sides. That none of us had any interest in testing the scent and its development on the skin might be understandable, right? After an hour, I sniffed the paper again - unfortunately still full-on barn smell. After 4 hours, I tried again: cow manure almost gone, now almost only a smoky note perceptible.
But seriously now: I was quite disappointed with the scent, because I really didn't expect it to be so barn-like after reading the reviews and statements here. I find a slight animalic note in fragrances quite attractive, but smelling like I rolled in cow manure is something I’d rather avoid. Oh no, that's not really my thing. But I'm not one to give up easily and wanted to give the scent another chance. So in the evening back at home, I sprayed the scent on the back of my hand (with the balcony door wide open!). But even there, unfortunately, it was yuck and I-want-to-wash-you-off thoughts. The barn smell doesn't come through as strongly on my skin as it does on the paper, but it's still noticeable enough that it's an absolute no-go for me. It may be that the scent develops nicely later on and I might like it then, who knows? But I can't hold out that long. I lasted 15 minutes, then water and soap had to come into play. I kept the test strip, and I can at least say that the scent was still noticeably present even after two days. So I assume it has pretty good longevity. Since I didn't test the entire progression of the scent on my skin, my rating points only reflect what I actually perceived. But really now, even if the scent were to develop nicely later, the farm smell is so dominant and defining for this perfume creation that any potentially pleasant development later on couldn't outweigh or negate the olfactory impression I had while testing.
