Doric Oud Middleshade
3
Helpful Review
Mysterious Ancient Forests of Aberdeenshire
As a person with Scottish heritage I have been searching for a long time for fragrances that would remind me of Scotland, and I was super happy to find Middleshade Perfumes just recently. It's a lovely local indie house of hand made fragrances in which they use ingredients cultivated and distilled at their own farm at Kinross. All of their fragrances have a theme related to a certain area of Scotland. Doric Oud represents ancient forests of Aberdeenshire, which is actually the area that my family roots are originally from. As a professional linguist who is also married to an Aberdonian person I have to say that I absolutely love the name of the fragrance too, and of course Doric language is very close to my heart.
The initial spray of Doric Oud definitely reminds me of a mysterious dense forest in the dark. Damp moss and ancient trees while getting a hint of light when the night clouds are wandering and reveal the crescent moon. Not a typical take of oud by any means. Normally oud fragrances are either "dirty" or smoky like burning incense, however Doric Oud smells like the ancient tree is still growing, green and fresh and only slightly resinous.
Tweed or tartan fabric is also listed as a note in this fragrance, and as it dries down I can kind of get it, there's something in the background that reminds me of fresh wool or a texture-like almost weird smelling note. Intriguing! After a few hours of wearing the fragrance it shifts from an ancient forest to a milky, slightly smoky and sweet sandalwood. I don't get the leather note at all and nothing else overly animalic either, only this distant sheep wool kind of texturized comforting background note - and I'm glad of that because personally I'm not a huge fan of animalic ouds or other overpowering animalic notes.
I'd recommend this gorgeous little masterpiece to anyone who is interested in exploring the oud note but doesn't like traditional animalic barnyard-y Eastern oud or trendy generic boring smoky Western niche oud either. This is something very different from both of those and also doesn't cost too much, the quality is amazing for the price and supports passionate perfume maker's small business at the same time. This is also great for a person who doesn't like their woody fragrance to be loud or room-filling because Doric Oud is long lasting but with a nice sillage between moderate (first few hours) and intimate (the final drydown).
The initial spray of Doric Oud definitely reminds me of a mysterious dense forest in the dark. Damp moss and ancient trees while getting a hint of light when the night clouds are wandering and reveal the crescent moon. Not a typical take of oud by any means. Normally oud fragrances are either "dirty" or smoky like burning incense, however Doric Oud smells like the ancient tree is still growing, green and fresh and only slightly resinous.
Tweed or tartan fabric is also listed as a note in this fragrance, and as it dries down I can kind of get it, there's something in the background that reminds me of fresh wool or a texture-like almost weird smelling note. Intriguing! After a few hours of wearing the fragrance it shifts from an ancient forest to a milky, slightly smoky and sweet sandalwood. I don't get the leather note at all and nothing else overly animalic either, only this distant sheep wool kind of texturized comforting background note - and I'm glad of that because personally I'm not a huge fan of animalic ouds or other overpowering animalic notes.
I'd recommend this gorgeous little masterpiece to anyone who is interested in exploring the oud note but doesn't like traditional animalic barnyard-y Eastern oud or trendy generic boring smoky Western niche oud either. This is something very different from both of those and also doesn't cost too much, the quality is amazing for the price and supports passionate perfume maker's small business at the same time. This is also great for a person who doesn't like their woody fragrance to be loud or room-filling because Doric Oud is long lasting but with a nice sillage between moderate (first few hours) and intimate (the final drydown).