L’Oudh by Tauer Perfumes

L’Oudh? It should be called ‘Le Castor’ 🇫🇷. It’s incredible what you can read into it. If someone finds it strong, invasive, and hard to wear, respectable, I understand why. But saying it’s impossible to go out or hit on people, or that Ajmal swallows Tauer, are comments from people who don’t know what they’re talking about. The Laos oud is noticeable, though it doesn’t smell fermented or cheesy. It’s not the protagonist; the castoreum (synthetic) overwhelms everything and tends to smell ‘musked’. It’s an animalic perfume, period. It doesn’t smell like the elegant leather of Acqua di Parma, the realistic one from Meydan, the smoky floral of Great Britain, or the elegance of Henry Jacques. Here, it smells like raw, dirty, unfinished leather, very smoky, earthy, burnt, and petroleum-like. Very animalic, but not because of the oud. It’s like Dusita’s Oudh Infini (discontinued), where people think it’s oud when it’s actually the civet that dominates and makes the perfume difficult. Same with Sarah Baker’s Jungle Jezebel. L’Oudh has little development, doesn’t project much close to the skin, but that scent lingers too much and can tire the nose. It sticks like gum. 100% masculine, $300 for 50ml is reasonable for niche and Andy Tauer. It has all the adjectives: piercing, invasive, dense, potent, difficult, dark, animalic, dirty. I like the castoreum, but not this marked. Do you know Tom Ford’s Oud Wood Intense? They’re different. OWI is fantastic because the castoreum adds a dirty, sensual musky tone over the oud, but here everything is multiplied by 10. It can be different and dark, but if everything ends up weird, I don’t see the artistry. I find it interesting and difficult; I’ve used it a few times and sometimes it dominates me. I would have liked to see other elements amplified to add nuances while respecting the animalic base, but the use of castoreum is excessive. The bottle will last you a lifetime (like Zoologist’s T Rex). In the medium term, it gets tiring quickly. Masculine, high longevity, modest projection. Restricted versatility.

I tried it expecting the beast of an animalic oud they promised on YouTube. It’s a very well-constructed perfume; the opening is an oud bomb with myrrh nuances, but as it dries down, the leather takes the spotlight—that typical Tauer leather—and it stays that way until the end. It’s good; I hesitated to buy it because of the opening, but luckily I let it dry down since I’m not a leather fan and was looking for pure oud with other traces. I won’t buy it, but I recommend trying it.

I tried it expecting the beastly animal oud promised on YouTube. It’s a very well-made perfume; the opening is an oud bomb with myrrh nuances, but as it dries, the leather takes over—that classic Tauer leather vibe—and stays that way until the end. It’s good; I hesitated to buy it because of the opening, but luckily I let it dry down. I’m not a leather fan and was looking for pure oud with other traces. I won’t buy it, but I recommend trying it.

To me, it smells like a horse in every nuance: the animal, the sweat, the excrement, the tack leather, and the stable. All of this, but with a certain amiability, not negative, though I don’t want to smell like that. It projects heavily on my skin and lasts forever: even after showering the next day, I can still smell it. I think the 2ml sample will last me years.

Very difficult scent. Extremely dirty and dark. I admire dark and complex aromas, but in this case, they don’t convey pleasant sensations. I have the idea that this composition is a game Andy doesn’t master, or at least, he lost this time. P.S.: It was me who didn’t understand or master this perfume. Andy wins. Bottle bought.

Smells like feces and animal. Only for the brave. Plus, the liquid is a greasy mess. 2/10.