All stories must come to an end. Hopefully those ends are satisfying to those who are keeping up with the tale but all journeys eventually end. In perfumery the Arabian Nights collection of oud fragrances for By Kilian has released its fifth and final chapter called Musk Oud. In many ways these five fragrances mirror the inspiration of Scheherazade spinning stories to her husband king for 1,001 nights keeping him so enthralled he never gets around to executing her. Scheherazade spun stories of all kinds; fables, mysteries, love stories, historical narratives all which kept the king wanting more. These five fragrances took the note which has been the overpowering note which has executed many a modern fragrance and found a way to tell five parables of oud. It started with Pure Oud, which gave us the story straight. With Rose Oud the story was a classic about a long time pair of lovers. Incense Oud was a mystery of how to have oud without actually having oud.  Amber Oud was a sweetly emotional telling. All of these previous Arabian Nights were the product of a single perfumer, Calice Becker, and I expected her to finish the run but to my surprise a new storyteller arrived for the final installment, Alberto Morillas.

M. Morillas is one of the consistently best perfumers of mainstream fragrances we have and on the rare occasion he takes a trip to the niche side he has made some unforgettable perfumes. This is the second perfume he has made for By Kilian, his first was Good Girl Gone Bad for the new In The Garden of Good and Evil Collection begun last year. The end of that fragrance had a fantastic dirty skin accord made up of musk and vetiver and my remembrance of that made me believe he would have an excellent insight into the musk part of a fragrance named Musk Oud.  Of course we should never forget that M. Morillas and Jacques Cavallier were the perfumers behind the fragrance which introduced oud into the western olfactory lexicon, 2002’s Yves St. Laurent M7.

Scheherazade by thegryph

For this final fragrant fable M. Morillas starts slowly and builds to a big finish. In fact I think the start was so slow and I tried it for the first time late in the day I was slightly disappointed. The next day on a cooler than normal day I applied it after my shower and through the course of the day the detail and nuances were allowed to take their time and the tale they spun turned out to be quite special indeed.

Scheherazade the Sultaness by Cyd Wicker

If M. Morillas has a trademark fragrant move it would be the fresh opening. It could easily be said it was he who created the trope which many other perfumers have imitated. Usually he uses a variation on bergamot, lemon, and mandarin. For Musk Oud he substitutes cardamom for the bergamot and it sets the proper Spice Trade vibe for an oud-centric fragrance. There is a bit of cypress and coriander but it is the freshmakers above which start things off. I think it is this beginning which made me think less of Musk Oud on first sniff but in three subsequent days of wearing it the cardamom really is an elegant foil for the citrus notes and it is the critical early note.  The heart is rose, davana, and rum. It is mostly rose but the rum accentuates the sweet part of the rose. Davana also helps on keeping the rose sweet but it is the rum which gives it a bit of boozy foundation which makes the heart beat. In the base we finally get down to the title notes as oud and musk finally make their presence known. It actually takes a fair amount of time for Musk Oud to actually find both the musk and oud but when it does frankincense is used to smooth out the sharper facets of oud and patchouli makes the musk a bit more like sweaty skin. When they come together it forms an intense but not overpowering conjugation of both notes and Musk Oud lingers at this point for hours on my skin.

Musk Oud has overnight longevity and modest sillage.

Musk Oud is the quietest of the five Arabian Nights fragrances but it also has a much tougher job to still be able to catch a wearer’s attention after all of the previous stories have been told. M. Morillas is able to make this figurative tale for the 1,000 and first night a story of humanity that ends with its emotion firmly worn on its perfumed sleeve and that is what makes Musk Oud special.

Disclosure: This review was based on a sample I purchased.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor