By Kilian Musk Oud (2013): Perfumer Alberto Morillas Revisits Oud a Decade after YSL M7{New Perfume}
By Kilian have launched Musk Oud their fifth and last installment in the Arabian Nights series inaugurated in 2009. As a parting gift to the collection they've partnered with renowned perfumer Alberto Morillas of Firmenich to devise their last oud composition for it (but certainly not the last one of the market as anyone who has been following current affairs in the perfume world can attest to. Oud has now even become plaisanterie material for perfumistas whose nerves get grated by the predictability of the note. The Scented Salamander position: it's now become an institutionalized accord in perfumery and we lived to see it become so. End of a long parenthesis)....
Alberto Morillas is known as the co-author of Yves Saint Laurent M7 with Jacques Cavallier, a masculine composition from 2002 centering on the decaying woody Oriental note created also in collaboration with Tom Ford at a time when the note was recherché and exotic. With the oud tsunami we've experienced, it's easy to lose that perspective. Seeing Morillas tackle the note is therefore of historic consequence within the bounds of the history of perfumery. It remains to be seen if the perfume is so distinctive that it may impact our perception of oud and see it contribute to the evolution of sensitivities to this new, culturally accepted perfume note.
Perfume store Luckyscent which are carrying it in L.A. are describing it as "...an exotic oud fragrance. Powerful yet elegant; complicated yet comfortable; edgy yet compellingly wearable."
"Exotic" here would have to mean not just because of the fact that there is an oud note in the perfume as the accord has become too banal to be perceived as such automatically. If the description is accurate, it would have to mean that the perfume manages to feel exotic in spite of the presence of an oud note. This is the new paradox of oud.
Fragrance notes: Lemon, mandarin, cardamom, coriander, cypress, Bulgarian Rose, geranium, davana, Rum extract, frankincense, Oud accord, Musk accord, patchouli.
Prices: $395 for 50 ml; $235 for 4 X .25 oz; $185 for a 50 ml refill; $5 for a 0.7 ml sample. Available at luckyscent.com
