I had to try By Kilian Rose Oud because I am an oud fan. Plus, I like roses. And I like luxury. Kilian Rose Oud EDP is a nice fragrance but it is much heavier on the rose than it is the oud. This scent comes across as a gourmand oud rose scent.  But, somehow I love it and I’m trying to talk myself out of the love because of the price-point!

The fragrance: At first I get both the oud and the rose. It is very sensuous. It’s sniffs like incense: woods with rose. This rose is not that “proper” rose. It’s more green and dewy with the warm smoky incense. How is something both green and smoky? Sometimes at this “top” stage, I get a smooth leather. I don’t know if it is actually “there” or the rose and oud together remind me of or give me the sense of new, smooth, leather goods.

The rose is fresh and delicate. It is sweet. The scent gets a bit “jammy”. The rose in this blend is very much Turkish rose. It has it all (greenness, wetness, honey-like sweetness). It smells of rich honeyed roses with a delicate dash of cardamom. This smells wonderful and would make for nice ingredients in a desert. It’s also very red wine-ish. It’s rich and smells of stone fruits with a teeny amount of chocolate. So, this is a killer honeyed rose dessert with a glass of red wine. However, throughout the wear you get lots of woods and smoke. The woods never leave the scent. The oud is smoky, woodsy, and earthy. At times when I wear this I pick up on truffle (mushroom). It has that kind of gourmand earthiness attached to the smoke.

The dry-down is warm. It smells a bit beeswax-ish and vanilla-ish  after all-day wear. This fragrance wears on me for many, many hours. This is is wonderful thing since I love the fragrance.

It is a very luxurious fragrance. It wears nicely and it has staying power. That being said, I don’t know if it is worth the $345 price tag. I have sniffed far more interesting items in that price range. I could get 3 very interesting bottles of perfume for a bottle of Rose Oud. But, that being said. It’s the luxury fragrance market, so we know what we’re doing. We’re grownups. And don’t get me wrong,  I do really love it. Shh…I’m just trying to talk myself out of buying a bottle! I went through the sample my husband bought me…and I’m thinking of buying another sample. However, there are so many nice rose/oud scents on the market these days. I haven’t tried them all and I may find one that I love more or the same for under $200. I just don’t know if I can justify this as being “unusual” enough to spend the dough on. I most likely have something in an unlabeled gold vial that smells about the same. And if you have any suggestions, please share.

The 1st few times I wore this I really thought of this is a “rose” fragrance since it’s jammy, sweet, green, floral. But, after trying it a few more times, I can see oud lovers and those that like smoky, woods scents liking this one. In fact, the smoky “darkness” and the gourmand notes may make rose lovers dislike this scent. I wouldn’t call this a “gothic” rose but it does have lots of incense smoke and earth. A rose enthusiast may think of this as a little “witchy”. I also see this is a unisex scent. I think it would be quite handsome on a man, a bit unexpected.

Notes listed include: Turkish rose, oud, saffron, and cardamom.

Give this a try if you like smoky/incense scents. Or if you like one of the many rose/oud kind of scents out there such as Le Labo Rose 31 EDP, Czech & Speake Dark Rose Cologne, Montale Oud Queen Roses EDP & Black Oud, etc., 10 Corso Como EDP, Amouage Tribute Attar Perfume Oil, Juliette Has A Gun Midnight Oud EDP, and you get the point. Oud is the “it” thing in the “niche” world. It’s like the olive oil of the fragrance world. It just adds a richness to any blend.

It retails for $395 for 50 mL. It can be purchased at luckyscent.com and MiN. I hope you can suggest another rose/oud scent for me. I should be saving up for a sofa instead of a perfume!