Oud

John Varvatos Oud Men EDP opens with a strong projection of tobacco, incense, oud, resinous and spicy notes. The opening is bold, masculine, dark, dry, and nicely blended. The tobacco, incense, oud, and resins are the most noticeable notes. The tobacco comes across as black cigar tobacco, aromatic and dark, enhanced by the incense that adds a noticeable smoky, burnt wood-like accord. The oud is also very prominent but isn’t animalic or pungent, instead, a dark and dry wood-like oud. The amber, opoponax, and myrrh are base notes, but the same as the oud and incense, they come up as soon as the fragrance is applied, they create a resinous and slightly sweet accord. The fragrance has multiple spicy notes, they are not as prominent as the featured notes, but noticeable, the resulting note is a spicy touch without a particular facet. Similarly, the leather is not prominent but noticeable. The rest of the notes provide support, some woody, herbaceous, and floral. The fragrance is linear, the only noticeable opening to dry-down change is the loss of projection which takes one step down from strong to moderate. Once John Varvatos Oud Men EDP has reached its full dry-down, it can be summarized as a moderate projection, dark (tobacco, incense), oud, resinous (myrrh, opoponax), and spicy fragrance with leather, soft woody, and floral accords. The fragrance feels bold, casual, churchy, dark, dry, elegant, exotic, leathery, masculine, mature, mysterious, nocturnal, oudy, resinous, smoky, spicy, woody, and pleasant.

This house simply makes amazing smelling scents. There hasn't been one that I have tried which I didn't like. This house really knows how to make dark scents smell great. Usually in the niche department dark scents end up being too smokey or too resinous... JV creates a very dark and deep scent, but one that actually smells appealing.. This is as good as dark rebel for me. the problem with this house and why it never gets credit is the performance. I never buy bottles because I am afraid of the shitty performance.. but when I test samples and put them on my skin and hand they really don't seem that bad.. Maybe its not the longevity but the projection of these scents? Do they use ingredients that make you go nose blind? Why do the samples seem to have good longevity and seem decent but than everyone says they suck? I remember the only bottle I had was the original JV and I loved the smell a ton, but the performance blew..

I purchased this fragrance through a decant subscription service and honestly I didn't expect much. I hardly purchase colognes after receiving it as a decant, because, although I may enjoy a scent, I rarely find myself falling in love with a cologne. Ladies and gentlemen, I must say, this is one of those colognes I fell in love with. To me, it provides a similar feeling that I experience with Blue de Chanel edp: I know it's there, everyone around me knows that it is there, but we all "act" cool during the experience, as if the cologne is an irrelevant addition to the moment. People (ladies) will find a way to stick around me once they have noticed the cologne. It's less of a scent and more of an Aura.

The opening is very oudy woody smoky but that settles down into more ambary spicy woody and slightly smoky. It's quite nice and on the sharper darker side in compare to some other similar dna fragrances. Definitely one of those masculine fragrances that is on the verge of extinction loosing ground to the sweet gourmand syrupy wave. Could use a bit more punch for better silage and longer longevity for sure. If you are looking for an oud forward fragrance, this is not one. Oud dances way in the background in this but it is noticeably there. Should you get this? If you are a collector yes otherwise you won't miss much :)

I like this fragrance. Smells like Oud. It's a very nice fragrance for the John Varvatos but not the best.design is a 3☆ because it looks cheap to me. The scent definately screams oud and is very strong 3☆. Value is good at 4☆. Longevity for me is 7 hrs which is long lasting for me but not as good as others in my collection 4☆. Overall its ranks as a 3☆. For me it's a winter/fall seasonal fragrance. I would probably not purchase this fragrance again where I would choose the John Varvatos Vintage frangrance over this because the Vintage fragrance to me is not as strong and smells better