Sultan Royal Crown 2018

So here is my first review. First of all, a lovely hello to everyone.
I had been thinking for a long time about which of my favorite fragrances it should be, and then I chose a scent for which I only had a small sample.
I treated myself to the My Oud from Royal Crown as a blind buy, for which I received five samples. Upon first testing on paper, I immediately liked four of the five samples better than the ordered My Oud.
Today, I then applied the Sultan, sprayed the entire 2ml sample, just like that.
At first, I was totally enthusiastic; I immediately thought of Christmas time, but not of gourmands or spices like cinnamon, rather I associated it with a memory from my childhood. When you light the candles on the Advent wreath with matches and then blow out the match or the candles: that smokiness that lingers in the air has always fascinated me since I was a child. I know several smoky fragrances; from the rough Air Tiger, to the almost identical but milder PM from du Bois, to the Complex from Boadicea and some other wood smoke scents, incense scents, etc.
But this one has something very special, a warm noble enveloping coziness. However, after the initial excitement, I quickly experienced a disillusionment, as I could no longer perceive the scent on myself after a short time. I thought, well, a king of top notes, and luckily I didn't buy it blind. But when I got into my friend's car half an hour later, he said, "Wow, what did you spray on today?" and I hadn't even closed the car door yet. I was quite surprised and said, "What, you can smell that? And how do you find it?" To which he replied, of course, very clearly. For him, it smelled like chocolate, like roasted hazelnuts; he associated it with Nutella; notes that I didn't perceive at all, for me it was bright smoky and dry woody. I was amazed that our perceptions could be so different, so I checked here on Parfumo and discovered a comment that also mentioned the blown-out candle. When we returned home from shopping and I was sitting on the sofa, I perceived the scent much more intensely than before; it crawled up me and embraced me, and I became more and more enthusiastic about it.

I predominantly and consistently get the smokiness of extinguished matches and blown-out candles, underlaid by unsweetened dried fruits; I get a lot of wood, but very dry light woods, probably the specified cedar and sandalwood, nothing dark and damp. At times, I believe I also perceive Palo Santo, which is not included. From the specified flowers in the heart note, I didn't pick up much at all on my skin and with my nose; I think they supported the woods and the smoke in the background and ensured that they appeared bright and creamy. Later on, the vanilla probably came through, then I could also interpret the roasted hazelnuts (perhaps the smoked date conveys this impression) and a slight chocolatiness, but again, no milk chocolate, rather dark bittersweet, thus for me never a sweet gourmand. A very noble enveloping creamy warm and seductive caresser, always in a balanced harmony between wood, unsweetened dried fruits, warm vanilla, and a smoke like I have never smelled before. And for those who are afraid of oud, there is nothing to fear here; there is no animalic note.

I must revise my initial disappointment regarding longevity and sillage; because even nine hours after spraying, I could still enjoy this treasure. It will definitely have to find a place in my collection.
Overall, Royal Crown is a really very interesting house, from which I still need to test several fragrances. The other samples I received were already very promising.

I hope my first review can be of some use to someone; I would be happy about that.
I have many more treasures in my collection that I would like to report on gradually.

Disclaimer:
In my reviews, I can mostly only describe how fragrances feel to me, what emotions they evoke in me, or with which memories I associate them, often lost moments from childhood that resurface with a particular scent. I usually won't break down the fragrances into their individual ingredients, as they are already listed in the pyramid. For me, a perfume is a composition like a classical symphony. I also don't want to dissect individual instruments, but rather let it affect me as a whole. Purely emotionally, which is why fragrances often inspire me more towards poetry, and I write poems like Tankas about them.
But I will strive to report more extensively as well.