Alien Oud Majestueux Mugler 2015

When thinking of an alien fragrance, one might imagine the following things: aliens, pleasantly scented women, The X-Files (hmmm… Agent Scully…), an overall good scent. And then a flanker comes out that wants to hop on the oud train (or oud spaceship?) and somewhat diminishes a great fragrance line, well, that’s one way to think about it when you spray the scent for the first time. Fortunately, the fragrance settles a bit later and smells somewhat familiar, just with oud this time.

The scent:
Uuh, the scent starts off quite strong and piercing, almost musty, I would say. It has nothing in common with the original Alien. It is very spicy and begins with a robust mix of cardamom and saffron, with slightly sweet undertones. The mix also somewhat resembles coriander, which doesn’t smell great to me (and often reminds me of toilets,… alien restrooms…).
These piercing notes fortunately don’t last too long, but then another fragrance note comes into play that some love and others absolutely detest. Oud.
However, the oud here is not as extreme as some might fear and almost comes across as bright, but its scent is unmistakable. The jasmine adds sweetness to the fragrance, giving it the familiar character of the typical Alien line (just a bit less sweet). This makes it smell okay, but in my opinion, not quite as good as the other Alien fragrances.

Longevity and sillage:
The longevity on the skin is shorter than that of the other Aliens, lasting just under eight hours. The last hours are even quite weak. This surprised me a bit, as oud is often very long-lasting. However, on clothing, the scent is fantastic.
The sillage is very strong at first. But this impression quickly fades, making the scent more average. It will definitely leave a scent trail, but as mentioned, only for a few hours.

The bottle:
And another bottle that has been absolutely beautifully designed. This one seems to be a combination of Alien EDP and Alien Essence Absolue, as the lower part has many features of the EDP while the spray head resembles more of the Essence Absolue. The perfume liquid is golden/amber in color. The familiar Alien lettering, which is written once forwards and once backwards, is also visible on the front. All in all, a super bottle.

So, at first, I wasn’t thrilled with this scent at all. It started off way too piercing and intense and, moreover, not as pleasantly fragrant as usual. You need to have a little patience until the top note settles. Only then do you get the typically beautiful Alien scent, albeit with oud. If you don’t like oud, you probably don’t need to test this fragrance, even though the oud doesn’t smell as strong later on as it usually does. Those who like oud might be disappointed by the somewhat weak oud scent, but still find the fragrance quite nice, perhaps even better than my 70% rating here (I personally just don’t like oud that much).

The fragrance, like most Alien scents, is suitable for autumn and winter. It can be worn for leisure and also for going out. However, I might choose other Alien flankers for going out, as agarwood doesn’t always appeal to everyone… well, just give it a try.

In any case, Oud Majestueux is also a fragrance worth testing. As mentioned, if you have nothing against oud, you can’t go wrong with this scent!