Acqua di Parma Colonia Intensa Oud (2012): Everyone Wants to Make an Oud Fragrance {New Perfume}

Brands are getting quite territorial about oud, as if everyone needed to leave their mark on the oud-perfume map before they appear to have missed the grandiose beginnings of a new era in perfumery: Before Oud and After Oud. Acqua di Parma, reputed for their old-world charm and Cinecitta glamor, have left their usual reserve and floral series (see Magnolia Nobile) to manifest their sudden interest in agarwood with Acqua di Parma Intensa Oud...

As we wrote before, oud has long ceased to be a trend; it is not just either just about the institutionalization of an ingredient within the perfumer's palette anymore. We declare that is has now become something of a vanity fair. Everyone feels they must show their oud card while the day is still young. In other words, oud is now about ego, it seems, for the brands. The phrase "oud aromania" I used from the start still applies though but I smell oud less often than Flowerbomb, in Paris at least.

"An exclusive and elegant fragrance born from the authentic union of the vibrant and enveloping notes of Acqua di Parma Colonia Intensa with Oud oil, an extremely rare oil extracted from agarwood, a precious resin of the aquilaria tree.

Colonia Intensa Oud Concentrée opens with a citrus aroma before revealing its extraordinary personality of a heart full of precious ingredients such as agarwood, Russian coriander and Haitian amyris wood. This structured blend evolves into musk and leather. A new interpretation is born - Eau de Cologne Concentrée."

The composition is described as a flanker to Acqua di Parma Colonia Intensa with the simple addition of oud oil, so the idea is quite streamlined and economical. Oud has become the indispensable spice in perfumery as we can see, or rather smell.

Top notes are citruses followed by agarwood, Russian coriander and Haitian amyris woodand trailing off with musk and leather.

It is currently exclusive to Harrods.