3
A Pleasant Surprise
Today I’ve been to a department store and, of course, I had to go to the perfumes area to check some stuff I still don’t know. Went straight to the Guerlain point of sale, cause it has been a while I wanted to try this perfume. I sprayed 4 times, twi on each arm (yes, I was wearing no perfume). Oud Essentiel opens beautifully with a strong oud-leather-saffron smell for about 15 minutes. The opening is gorgeous, but it is ephemeral. I wish this lasted a bit longer. After that, the olibanum starts to appear, together with a subtle rose smell, not a feminine rose, a very masculine one. The leather is always there, but settles down. It’s a shame that the oud at this point is almost imperceptible but overall this is still a great fragrance. The opening is a 10/10 to me and the drydown is an 8. By the way, the drydown reminds me Songe and Nero Oudh, which I own both. That’s the reason I won’t buy a bottle, it looks too much to things I already have. But man, if that opening lasted a a couple of hours… I would definitely buy a bottle!