Suggest a warm oud/oriental/balsamic?

I'm in a bit of a funk of late. My partner asked me today if there was a particular perfume I'd like for Christmas (we usually trade gifts instead of trying to guess each other's most wanted) but nothing within a reasonable price sprang to mind.

Ambre Narguile is #1 on my wish list after my failed tryst with JP's Arabian Nights. Unfortunately it's quite expensive and I'd rather save up over time for a bottle than settle for a decant.

Nasomatto Pardon sounds amazing but the rumour is that they've reformulated and the sillage and longevity is now miserable. For someone whose skin eats up perfume as much as mine does, it puts Pardon firmly in the "only if I win the lottery" pile.

Voile D'Ambre was an absolute winner of a blind buy, but I'd like a fresh twist on classic amber and vanilla.

24 Gold and its sweeter, lighter little brother Raghba are my current signatures. I particularly enjoy the warm woody oud notes in 24 Gold and the slightly medicinal style of the new M7. I've tried some more "genuine" ouds but they've been hit and miss for me; I prefer the woody, bakhoor type ouds to the faecal/animalic.
My mainstream favourites include D&G The One for Men (even with its minimal longevity), Euphoria and the original Omnia.
In general I love strong resins, woods, orientals, boozy rum and honey. Gourmands are totally viable as long as they're not overly sweet. Spicy is fine, though I lean towards mellow.

If you're still with me after all of that context I'd love some suggestions! <3

This is definitely not my genre I'm afraid, but I'm wondering if you've tried any of the Montales?
Not sure what your price limit is. They are at the cheaper end of niche but ordering from Oz would mean hefty postage of around $40 from the US (eg from Luckyscent)
"White Aoud" is something you might like, given your preferences. It's a truly gorgeous oud composition with a smooth, almost velvety, texture and more going on than just the oud. This is not sweet, nor too medicinal, and has a beautiful dry down that includes amber, vanilla and resins (I'm not a van/amber/sweet fan at all but this is just right).
I'm sure others will be able to contribute better than I but thought I'd put this one out there as a recommendation.

L'Erbolario's "Dolcelisir" is very close to Ambre Narguile, a copy you might say. And it's rather nice.

"Idole de Lubin" is also on my wish list. Check that bottle...

review:
youtu.be/Aq6AwzVIhWw?t=6m41s

I have considered the Montale range, thanks Triffid. It's rather confusing though, so many iterations that often don't even match their names! I know their ouds are considered less "genuine" but if they smell anything like those favourites I've mentioned I don't much mind.
Every month or so I pick out samples on STC or another sample site but it ends up being so expensive, especially with postage added as you say. There's one store in all of Melbourne that has Montale that I know of, I plan to visit and sample many fragrances I'm curious about... and hopefully not attracting the ire of shop assistants while doing so.
I do need to open my mind to putting money down for samples though. I'm getting to the stage where I'm blind buying perfumes for about $100 and while I can resell them, it's frustrating to fork out for a bad match. On the other hand, paying through the nose for 1ml of a perfume seems so wasteful. I have to add a fair few to my cart to make the shipping charges "worth it".

Both Dolcelisir and Idole look very interesting. The only Idole I can find on eBay is quite expensive... I'll add it to my watch list though, the notes are right up my alley. By notes Dolcelisir looks a bit too sweet but reviews suggest it's not... wow, nevermind, I just checked the price for Dolcelisir! So cheap! I'll blind buy that for sure, thanks very much for the suggestion Sleuth.

Just the other day I sampled Ormonde Jayne "Tolu", which is a lovely balsamic creation I can highly recommend.
Very opaque and possibly up your alley could be "Absolue pour le Soir".
And, with raving reviews, from my test list: "Collection Excessive - Oud Shamash"

I have two of those on my wishlist already, the Tolu and Oud Shamash. I'm glad to hear another +1 for Oud Shamash though, it boots it further up my Want list. I'll check out Absolue pour le Soir but being an MFK my wallet is probably already running away...
I think I've been spoiled by 24 Gold. Niche quality oud for such an amazing price... no wonder it's sold out almost everywhere!

Re: "a fresh twist on classic amber and vanilla"

I think "Grain de Soleil" fits that criteria.

Not sure if you meant "fresh" as in new and different, or as in refreshing, but it's actually both. It comes out of the bottle with a slightly cool masculine accord then quickly warms up. I think a small bottle is about $50 USD online.

Thanks Dulcemio, I'll keep an eye on that one. I mainly meant fresh in the sense of being different, I have quite a few bright, sunny day perfumes already and Grain de Soleil is a tad more floral that what I had in mind. But I'll certainly add it to my watch list, it has some glowing reviews.

I didn't know there was even a single Montale stockist in Australia - do you think they would post interstate? I have such a huge wish list of Montales...
I know what you mean about sample costs, especially with there seeming to be no one south of the equator with this service. I'm trying not to think about how much $$ I've spent on samples, probably the equivalent of a few FB of something niche, with the irony being that I can't afford the FB of niche because I've spent the money on all those samples that made me want to buy it....

Exactly! Such a shame. I'm thinking of opening an eBay store just to sell my barely-used FBs that turned out to not be great blind buys. Marking down FB's that don't work out to make up for their barely-used condition seems better than paying through the nose for testers... ah, I'm not sure though. I really need to connect with other perfume people here in Melbourne. By the way, I'm more than happy to trade samples with you if you like anything I have. Seeing as we're posting cross-country it'll be much less expensive and stressful than sending internationally.

As for Montale, I'm so sorry Triffid, I just re-checked Klein's (the store in Melbourne that I thought stocked them, as they stock many other brands we don't get here) and even they don't have Montale. My bad. Maybe I should ask them about ordering some in? I keep putting off a trip to visit their store as it'll be stressful for me to get there and back, but once I'm there I'll be in heaven.

There are lots of flowers listed, but the net effect is much more about amber, incense and wood. When I think of "Grain de Soleil" I don't think floral.

I don't see samples on their site,.but Fragonard offers a mini at a reasonable price. Also, the fact you love Voile d'Ambre leads me to think you're a good candidate for GdS. (Plus, that adorable bottle!) I swear I'm not affiliated.

www.fragonard.com/parfums_grasse/eaux-de-parfu m/grain-de-soleil-c-33.htm

Unfortunately Australia strikes again. 7 euros for the miniature... 42 euros for postage! And even if I was going to pay that, they cannot ship here because "the product contains alcohol".
Such nonsense.
I'll keep an eyes out for a miniature on eBay though.

That kills me every time. I was planning to buy a bottle from Lucky Scent just yesterday. Thought it was a bargain at $45... until I found out postage was $40. Still thinking about it...

Australia. Perfect one day, killing my perfume dreams the next.

Yup! Recently I tried to buy some roll-on perfume oils from Al-Rashad books. There was a sizeable shipping fee so I decided to pile up my cart to make it "worth" the charge. Eventually I realised the shipping was increasing for each perfume I added!

And there's a special place in hell for eBay sellers that offset their cheap prices with (often hidden) shipping charges.

Maybe I should go on a "perfume holiday". Instead of visiting Grasse or the UAE I'll fly to the USA and spend a few days ordering everything on my wishlist. Once they all arrive I'll pack them into my suitcase, get back on a plane and come home!

I have a growing list of products that are either phenomenally cheaper overseas or "can't be shipped here". (Up yours, Amazon!)
Canvas & Concrete,
"Cologne of the Missions",
"No 1581 Elixir Black".

I'm going to employ a helper to procure these for me and then send them over in one big package.

Oh no! Piling up the cart to justify the shipping and they hit you up with more shipping??? Where do we live? Mars? I was in France in September and bought perfumes there (naturally). Maybe we should just fly everywhere and stock up. Might be cheaper.

OR... Import in bulk and start an Australian 'Lucky Scent'. Lol.

Scarletting, never mind about the Montales - I have previously checked out Kleins website and noticed they don;t carry this line.
Ironically, my husband and sons are off to the UK next week with a day in London and Paris. Unbelievably, there is no Montale stockist in London and their Paris store recently closed. My wish list has reduced accordingly. He won't have the time or inclination to shop around so I'm trying to think of things he could grab on the fly - things I have tested and can't get here without great expense. I'm ill-prepared!
I recently posted some decants/samples to Franfan in Germany of a Kim Kardashian fragrance unavailable overseas but unaccountably cheap and abundant here in Oz (naughty, had to lie about contents). About 17ml in total, and they did arrive, but slowly, about 4 weeks. Postage ridiculous, though.

I have suggested to Apicius that it would be very helpful to search for Parfumo members by region, enabling members to identify others in their country, but so far we don't have this feature. Perhaps we could post a search thread in the forum. The only drawback is that with limited numbers, and a variety of tastes, it might be hard to find members with similar tastes.
I'm open to sending samples to others in Australia/NZ but regret that my collection is pathetically small. I do have a 2ml sample of "Coromandel" if anyone's interested (accidentally ordered two from STC) - beautiful frag but too sweet/oriental for me.

That's a brilliant idea! I'm all for it. Manually set as to not infringe on the privacy of members of course. There may be limited tastes but that's better than no networking at all... besides, Parfumo is ever-growing! Not to mention that an opt-in feature like that would just add to the pile of reasons why many prefer Parfumo.

I'm quite interested in a sample of Coromandel, I'm more than happy to send you a variety of samples in return. Just tell me which perfumes on my "have" list you're interested in.

Do it! It'd be a massive set-up fee though, ordering in bulk, but you know you'd have a market.
Personally I was thinking of something like a second-hand perfume store where people can walk in and sample a wide variety of opened or pre-loved bottles and prices can be negotiated. Like a pawn shop, but for perfume? Of course it would require a lot of work to appropriately value and price such an array, not to mention vetting the "health" and storage of second-hand perfumes. But being able to sample all of the scents coming through... it would make it all worthwhile.
I wonder what the legal issues would be for selling second-hand perfume out of a store-front?

Scarletting - that is genius. Second hand perfume store. I mean, how many people buy perfume here and don't like it or get tired of it? I think in the US people can return perfume but not here... I would totally be into something like a second hand perfume store operating on the same basis as a second hand book store.

Not sure about legalities. I am the girl who didn't read the rules to the 'Guess the Scent game' I just played. Haha.

I'll have to look into it. Imagine being able to come in and trade a perfectly fine but pre-loved perfume for another pre-loved perfume?
The issue would be trust and quality, I think. Trust that people aren't watering down (or in this case, alcoholing down) fragrances, trust that they've been stored correctly, some kind of assurance that the perfume smells as it's supposed to. But it's no more risk, I suppose, than buying second-hand from eBay or elsewhere... something I've done plenty of times with no bad experiences. If anything it's safer because you're able to try them in person beforehand.
And it'd take a lot of work, like I mentioned. But I think it'd work very well.

It's funny, I get cool ideas like this quite often and I'm always worried that someone else will read them, go off and enact them before I can... but then I get overwhelmed and don't act on them myself.

Hey - I know what you mean. I had an idea of making toy fish that swim in water because my cat Reilly plays in water. His 'Fishy' is a weird shaped green plastic peg... anyways, I just read this week about the 'new' Robo-fish. Selling like hotcakes. 700,000 a day at about 20 pounds a pop. Jeez. I'm no inventor. Lol. Bad example but...

I think your second hand perfume store would appeal to me more than buying pre-loved on eBay. I think the shop would be beautiful and fascinating.

Oh crap, those are excruciating postage rates.

The problem would be paying for the retail space. Retail space is just soexpensive, even if you go further out.
I could try basing it online the whole idea would cave in, I mean, how can I have people trade in their perfumes via an online store? It just wouldn't work as well.
Markets are out; the possible damage due to sun and heat, the possible damages of constant transport, people not knowing in advance to bring their perfumes in...
I can't think of much else besides sharing store space with another business. Or working from home and having people pick up/drop off perfumes in person, which would be weird.

Some people convert 1 room, or even 1/2 a room to an office or shop. If you do that at ground level and make it look 'professional', that would be fine.

Or you could do it online and figure out a payment scheme that ensures trust for the person who sells to you, and that provides some insurances for you. Like not paying the full sum until you've tested the juice.