Premiere Luxe Oud pour Homme
Avon (2016)

Thank you Zealot Crusader for the nice review that sold me on this one in a blind buy.

I'm not an expert just a fragrance enthousiaste so excuse me if i don't go deep on this one.

Sooo....i was lookin for a nice cheapie (oud based) it's like a game for me to find great cheapie and yes...i'm a huge M7 fan.

First spray, boom the black pepper is hard on the opening, my girlfriend tell me in a heartbeat « omg...no way...i hate it, remind me clove yukkk... »
Well that's right black pepper opening is pretty agressive but...but..let live that little buddy, give him time...
After that opening and some time here come the beauty of that little gem...
The M7 dna is here...amberish, warm, sensual...for the price it's just superb.

Again i thank you Zealot Crusader, we need the fragrance adventurers finding little cheapie gem like this one.

I love it and go directly with encre noire in my top 5 (quality) cheapie

The Avon Premiere Luxe line of male parfums is one of several newer higher-end creations targeting niche tastes on a designer budget in recent years, and is likely never to grace American shores outside of importation. Ever since the US atrophied into an unprofitable state as Avon's largest single market, with Eastern Europe, South America and the UK becoming the best markets, the once US-based and US-dominant company uprooted to the UK under a restructuring deal as it's new home base and basically said to us Americans "so long and thanks for all the fish" after 120+ years of being its mainstay. Granted, the US still gets the classics plus the occasional new generalist creation, but all the new and exciting stuff that used to flood US catalogs doesn't anymore since a separate Avon LLC serves it now. Avon Premiere Luxe Oud (2016) is a flanker of Avon Premiere Luxe Pour Homme (2015) that seeks to emulate prestige oud offering from Western perfumers. If you want it, you'll have to hunt it down through eBay or Bonanza, which can be extremely difficult to say the least as US sellers cannot order foreign Avon and international sellers can have high shipping cost or long shipping times. I was morbidly curious about this line, so I put in the extra legwork to obtain it, and with enough scouring, I got my hands on them. Ironically, what Avon always got slammed for by US consumers ever since the 80's was their lack of "quality" and prestige, with US designers becoming more prevalent, the middle class dividing into richer or poorer, and the need for something inbetween Coty and Chanel replaced by Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren, which existed a little more downmarket but still within designer realms. So, if you're an American guy and are curious of what a taste of higher-quality Avon can be, the Premiere Luxe line is an option, if you're willing to wait for a month-long shipping time from Avon sellers in far-flung places. The stuff in these bottles truly isnt even close to niche, but its every bit designer-quality bare-minimum, but without the benefit of a robust ad campaign to announce it because this is still an Avon.

This being the Oud version of the original Premiere Luxe Pour Homme has little bearing since they smell almost nothing alike. Both are woodsy oriental fragrances of significant concentration, but this version swaps out the middle notes and most of the top in the original and adds a big old fat medicinal Oud/Agarwood note. Whereas Premiere Luxe Pour Homme was a rather hard-to-peg but thoroughly romantic amber affair, this one is smokier and more tar-like thanks to the oud, and comes across more serious and formal. Avon Premiere Luxe Oud Pour Homme (2016) doesn't smell cheap, nor really anything like any Avon masculine that Americans used to their Wild Country (1967) and Mesmerize for Men (1992) would recognize. Best of all, this is legitimately of EdP concentration, and is an homage of sorts to Yves Saint Laurent M7 (2002). By this, I mean Avon Premiere Luxe Oud Pour Homme riffs off of the original M7, and not M7 Oud Absolu (2011). It's a simple bouquet with mainly a bergamot and black pepper opening reminiscent of Blenheim Bouquet (1902), which is sharper than M7's rosemary bergamot, but it's just a piquant counter-balance to the medicinal Oud star of the show. Avon oud is of course synthetic, but much richer than the "Comet cleanser" M7 oud (which I suspect powers Tom Ford ouds as well), with Avon's having a tar-like eminence and smokey finish. The dry down consists of guaiac wood, amber, and a teeny bit of musk that doesn't take over for the oud like in M7. Just like the old days, Avon heaps on its in-house amber finish, and this is a tradition still alive and well in 2016 when this was released. Oud, pepper, amber, pop! You get nothing less, nothing more, and you get hours of longevity and moderate sillage out of this due to it's EdP performance. I honestly think this could compete fairly well against designer ouds of similar ilk, as it would be positioned for far less than them (under a 3 digit price tag for sure) and could be a great gateway Oud fragrance that contains a well-crafted Oud composite unlike others such as Kanøn Agarwood (2012), which vaguely suggests Oud with a combination of who-knows-what. Ironically Yves Cassar, who developed the original Tom Ford for Men (2006) was the nose here, meaning some reverse engineering of that oud compound may have happened. I paid about $35USD with shipping for this, which is well within Arden/Claiborne prices, and although three times higher than the usual Avon price, is still not terribly expensive for somebody wanting to try a Western Oud.

Avon is really making a mistake by denying the former home audience access to this line, but I understand not taking the risk since the US market has withered so much it was sold off as a licensed LLC. Maybe they think people in America only buy Avon as gifts for Grandma and Grandpa so nothing like this would sell? I don't know, but I do know this: fans of M7 (2002) would absolutely love this, and love even more the fact that they can have 10 bottles of a scent that is every bit on the same level as what they still lament and pay exorbitant sums for on eBay. It's a bit neater and tidier than M7, plus missing the "cherry" note, but a stronger, more fundamental approach to a Western oud oriental without a lot of fillers to hide the star note. Premiere Luxe Oud is still approachable and carried off by a briskness which makes it a great winter time choice, but gives you a slightly bigger oud payoff without being scratchy. Unfortunately, you'll need to jump through some hoops to get it if you live in the US, but this oud is worth the effort. We've moved beyond aquatics and gourmands now, so continuing to get these alongside old Avon staples isn't going to keep new generations of guys interested, but this one certainly will, and at EdP strength, it's a tremendous value with none of the old Avon complaints of being weak or having no longevity holding any weight. Is it an end-all be-all fragrance from the house? No. It's just another Western Oud take, amongst an ocean of such takes, but what makes it important is that it's Avon's take and damn good one, showing them capable of taking the fragrance world seriously, something they've classically neglected since the end of the 1970's. In conclusion, if none of the who-what-where's concern you, this is a simple effective male Oud parfum, but if you follow Avon like I do, this is a real game changer that is sadly not in the market where it needs to be for Avon to affect the most change. Thumbs up.