Rose Oud
Kilian (2010)

I was accidentally sent this one once when I had ordered a bottle of Black Oud. I didn't realize until after spraying it on my skin and was taken aback by the scent. This is a pretty standard synth rose-oud with saffron. Nothing less, nothing more. Boring and uninspiring. I immediately sent the bottle back.

here we go again...another entry in the rose-oud world...i feel like i smelled a gazillion of these in the last few years....still, it's nice to smell an entry like this that smells of quality blending and ingredients...slightly spicy/woody rose and oud combo...do prefer this one over a lot of others i've sampled...decent projection and longevity...in my opinion, a unisex fragrance...good stuff...enjoy...

The opening is pretty much the whole story: Rose, saffron, and oud… Although it certainly doesn't win any awards for creativity, it is a quality accord that is almost painfully beautiful in a By Killian sort of way... Not a surprise. This one is perhaps as well done as any rose-saffron-oud fragrances I've smelled… The quality of the combined accord is excellent, but I have difficulty discovering the quality of the individual notes. A problem I have is that I've smelled so many of this combination of notes that I've become jaded… I find nothing special here to separate it from the rest of its ilk. And yet it is an admirably presented fragrance.

Not much changes from that first sniff… there some are variations in the development as Rose Oud continues, but they to not call to be pointed out. The entire run of the fragrance is a beautifully assembled, balanced accord of quality rose, saffron, and (artificial) oud. Its sillage performance is easily adjustable; its wearablity is remarkable; and its longevity is more than adequate.

This is one fine fragrance.

Possibly the most boring rose fragrance I have encountered. Armani's Calligraphy Rose for 5x the price.

I would make more effort with my review but at $570 Australian dollars for 50ml, I feel that it is By Kilian that needs to be trying harder.

A wearable rose fragrance with interesting supporting ingredients to give it decent character. I got good longevity from it, and a complexity of different phases of development.

Rose, oud, saffron, gaiac wood, cardamom……yes, it's the typical line-up for your average rose-oud fragrance. I'll excuse you if you're not getting too excited – I know I wasn't. But I find myself haunted by my sample of By Kilian Rose Oud, long after it's gone, and I'll tell you why. It's one of the easiest rose-oud fragrances to wear, as well as the most serenely beautiful. It has none of the exciting harshness of the oud accord used in most other Western oud fragrances, and is all the better for it. Think of the most beautiful supermodel you've ever laid eyes on - but one who nonetheless fails to either move you or turn you on - and that's Rose Oud by Kilian.

The secret to the success of Rose Oud is this: all the major elements (the rose, the oud, the gaiac wood, and the saffron) do not possess a strong character of their own but instead melt together to form a small black velvet pocket into which you find your hand fits perfectly.

So the green, slightly sour wet rose at the start gains a dulcet depth from the subtle oud, growing sweeter, jammier, and fuller as time goes on. The oud provides the dark backdrop without muscling its way into the composition in that bullying way oud tends to have. The saffron casts only a fine patina of sweet gold dust rather than its usual iodine-y leather scream. It's a very subtle, smooth fragrance - almost ephemeral. When I think the show has ended, eight hours on, I am surprised to find that golden, almost pudding-like saffron emerge on my skin, and a pleasantly sour tinge of oud.

Calice Becker knows her roses. Boy, she knows her roses, and Rose Oud is a rose done right. The eventual jamminess and “wetness” of the rose here mimics the pulpy lushness of the flower at the start of Liaisons Dangereuses (also by Calice Becker), but without that peach shampoo thing that Liaisons Dangereuses slithers into towards the end.

The oud, by the way, is synthetic but has the virtue of not smelling like it, so carefully woven into the fabric of the fragrance has it been. Yet more proof that it is more the skill of the perfumer (and to be fair, the art direction, for which we can thank Kilian Hennessey himself) than the raw materials that matters in terms of the final result.

Rose Oud is a beautiful, delicate piece of work whose subtleties could easily go unnoticed if you weren't paying attention. It is by far one of my favorite rose-oud fragrances, and despite the cost, I have a feeling that I will own a (refill) bottle of this someday, even if I have to sell off some of my (many) other oud fragrances to afford it. I have finally reached the stage where I am content to do away with five or six inferior bottles of perfume to get my hands on just one bottle of something that satisfies and pleases from every angle.

Rose Oud may not be the most exciting or unusual rose oud on the market – many think it is pretty but mundane – but I think it's one of the best-smelling rose-ouds around, perhaps only bettered by Tom Ford's wonderful Noir de Noir or Guerlain's Rose Nacree du Desert.