L’Oudh is a fragrance created by Andy Tauer for his fragrance line, Tauer Perfumes. This scent was released in 2017.
He says of the perfume, “Wear it and you will be transported.”
LAOTIAN OUDH
L’Oudh is created using a natural oud essential oil from Laos. Laotian oud is special and rare. There are few agarwood trees left in the wild in Laos anymore.
Much of the oud from Laos is known to be barnyard-y. It has a very bovine smell, like cow hides, and cow dung. There is a sharp astringency that I feel deep under my tongue and in the back of my mouth when I smell it. And a pungent, tangy odor that is similar to Roquefort cheese. It is deeply funky, fecal, fermented, animalism — sumptuously dirty and arrestingly ripe.
Andy says on his website that this fragrance was not created around a traditional olfactory pyramid. He created L’oudh accord, with this natural Laotian oud and cypriol, and all the other ingredients are to “support a naturalistic, wild, untamed oudh.”
RUN DON’T WALK
First of all, if you’re reading this, get on Instagram right now and follow @andy_tauer. Of everyone that I follow, Andy’s Instagram is by far the most interesting, and endearing. I haven’t met him, but I’ve seen pictures of him on Instagram, lovingly filling and packaging his hexagonal blue perfume bottles by hand. When I wear his scents, I can feel the thought and care that goes into every bottle. Also on Instagram you’ll be treated to his amazing drawings and photos that he posts there. Soon you’ll agree that he seems like a most awesome human being.
Andy Tauer obtained the oud for L’Oudh with an official CITES license. CITES stands for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. CITES is an international agreement between governments that was created to help prevent trade from threatening the survival of endangered animals and plants. Today, more than 35,000 species of animals and plants are offered some degree of protection under CITES. Agarwood, or oud, comes from some of these protected species. The oud in this fragrance is sustainably sourced from a plantation in Laos and was obtained legally for trade.
Andy writes about this Laotian oud and the story behind L’Oudh in the December, 2017 issue of his magazine, Tauer Mag. I don’t have the magazine in my hands yet, but that’s OK. Because you are going to want to order your own copy, and then you can read the story yourself, straight from the source. You can get the magazine — plus a 1.5mL spray EdP of L’Oudh — at Andy’s website tauerperfumes.com. While you’re there, check out his amazing blog. And get yourself some of his soap. You won’t regret it. I’ll be writing about the soaps very soon, they’re a long-time favorite of mine. Also, if you want to buy me one of his gorgeous 100% silk watercolor art scarves, I won’t be mad.
L’OUDH FRAGRANCE REVIEW
L’Oudh starts out as a wave of tar. While it’s still wet on the skin there is just a passing glimpse of raw fecality. It’s quickly washed away by the smell of gasoline and hot asphalt.
After fifteen minutes, I smell a puddle of deep, dark ink, spilled on a metal tabletop. It smells more mineral than animal. It’s not the fur, it’s the teeth.
The metallic aspect to the fragrance is subtle but quite remarkable. It mixes with the rubbery and leathery facets of the oud to give L’Oudh an industrial, fetish-esque aura.
Over time, the ink shifts to cresols — first antiseptic, then band-aid. But a bad-ass band-aid, one made of rich, black leather.
There are no barnyard animals here, and no woody-earthiness either. It is black as night, ink and pepper, leather and smoke, tar and cold metal, for the first two hours. It feels aloof, austere, kinky, BDSM-sexy. It’s the smell of an urban dungeon.
After that, it shifts a bit. From somewhere deep within, a bittersweet resin emerges. It’s translucent in character, and almost green. There is a buttery aspect to it. At times I smell sour cherry pits. At other times, just a hint of crushed mint. Sometimes grassy tobacco. Sometimes the aftertaste of my favorite Ardbeg 10-year single-malt Scotch. L’Oudh fascinated me for hours.
It’s become all-too popular to just add some oud to an otherwise ordinary fragrance and say that it’s “inspired by the East.” Or to compose a rose-oud or amber-oud fragrance and call it an “Eastern-style perfume.” With L’Oudh, I propose that Andy Tauer has done just the opposite. He’s taken oud, an ancient Eastern ingredient, and presented it in a uniquely modern and Western way.
L’Oudh is a novel and intellectual take on oud. It is natural and smooth, never harsh, but it is different from all my other oud experiences. Cleaner and clearer somehow. A strange and delightful mix of minimalism and complexity. Not synthetic, but almost futuristic.
L’Oudh is the best leather and rubber aspects of oud, with none of the barnyard. It’s not funky, woody, or fruity. It’s not sacred incense or ancient forest, not spice road or Arabic opulence. It’s industrial and hypnotic, like trance music in an underground club, somewhere in Berlin or Amsterdam.
Having said all this, L’Oudh is, above all else, beautiful and wearable. I wore it to work, to the theater, to the bar, to bed, and it felt comfortable and appropriate in all situations. My overall impression is that it is a smart, modern take on oud, with a little bit of daring and sexy underneath. Like suit and tie bondage, or the “naughty librarian.” Not a wild roar, but a low, purring growl.
L’OUDH DETAILS
L’Oudh is a deep, dark fragrance that could be worn by both men and women. It is not beastly in odor or projection — it wears like an attar with low-moderate sillage. Longevity is above-average, I could still smell it distinctly on my skin after 12 hours.
Perfumer’s listed notes are Laotian oud, cypriol, dark vetiver from Java, patchouli, myrrh, castoreum, morel extract, musk, cistus, sandalwood, and ambergris.
L’Oudh is available as a 50mL EdP for $275 at tauerperfumes.com.
