Oud in Bourbon Scents of Wood 2021

Well this is an interesting opening! I’m getting a uniquely sweet and resinous woods, with creamy undertones. There’s a rich cocoa that’s adding a delectable depth as well. Not going to lie, I was a little intimidated by how dark the juice is, but this is surprisingly approachable! The projection is quite strong at this point, even sitting outside where it’s a bit windy.

As it settles into my skin, some coffee is starting to emerge (what originally drew me to this fragrance). It is a bit overwhelmed by the rich cocoa note and the boozy sweetness of the davana. Overall, I really like this though!

30 minutes into the dry down and interestingly the coffee is growing stronger. I’m not sure if I’m smelling the oud yet… honestly because I haven’t fully wrapped my mind (or nose) around all the variants of oud. It can be sweet and resinous, it can be dry and musky (what I’d originally smelled and thought I didn’t like). I feel like I need to get my hands on some raw oud to train my nose to recognize it.

2 hours on and the coffee just keeps gaining strength. This is surprising to me because in pretty much all of the coffee-forward fragrances I’ve tried (and I’ve tried a lot so far), the coffee note tends to come in at the front and often is one of the first notes to fade. I’m curious what Scents of Wood did differently in the composition to have flipped this dynamic…

6 hours on and it’s pretty much faded, so decent, but not exceptional, longevity. Overall, I really enjoyed wearing this, especially with how long the coffee note lasted. It’s bittersweet, a little boozy, and resinous at its core. I’m interested in trying some more fragrances from this brand, so I think I’m going to wait on springing on a bottle of this. But I definitely wouldn’t mind having it in my collection.

Oud in Bourbon opens with a boozy+food scent that invoked an interesting association for me. It brought to mind mom's from-scratch frosting she uses for chocolate cake. It's a delicious butter cream frosting with rum, chocolate and vanilla. The secret ingredient is some strong coffee which enhances the chocolate flavor but doesn't really reveal itself. Oud in Bourbon's coffee note is similar. I couldn't detect it but suspect it provides a subtle enhancement to the chocolate component. It also starts out quite sweet. As it dries down, the sweetness pulls back a bit and a woody bitterness appears which is most noticeable nose to skin instead of in the air.

Once dried down, it wasn't too sweet for me and is overall a pleasant scent. However, it just didn't do it for me, especially for the price. Different aspects of it seemed to be captured in No Limit$, Tony Iommi Monkey Special and even Cuoium, all three of which I like better than Oud in Bourbon.

Performance was good. Longevity was quite good - around 12 hours while projection was more moderate.

Scents of Wood Oud in Bourbon is an aptly named, boozy, spicy blend smelling of aged spices and resins in wood barrels, the prominent bourbon note, slightly sweetened with vanilla, contrasted significantly by a spicy blend of ginger, black pepper, star anise, geranium, vetiver, and woods. So there’s a sweet, boozy side, but this is much less gourmand-leaning that some of my other favorites of the line. The aged thoroughness of the liquid notes seems present, too. It presents itself as something authentically as representing something aged in barrels for some time, dense and rich, evolved and refined. It’s definitely among my favorites of the line and I’d recommend it, especially for cooler weather, though it’s perfectly pleasant as an indoor option year-round.

Oud in Bourbon, like most fragrances in the line, performs excellently, and has the standard brand pricing of $240/38 for 75/10ml, sold by several great US boutiques including Perfumology. I continue to love the 10ml size as a long-term means of getting acquainted with a fragrance prior to committing to a full bottle.

8 out of 10