Oud Immortel
Byredo (2010)

I would not consider this to be unisex, this smells very masculine, at least on my skin. I do wear a fair bit of unisex scents and have been know to steal from the men's counter as well, if I like something, and I can't pull this off. It's fairly loud, and sweet in a strange way. Like many Byredos I've tried so far it has a sort of chemical/synthetic hum to it that I can't quite get behind either.

The opening blast is bright, with the limoncello-syrupy lemon mixed with a gently spicy undertone.

Very soon the dominant component arises: the patchouli. It is quite a harsh one, not too shrill, and, together with the woodsy undertone most evidently used to imitate the oud that gives this creation its name. This attempt to pass off synthetic patchouli/wood as the real thing is the tedious game that pervades the fragrance shelves for the last decade or so, although Oud Immortel is on of the earlier examples.

For the last few hours a sweetish-juicy element prevails, slightly woodsy, with whiffs of caramel, and another bit that appears to be a void attempt at creating a perfunctory attempt at a tobacco impression.

I get moderate sillage, very good projection and an excellent ten hours of longevity on my skin.

This autumnal early pseudo-oud scent is not bad and has a few good features, like the impressive performance, but it is too generic to impress. 2.75/5.

To me this smells like a more refined version of Paco Rabanne Black XS, but that's about it. Neutral rating but almost a negative.

Have a sample, never heard of it before and find that it smells really nice! Not too heavy, so good for everyday wear. It's on my list for a full bottle buy....

Let me just start by saying that, as the reviews suggest, this fragrance probably isn't for everyone.
I'm not an expert so please take my review with a grain of salt, but I will try and do my best to describe my experience with Oud Immortel.

On the first spray you immediately notice the sharp but fresh lemoncello opening.
This is also the moment where the oud-like note is the most noticable, but it fades quite fast.
The next few hours were somewhat disappointing to me in the sense that it evolved into kind of and "old man" scent because of the patchouli/incense/rosewood. Not that it was bad, but it wasn't for me.
However, after the 5-6 hour mark it evolved again.
At his point I get woody incense together with sweet candied citrus fruits and this where this fragrance hits the sweet sport for me.

Weird note: Besidedes the usual spots I alos applied the fragrance on the back of my hand. This made me notice that when I brought my nose to my hand and exhaled (nose) on the fragrance before sniffing it, the sweetness intensified 10-fold.

Sillage and projection is great,even after 12 hours my girlfriend reported that she still smelled met 15 seconds after I left.
Longetivity on my skin is also beastly as I can now, 26 hours after applying it on my hand, still smell it.

All, as one of my first niche fragrances I found a very enjoyable journey throughout the day.

I actually flinched smelling this for the first time, not because it was putrid but because it was very different from what I expected. It's very loud. Cloyingly sweet citrus opens in tandem with incense, which makes for a combination that just doesn't rub me the right way. After that accord I mainly get a plethora of synthetic woods and lingering incense. I can't smell a trace of oud though. Tobacco joins the party but it's too little, too late.

When disregarding the opening this isn't too bad, but not exciting either. I really want to like Byredo but this doesn't do it for me.