Oud Ispahan Dior Review & Jo Malone Oud & Bergamot Review

Before we get into the Oud Ispahan Dior and Jo Malone Oud & Bergamot perfume reviews, we need to understand the mystery of oud first. Oud is the essential oil that is distilled from agarwood, which is a raw, resinous product formed in the heartwood of Aquilaria trees when they get infected by a type of mold. These trees are grown in south and south-east Asia, such as India, Bhutan, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. Oud scents and fragrances are very popular in the Middle East, especially with the Arab culture in which oud is seen as a precious ingredient for its cultural and religious values, and had been used in incense and body oils in ritual cleansing as well as the healing of diseases for centuries. The raw oud that is extracted from agarwood smells animalic, woody, and just wild in nature, which gives the impression of a masculine scent. As such, oud is an extremely difficult ingredient to accord well with other notes in perfumery especially in unisex fragrances for both men and women. That is why, the Dior Oud Ispahan and the Jo Malone Oud & Bergamot came as such rare and masterful oud formulations for me that I had to review them. You may watch my review video below if you’re into visuals as my video presentation may depict my thoughts more discernibly that way.

Oud Ispahan by Christian Dior Review

The Oud Ispahan was released in 2012 by Christian Dior’s La Collection Privee. It has Labdanum (amber) as its top note; rose, patchouli and saffron as its heart notes, and sandalwood as well as cedar as its base notes. Many reviewers said that the Dior Oud Ispahan opens really strong, but my experience says otherwise. The strength only picks up midway in my case. It smells like bamboo on the first spritz – a mixed whiff of floral water sweetness with a little woodsy greens trailing behind. The opening can be reimagined as spreading open a folding fan, with mild floral and woody scents wafting from its sticks and scented paper. It also forms a mental image of drawing open a portiere, possibly looking into an imperial powder or dressing room. But once the opening of the scent is done greeting you, the perfume gets bolder and more peppery about half an hour later; this time the scent gets more occult as the oud base gradually emerge. Sure it gets intense this instance as the scent starts to get incensy, but it isn’t smothering in any way. It just leads you into a meditation room of sorts, with the scent of the Far East surfing around you. Although the projection at this point is the strongest, the perfume sets your mind calm and your heart, spiritual. As you get to its base, the scent becomes darker but warmer. Even though the projection isn’t at all great now after about 5 hours or so, it remains pretty strong within a personal range even beyond 8 hours. You get more tobacco during the dry down, making the remnant scent more pleasantly rustic and crisp than it already is. Frankly, it is at this point where its true beauty shines. It is like dusting off dirt from a relic, before you see it’s value getting unearthed.

Jo Malone Oud and Bergamot Cologne Intense Review

The Jo Malone Oud and Bergamot Cologne Intense has been reviewed mostly as an overpriced fragrance mainly due to its weak longevity, contrary to what its line of “cologne intense” suggests. However this oud perfume has also been praised for changing the minds of oud-haters because of how well balanced it is. I have to agree on both aspects, but am more forgiving towards the former simply because oud is not easy to work with at all. The Oud & Bergamot cologne was launched in the year 2010. On Jo Malone’s website it is stated as only bergamot, cedar and oud as the fragrance’s top, heart and base notes. We all know there has to be more ingredients there are to it – so with a little digging around online, I got to know that there are also lemon and orange in the top notes, as well as praline in the base notes. Granted it performs like an eau fraiche (no kidding it is that light and fleeting), the masterful effort behind this composite is no mean feat. It opens fresh, clean and slightly sweet; just as that glide of freshly water-sprayed fruits you get when stepping into an orchard. This gourmand quality of the fragrance gets carried through from start to finish. In less than two hours, the heart note of cedar gets taken over by the oud and praline from the base, during which you’d feel like you’re being ushered into a warm cabin after a stroll outside, where barrel-aged wine and chocolates await, leaving you with a perfectly balanced ending. The Oud & Bergamot cologne gives more palatable visuals than those of time and place, except that oud is not the main course here in this case; it is more of an element of pairing that is complimentary to the other ingredients that make up this fragrance. To be able to encompass oud into a fragrance and having it smelling this dulcetly flavourful to me definitely has a place in my perfume go-tos. I could more than get past its airiness for that, because had it been more solid, it wouldn’t be a unisex fragrance for me but a feminine one.

Oud Perfumes for Men and Women

The Dior Oud Ispahan and the Jo Malone Oud & Bergamot are both very distinctively different perfumes. The Oud Ispahan exudes a very tranquil and mystifying persona, while the Jo Malone Oud & Bergamot comes across as warm and amiable. Both are however, masterpieces in my opinion, and are very wearable for both men and women.

Price & Where to Buy

The Christian Dior Oud Ispahan perfume retails at SGD$360 for 125ml (featured) and SGD$175 for 40ml at Christian Dior Singapore online shop and La Collection Privee Christian Dior fragrance boutiques. The Jo Malone Oud & Bergamot cologne intense retails at SGD$293 for 100ml (featured) and SGD$202 for 50ml at iShop Changi.com or Sephora Singapore online and outlets. For your man, you may wish to get the intense version for him from the Jo Malone Official Flagship E-store here [in-store promotion voucher available]: