Virtuous Oud by Zara

If you ask me which is Zara’s most ignored gem, it’s definitely Virtuous Oud. It was a fragrance that got ahead of its time, and people just didn’t appreciate it. Its downfall was Carlos Rubio, that YouTuber who basically lives at Zara, who in a video claimed it smelled like fish or cuttlefish. He later retracted it, saying the tester was broken, but the damage was done. Plus, Virtuous got eclipsed by Elevated Oud, which stole all the spotlight. They also slapped the Acqua Di Gio label on it just because Morillas created it, just like they did with Elevated and Gucci Guilty Absolute, despite there being no real connection. It’s an accessible oud perfect for beginners, with zero risk of smelling like a chemical factory. Although people compared it to Acqua Di Gio’s DNA, to me it leans more toward Oud Wood by Tom Ford, but much more citrusy at first. It could be the perfect hybrid between the two. Its profile is a winter citrus that gives you energy and makes you feel good even in the cold, without being too heavy or too fresh. It’s like a white oud, a true all-rounder that goes anywhere. If this had come out under a niche brand for $100, it would have had way more hype. But it launched at Zara at an accessible price and passed without a trace. I think if they relaunch it, it will finally put this gem in its place, one we couldn’t enjoy.

I’ve read several reviews saying it smells like fish. Today I tried it at Zara, and honestly, on my skin, I don’t find that smell. It’s a citrus, aquatic, and woody fragrance. Very similar to an Acqua di Gio, though a bit darker. At first, it’s quite different, but after 10 minutes, it shares a lot of similarities. For 12 euros on sale, it’s not a bad buy, although I’m not buying it myself because I already have plenty of similar Acqua di Gio scents.

I couldn’t go to Zara to try out this collection, and being an impulse shopper, I bought this Virtuous Oud blind based on its notes. It arrived yesterday, and today I watched Carlos Rubio’s video where he says it smells like cuttlefish. So, terrified, I applied this fragrance this morning thinking I’d smell like a chocolate meatball for the rest of the day. And I didn’t (fortunately). Virtuous Oud is a citrus fragrance with a very natural and pleasant opening, fresh and suitable for this summer. Supposedly it has easy-to-detect notes (calone and ambroxan), but I don’t notice them as much, except for the calone in the first fifteen minutes. That’s the only thing noticeable: fifteen minutes. After that, it drops to skin-level and lasts about 4 hours as a citrus with a faint woody sandalwood base. And that’s it. The same thing happened to me with Morillas’ previous collection for Zara, where I got ripped off by Morning Sunray in Seville. I can understand that the result might be limited by the budget Zara asks Morillas for, but it doesn’t justify it, because Zara has great perfumes with even lower costs. What did you do, Carlos, to make it smell like cuttlefish to you? (:P)