If that's not reason enough to pay attention to this scent, then let me begin by drawing comparisons to Tom Ford and the oudier Bond no. 9 scents. And your good buddy R.P. will make a further admission, folks. Of the multitude of frags that magically appeared under Red's Christmas tree this year, Kerosene's R'oud Elements is the one that he opened up and wore on Christmas day.
There are already some nice reviews of this fragrance on Basenotes, the + Q Perfume Blog, and Memory of Scent. There is even an interview with the creator, Kerosene, on the + Q Perfume Blog link. But let me give you the quickie tour of the history and smell of this scent, so you can decide for yourself whether to investigate further.
Kerosene is a core member of the YouTube men's fragrance gang - but he has always been an active Basenoter as well. Nobody ever figured that Kerosene was actually thinking about making some frags. When he suddenly mentioned that he had something - an oud scent called R'oud Elements - people took interest. But my ears really perked up when I heard the words "orange bitters". I immediately sprang for a sample on PayPal. Dark citrus and me go way back. There is no way I'm gonna pass up the possibility for some strong, deep, bitter orange - one of my favorite notes in perfumery.
Well, my sample came, and it only took one sniff to know that I needed a bottle of this stuff. My first wear was a keeper. And let me assure you that the bottle contains the same exact juice that wowed me from a sample atomizer.
I maintain that R'oud Elements could pass for a mythical scent, Tom Ford Orange Oud. If you can imagine that scent, then you're already close to knowing what this one smells like. This is a dark, woody, spicy oud scent with just enough oud to be interesting, but not enough to set off any warning bells for oud haters. Kerosene even calls it an oud scent for people who don't like oud. The oud is less prominent than in things like Bond no. 9 New York Oud and New York Amber. It's more like Creed's Royal Oud, or the Harrod's Swarovski Limited Edition from Bond no. 9. It's a very well-behaved oud. Kerosene admits that it's a mixture of natural and synthetic ouds, but also that he worked very hard on making it all balance. And I can tell you - it shows.
The orange note in R'oud Elements is beautiful, long-lasting, and never too strong. It hangs in for the duration, which is something I look for. Beyond the oud and the orange, woods are where it's at. Kerosene says he used a bunch of them, and you can tell - the woodiness is complex and even a bit nondescript, but still, I must say, very desirable. You can pick up the spices, but they're more subdued than in Royal Oud. The smokiness is something I do love about this scent. I get amber out in the open every once in a while, and maybe the vanilla, but they've been done in a very balanced way, so they're never dominating.
Taken all together, it's a very smooth experience. Just a bit smoky, just a bit sweet - I would liken the overall experience to orange-glazed barbecue over a real fire - except that it's never that crude. It's like a barbecue-based dish on the goofy-big plate at some top-of-the-tower restaurant. You know what I'm saying? Again, I draw comparisons to Tom Ford.
Who - incidentally - has a fragrance line which is loved by one Joe Petruccijc and one Redneck Perfumisto.
The price point on R'oud Elements is superb - I think Kerosene was smart to offer a good deal that competes with some very pricey stuff like the Creed and the Bonds. We're talking $75 for 50 mL, U.S. shipped ($80 international). Anybody who balked at the prices on those earlier fragrances, but found them decent, needs to try this scent. Period.
K-Man did a great job on the bottle, too. They're hand-painted and labeled, with a damn nice finish that looks very sharp. The black metallic flake paint job is totally consistent with the fragrance, in my opinion. For a niche act, it's just refreshing as hell to see how hard Kerosene sweated the details.
A quality product at a good price, once again made in the U.S.A. Michigan, even.
Nice.
Great post Red ! I will definitely try this one very soon. It sounds like something I would enjoy quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up !
How chick-friendly is this one? Not chick-magnet-y. Like, for lassies who want to wear it? I think it sounds intriguing.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Red! I've been trying to figure out what "niche" means. As a mainstream lover such as yourself knows well, not everything nice is niche. But is nic[h]e always nice? Hmmm...
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your remark on batch consistency, which I have often found to be a problem. Many times the perfume I sample from a vial or a mini really does seem very different from the full bottle. That's an important matter sometimes overlooked and one gauge by which to measure the quality of a house's output, it seems to me.
Thanks for the introduction to this intriguing-sounding perfume. Dark orange and oud? In a word: Yum.
Thanks, Aromi! You may very well enjoy this one. I think Kerosene did a very good job as his own creative director on this. It's modern, and even trendy as an oud, and yet it aims at a sweet spot in the market that gets respect from finicky noses and people who remember the classics. Choosing that strategy for one's first entry seems very smart. Short version - this ain't gonna dethrone Kouros, but to make something that would appeal to the same people who love it, and still be current? Kudos!
ReplyDeleteJen - I think this is an easy wear for ladies who wear orientals, mainly because of the oud, and in spite of the smoke. From the redneck perspective, I could easily view this scent as a perfumey, Western, girlie oud (think Bond no.9 Signature Perfume) with smoky notes added to give the boys permission to wear it. This scent has nice projection for a long time, and that projecting scent is a bit less smoky and more chypre-like than the skin scent. Meaning, it actually smells a bit more like a classic feminine off-skin, and more sweet, smoky, and gourmand up close. Again, I draw parallels to Tom Ford - things like Noir de Noir and Arabian Wood. Women who are up to those scents can handle this. Definitely worth a sample.
I hear you about the whole "niche" thing, sherapop. What should we call Tom Ford? Except for his main men's scent, which nobody talks about, his whole line seems pointed away from the Acqua Di Gio wearer - and even his original men's scent hints at his wonderful Extreme. Honestly, niche isn't always nice. I think the truth is that is tends to have more diversity, and gets a bit of a pass sometimes, simply for trying to be different. Judging from the progression of new noses from n00b to naysayer, I would almost characterize niche as training wheels for the classics. [Surely I'll catch some heat for that, but anyone who loved their kids appreciates training wheels! ;) ] A lot of niche is linear or idiosyncratic - sins that strike me as neither worse nor better than the predictability and cliché-laden nature of many mainstreamers. Niche broadens the mind, but like travel, returning can also put that new knowledge to good use.
Yes - batch consistency is something I try to watch for, nowadays. Both indie perfumers and folks like Creed who openly rely on thin streams of top-notch components have issues there. I've come to have more sympathy, however, now that I realize there are always too many perfume makers chasing too few high-quality components. Chanel does it smart - having its own fields of jasmine and iris - but others are getting very smart, too, about assuring long-term consistency. When I sniffed Kerosene's bottle, I was ready to find some kind of last-minute market change. Happily, it was exactly like the sample juice, and thus I have no qualms recommending the juice.
Kerosene may be releasing something lighter in the spring or summer, so stay tuned. That could also be a winner!
Thanks again for your comments!
Off to order a sample, sounds very satisfying--hope to love it! Great name either way! Kerosene Trewth just friended me on facebook, had no idea who he was before, now I know, thanks!
ReplyDeleteGlad you got a sample of this one, kastehelmi. You can get quite a few good wears out of it, too. Hope you enjoy it. Let us know what you think!
ReplyDelete