Top Notes 
Tropical fruits
Honey pomelo
Italian mandarin orange
Heart Notes 
Honey
Spanish cistus
Base Notes 
Akigalawood®
Oud
Indonesian patchouli
NicheOnly
123 Reviews
NicheOnly
6
Modern niche perfumery blows
Here I go again, ranting about the state of niche perfumery. I'm not even entirely sure where I'm going to take this review right now, so lets start with Oudous Lux Solis itself. I, for one, feel fortunate that I managed to source a 2ml of this and Reception, but that fortune only goes as far as the opportunity, not the content itself. With Oudous Lux Solis, cosplay perfumer Jordi Fernández is taking some (!) inspiration from his work under both Maison Crivelli as well as Ex Nihilo with their hero franchises, those being Oud Maracujá and Blue Talisman Eau de Parfum. Beyond that, it's hard to express where this hodge-podge of notes and accords actually ends up at.
With Oudous Lux Solis, we have a fresh-fruity-sweet and synthetic open. The initial feeling is that Fernández has taken the tropical fruity accord from Oud Maracujá and aligned with both a synthetic-aquatic accord (designer-like calone quality) and a synthetic-woody accord (akigalawood). The structure of the scent, given the fresh-fruity-synthetic opening, features significant overlap with the manner in which Blue Talisman Eau de Parfum is shaped. There is a prominent candied sweet fruitiness in the initial few moments alongside that tropical fruity accord which is likely the reason why I am seeing comparisons to "Le Gemme - Tygar | Bvlgari" and/or Vibrato, but this is clearly (!) not a scent in that realm. When I first smelled it up-close, the structure itself reminds me of other fruity interpretations of akigalawood that we have in the market, most notably Blue Talisman Eau de Parfum and Castley. Relative to the PDM, there is a lack of fresh spiciness and the fruitiness features more prominently in this scent.
Somewhere in the first 5 minutes, I do pick up on mild Ani X type qualities, offering some of those melon & vanilla-like nuances. The first red flags start to appear thereafter as the tropical fruity accord begins to break into various parts. The fruitiness goes in various directions and the listed patchouli note begins to pop more. Similarly to Hacivat Oud, the execution of the patchouli is poor as it comes off a bit like paint remover. In the ultimate dry-down with no fruitiness remaining, we arrive at a very underwhelming product. While this scent is not meant to be inspired by Xerjoff's Erba Pura and scents in that family, the ultimate composition ending at white musk and mild fruity tones isn't doing it any favors. That is to say the scent ends up somewhat barebones after the first hour or so and most of the notes/accords shielding this poor blending fade away. I think one relevant comparison here could be Tropiques from Fragrance du Bois which has some of that Erba Pura-style, but in a more tropical fruity direction than the Xerjoff. In the final stages of this scent's evolution, I think it's fair to say that this is among the worst products I've ever put on my skin (and by almost any objective measure, it's worse than the any of the aforementioned comparables). For what it's worth, this scent never smells of oud and I have to assume people are voting for "woody" as an accord strictly because of the akigalawood, albeit that note's actual main accord is just synthetic.
Final accords: synthetic-fruity-sweet-fresh
So where did we end up at? Unlike some others, I don't want to imply that many of the problems plaguing niche perfumery today are strictly applicable to today's scene. In the past, there was a time when Alberto Morillas would drop the same garbage aquatic fragrance for more than a decade straight and people thought he was a genius. Yet to me, this type of behavior in the niche market feels egregious. For the last couple of years, one-trick-pony perfumer Quentin Bisch has been at the forefront of this with takes of both Ganymede as well as Guidance and Fernández' recent lack of originality isn't that far from Bisch's, building on the success of existing IPs such as Oud Maracuja and Blue Talisman in his catalogue (and London, Gris Charnel, Town & Country and others outside of it). But in most cases, the perfumers aren't the ones deciding the creative direction of the product(s) they're working on. The ones at fault are the brands who feel like they are competing for finite resources, whether it be customer spending, views, engagements, you name it. It's a lot easier to generate revenue with IP that already has some recognition in the market, meaning all the perfumer is asked to do is to make a quality take of it. But this obviously raises the question as to how Nishane ever signed off on this absolute trash that Fernández put together. It's going to take a lot for this to not end up as the worst of 2025.
With Oudous Lux Solis, we have a fresh-fruity-sweet and synthetic open. The initial feeling is that Fernández has taken the tropical fruity accord from Oud Maracujá and aligned with both a synthetic-aquatic accord (designer-like calone quality) and a synthetic-woody accord (akigalawood). The structure of the scent, given the fresh-fruity-synthetic opening, features significant overlap with the manner in which Blue Talisman Eau de Parfum is shaped. There is a prominent candied sweet fruitiness in the initial few moments alongside that tropical fruity accord which is likely the reason why I am seeing comparisons to "Le Gemme - Tygar | Bvlgari" and/or Vibrato, but this is clearly (!) not a scent in that realm. When I first smelled it up-close, the structure itself reminds me of other fruity interpretations of akigalawood that we have in the market, most notably Blue Talisman Eau de Parfum and Castley. Relative to the PDM, there is a lack of fresh spiciness and the fruitiness features more prominently in this scent.
Somewhere in the first 5 minutes, I do pick up on mild Ani X type qualities, offering some of those melon & vanilla-like nuances. The first red flags start to appear thereafter as the tropical fruity accord begins to break into various parts. The fruitiness goes in various directions and the listed patchouli note begins to pop more. Similarly to Hacivat Oud, the execution of the patchouli is poor as it comes off a bit like paint remover. In the ultimate dry-down with no fruitiness remaining, we arrive at a very underwhelming product. While this scent is not meant to be inspired by Xerjoff's Erba Pura and scents in that family, the ultimate composition ending at white musk and mild fruity tones isn't doing it any favors. That is to say the scent ends up somewhat barebones after the first hour or so and most of the notes/accords shielding this poor blending fade away. I think one relevant comparison here could be Tropiques from Fragrance du Bois which has some of that Erba Pura-style, but in a more tropical fruity direction than the Xerjoff. In the final stages of this scent's evolution, I think it's fair to say that this is among the worst products I've ever put on my skin (and by almost any objective measure, it's worse than the any of the aforementioned comparables). For what it's worth, this scent never smells of oud and I have to assume people are voting for "woody" as an accord strictly because of the akigalawood, albeit that note's actual main accord is just synthetic.
Final accords: synthetic-fruity-sweet-fresh
So where did we end up at? Unlike some others, I don't want to imply that many of the problems plaguing niche perfumery today are strictly applicable to today's scene. In the past, there was a time when Alberto Morillas would drop the same garbage aquatic fragrance for more than a decade straight and people thought he was a genius. Yet to me, this type of behavior in the niche market feels egregious. For the last couple of years, one-trick-pony perfumer Quentin Bisch has been at the forefront of this with takes of both Ganymede as well as Guidance and Fernández' recent lack of originality isn't that far from Bisch's, building on the success of existing IPs such as Oud Maracuja and Blue Talisman in his catalogue (and London, Gris Charnel, Town & Country and others outside of it). But in most cases, the perfumers aren't the ones deciding the creative direction of the product(s) they're working on. The ones at fault are the brands who feel like they are competing for finite resources, whether it be customer spending, views, engagements, you name it. It's a lot easier to generate revenue with IP that already has some recognition in the market, meaning all the perfumer is asked to do is to make a quality take of it. But this obviously raises the question as to how Nishane ever signed off on this absolute trash that Fernández put together. It's going to take a lot for this to not end up as the worst of 2025.
Updated on 08/14/2025
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