The Time The House of Oud 2018

As a tea lover, I had high hopes for The Time. I waited impatiently for the package to arrive, because unfortunately it was not available in stores where I live, and from the first spray I was not disappointed: a cheerful aroma of chamomile tea with a slice of bergamot enveloped me, as if a gentle grandmother had placed a full cup in my hands. I was sniffing rainbows from the steam as the infusion became deeper and deeper, more oriental with notes of oolong and lemon. The black tea did not hesitate to appear either, although the drink had become cooler and more refreshing at this point, thanks to the cedar wood. I was in ninth heaven, when... Slowly, slowly it began to disappear, in 2.3 hours there was not even a shadow of my initial happiness. 50ml at 400 euros in my country.

The bottle is gorgeous: you can put it on display on the cosmetics table with great pride. It's heavy, it could even be a white weapon in case of danger. Anyway, I hoped that maybe if I let it macerate it would get more substance. I've had luck with other perfumes from Goutal doing this. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with The Time. Maybe if the price had been more reasonable, I wouldn't hesitate so much to buy it again or recommend it, but 400 euros is 400 euros. This is unrequited love, I love it, but it don't love me back.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ca iubitoare de ceai, am avut mari speranțe pentru The Time. Am așteptat nerăbdătoare să sosească coletul, pentru că din păcate la mine nu se găsea in magazine si de la primul spray nu am fost dezamăgita: o aroma vesela de ceai de mușețel cu o felie de bergamot m-a învăluit, ca si cum o bunica blânda îmi așezase o cană plină in mâini. Adulmecam curcubeie din aburi in timp ce infuzia devenea din ce in ce mai profundă, mai orientală cu note de oolong si lămâiță. Ceaiul negru, ambrat nu a ezitat nici el să apară, desi băutura devenise mai călăie dacă nu poate chiar răcoritoare, datorită lemnului de cedru. Eram in al nouălea cer, cănd...ușor, ușor a început să dispară, in 2,3 ore nu era nici măcar o umbra din fericirea mea inițială. 50ml la 400 de euro. Sticla e superba: o poți pune la vedere pe măsuța de cosmetice cu multă mândrie. E greoaie, ar putea fi chiar arma alba in caz de pericol. In fine, am sperat că poate dacă il las să macereze va căpăta mai multă substanță. Am avut noroc cu alte parfumuri de la Annick Goutal făcând asta. Din păcate nu funcționează cu The Time. Poate dacă prețul ar fi fost mai accesibil, nu as ezita așa de mult sa il cumpăr din nou sau să il recomand, dar 400 de euro sunt 400 de euro. Fragrantica ar trebui să pună si o iconiță cu "Unrequited Love," adică "Il iubesc, desi nu merită."

“The only thing that belongs to us is time” (Seneca)
The time is a fragrance that wants to catch what is one of the most underestimated aspects but to which we should give more importance: time for oneself. Sit down, relax, stop: one of the most representative moments is certainly the moment of tea (a note clearly perceptible in this creation) not totally belonging to our culture, but which makes us reflect on the sacredness of carving out personal moments, living them and enjoying them. Let's leave the rush behind for a moment (represented in my opinion by the sparkling and citrus notes at the beginning) and live slowly (even the chamomile, present at times, contributes to this vision). And who, if not Salvador Dali with his watches, could better represent everything? Time is a perception that changes, through our actions and emotions.

So, AugustA has finally tested it...
An extremely gentle start, softly surrounded by other tones, an iris mist rises from the skin. It smells good to the point of being unrecognizable, incredibly light. But before one can shrug in disappointment, the cool-green verbena steps in and brings a freshness that almost makes you sneeze. The top note works like this: Where is the fragrant, unmistakably almost non-existent iris? One immediately prepares for a transparent, perhaps gray iris scent, imagining it more than actually smelling it, and then suddenly the fragrance pairs with a note that is truly unusual for iris. This is already a somewhat different top note strategy, none of the usual buy-me lassos.

On me, it comes out quite well within a few minutes. From disbelievingly searching furrowed brows to an Ah-soo! expression, it has it all.

The verbena wraps around the iris. It becomes citrusy, definitely herbal. A hint of soap holds back just enough. Mild-fresh: I haven't smelled chamomile with bergamot and wormwood, but I've read about it, and now I can imagine something of it. It has a bitter, calming, citrus-floral quality. The iris root permeates the freshness with a woody tone, and it also becomes slightly powdery or fresh-creamy.

After about half an hour, the fragrance has unfolded, so that one is lulled into a certain calm satisfaction and can smell good despite all the heat outside at the moment. This scent relaxes and remains attractive. It has more of a quality of an olfactory medium than of daydreams or scent paintings. This might not suit everyone (too) well, but AugustA is nice for a change.

Blue is the planetarily-intergalactic-stellar egg covered by seas - yes, I know, the egg is actually a disc - that is called a bottle, at least until something completely unpredictable hatches out of it. I find it so offbeat, it can't go uncommented. These bottles from HoO are really completely cheesy, on the edge of bearable, sorry, that had to come out at this point. But a veritable eye-catcher in the perfumery, hats off to the designer who dared to do this.

And blue is supposed to be the tea as well. I can sense a tannic tea note. It somehow strengthens and easily reconciles with the cosmic egg. Yes, the color is great. I almost like it already.
In any case, blue fits my perception of the scent; it becomes increasingly calm, airy like the vast sky. Moreover, it is somehow serious but uplifting.
After about 5 hours, the iris-verbena veil transitions into an increasingly woody, slightly synthetic fresh spicy-warm Ambroxan base, which - who would have thought - reminds one of Molecule 02. This base fits well here; it is a mix of warm skin and fresh-golden wood tones that gradually fade away.
In the end: An iris composition of a different kind. Actually, not iris at all.

Misty tea fields and a gently babbling brook run through a somewhat surreal-looking scenery...

Once again, my mind is elsewhere. Everywhere and nowhere, as long as it's not here in the daily grind and the ordinary. I want to venture out into the world, to throw myself into a plane to an unknown country and towards unknown adventures to feel that I am alive, to feel what I have never felt before.

Especially during the current crisis, I had a lot of time to think... Less about life itself, but more about transience. In 20 years, I probably won’t remember every evening on the couch, but I will remember the days that meant something special. Does it even matter how long we experience something? Or is it only important how much we ultimately experience?

What is certain is that everything would be boring if it lasted forever.

And that brings me to the scent itself: It is a wonderfully moist tea fragrance with fruity elements and a very slight green twist in the aftertaste. Not like a CK One or something similar, but definitely very unique and special. The iris is presented very differently than I have ever smelled this note before. Not powdery and creamy, but somehow soaked and zesty. Almost a bit "chanel-like," if you know what I mean. Very elegant and natural.

There isn’t much development. The fruit eventually turns into the root, and the tea becomes a bit warmer and less sharp over time, if that’s the right word for it.
The longevity and sillage are really remarkable for this type of fragrance: 3 hours with good projection and another 3 at about half to ¾ arm's length. Overall, the performance is over after 8 hours, which I find to be a very acceptable achievement for such a relatively subtle scent.
The bottles from THoO are a class of their own... Each individual egg is a unique piece and is hand-coated with many layers of various colors. Especially in the light, it looks truly impressive. I would even go so far as to say that these could be the highest quality bottles in the entire industry.
Whether one finds the slightly kitschy to strikingly vibrant color spectrum appealing is a matter of taste that seems to divide opinions even here... But they are certainly impressive.

Hello, fragrance fanatics. So, who has already melted in the heat? I certainly have! I do not like heat, not at all, and this summer is just ridiculously hot, with no end in sight... It's supposed to get even hotter, and who knows how September will turn out uff… It's after 8 PM and the outdoor thermometer still shows 38 degrees here… I'm melting just like that Gestapo agent "Toht" from the movie "Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark," where the Ark of the Covenant is opened at the end, releasing ghosts as the wrath of God escapes, and Agent Toht ultimately has his face melted away… ufff… :DDD
Yes, that really describes how I feel right now in this heat… :D

Alright, let's get back to fragrances. In summer, I (and most others, I'm sure) prefer lighter scents. Tea fragrances are often particularly good because they are light and airy and usually come with refreshing notes like citrus scents and/or well-matched herbs. That's why I'm introducing the following fragrance today: "The Time" by The House of Oud. And The Time here means tea time, not just "The Time" … :D

Of course, I initially had some concerns because the fragrance is from The House of Oud, and Oud is for me a scent for autumn and winter, which can be DEADLY in summer with its intense aroma… ufff… well, I hope no Oud cloud suffocates me, but just because Oud is in the brand name doesn't mean every fragrance has to contain Oud! Right? Well, we will see that shortly, so let's get to the scent!

The fragrance starts with light and fresh notes. I mainly smell the bergamot, then I catch hints of tea, but I can't quite place this tea. It smells like a mix of black and green tea… the fragrance description mentions something about blue tea, but I can't say anything about that because blue tea is one of the few teas I have never tried, let alone smelled. Then there's chamomile and general green notes.
In the background, there is a faint but pleasant sweetness, which could well be the amber. I also perceive the iris and its powdery scent, but I must admit that I probably wouldn't have identified it if it weren't listed here. There is also a rather weak, not easily identifiable spice that is more intimate and hardly noticeable.
Towards the end, the fragrance remains light and fresh, but the citrus notes are now significantly weaker, allowing the tea to come through better. By the way, the tea now smells much more like black tea, or rather, like dried tea leaves, and in my opinion, it comes across quite authentically. All other scent notes are now very blended and so weak that they can hardly be identified individually, but they create a nice, green-spicy undertone.

The projection is unfortunately extremely weak and almost skin-close unless you really slather yourself in the fragrance. The longevity is mediocre to rather low. More than three hours or so, and the scent is only extremely close to the body.

The bottles from The House of Oud are quite special. At first glance, one might think that the fragrance is in the small, rectangular container with a rather imposing cap on top. In reality, however, the fragrances are upside down, meaning the gold-colored container that looks like a rectangular rock with the brand's initials on it is the cap or closure. The blue marbled "cap" is actually the bottle, which, by the way, is always a unique piece due to its painting technique, as no pattern is the same as another. I find that pretty cool, as I prefer such elaborately designed bottles over minimalist containers that are just rectangular with a simple white label, but to each their own, tastes vary. In any case, the bottle here is super :)

Ah yes… The Time is one of those fragrances that one really likes if you enjoy fresh scents with tea notes, but it is also one of those fragrances that unfortunately has such a low projection that you could almost complain about it all the time… the typical curse of fleeting summer fragrances, as other scents are not necessarily better. So, one has to live with both low projection and low longevity.

Nevertheless, such fragrances do quite well in summer. The Time has become an excellent scent for me that could be used both daily and for going out on hot days, though by going out I don't mean partying or anything, but rather dining out, taking a walk, shopping, meeting someone, or strolling somewhere on vacation and such things.

Of course, you have to like tea; otherwise, you won’t get anything out of the fragrance. And such a tea scent is also a good alternative to drinking tea, as hot tea can really make you sweat in summer. I personally only drink tea lukewarm for breakfast on hot days, but otherwise, I prefer iced teas, juices, and such things, best cool, but of course not ice-cold (I know, I know, they are less healthy, and as I said, you shouldn’t drink them ice-cold, as you will sweat just as much as if you were drinking something hot, the body has to heat or cool everything to body temperature!).

Uff… this heatwave is intense again… I don’t like heat, did I mention that?!!! No wonder I hate summer :D Honestly, I can hardly wait for autumn to arrive again (Halloweeeeen! :)))) And after autumn comes Christmas again, but that’s another story!

So, that’s it from me again. Try to protect yourselves from the heat, use sunscreen and hats if necessary, and take care of yourselves, so until next time then :)

…
…
… I hate extreme heat! … :D