Singular Oud Urban Scents 2014

It's an idiosyncratic blend.

My first thought was: Surprisingly floral - where does that come from?

For a few brief seconds, this impression of a transparent floral note remains, then the fragrance begins to expand and turns dark, yet cool, almost a bit minty. Not the mintiness of a summer drink, more the ethereal herbal coolness of cough syrup. Many brown associations: medicine. Workshop with woodcut. Ballistol. Conifer. Floor wax. Pepper.

It wears a flannel shirt, the fragrance, for sure, in checkered flannel, and it has just come from the woods. There’s dirt on its boots and conifer resin on its hands and hair, and it has worked all day, oiling and setting up machines, accompanied by a delicate fresh note of sweat. Not unpleasant, but definitely physical. Later, incense joins in along with a nearly sweet, delicate grass note; perhaps it’s the green fig that I otherwise wouldn’t recognize. And if so, then more fig leaf than the fruit.

The repeatedly mentioned leather associations I cannot quite grasp, or - wait! - perhaps just a little, in the form of leather care.

What impresses me about Marie Urban-Le Febvre's fragrances, as a commonality, as a signature, so to speak, is their transparency. They are heavy yet effortless, and all are very slender.

Singular Oud is also like that. Not a weighty block, not a monolith of a fragrance, but light and floating and finely woven, and in that respect, it is - although dark and human - an exceptionally modern, urban scent.

You have to achieve that with an oudist first, which is why it has won my admiration. Even if it hasn’t won my heart.

Lastly: Along with the delicate statement, the sillage is moderate, the projection is the same, and the longevity on fabric - unfortunately - is rather poor. That’s a pity.