Sarah Baker Perfumes Loudo courtesy of Sarah Baker Perfumes

Sarah Baker doesn’t do nice, safe little fragrances. Her perfumes are the Sarah Connors and Jackie Browns of artisan perfumery: bold, badass, sensual, and not afraid to stir it up. They are also smart and creative, and often, compellingly addictive. A contemporary artist as well as creative director of her eponymous brand, Baker references a wide range of influences ranging from the luxury fashion materials of her Motif collection to French surrealist cinema and Old Hollywood. In Sarah Baker Perfumes Loudo, her newest creation, Baker tapped master perfumer Chris Maurice (a nom de nez of nose Christian Carbonnel) to fashion an oud-centric fragrance inspired by childhood play and, as Baker describes, “how it deeply shapes our ability to understand and use conceptual and abstract thinking.”

Sarah Baker of Sarah Baker Perfumes © Sarah Baker

The perfume’s name is a pun on the Latin word for play, ludo, that incorporates its central ingredient, oud. Baker intended Loudo to be a “showstopper oud” but also to reconsider that ever-trendy ingredient in modern perfumery. “We wanted to take one of the ultimate signifiers of sophistication in fragrance – oud – and reconsider it.” She explains the thinking behind Sarah Baker Perfumes Loudo: “We almost wanted to deconstruct the easy commodification that exists in the fragrance and fashion worlds when deciding where we see this juice; those questions of ‘taste.’ As adults, we are taught that sophistication is desirable and childish tastes are bad … We pose the question: what kind of sophisticated adult do you want to be, one trapped by category restrictions, or one liberated by your inner child?”

Ludo board game via Pxhere

Inner child, please! Loudo opens with some bright bergamot and petitgrain, starting things off with a classic, chipper bit of citric sparkle. But it isn’t long before the Laos oud that is the perfume’s centerpiece comes forward. The first thing I notice about this oud is that it smells of age, and I wonder if that was deliberate. There’s a distinct smell of old, cracked wood dominating the early stages of Loudo, like the redolence of an old chair after being brought down from the attic. Later, oud’s characteristic aspects manifest; the medicinal, wet Band-Aid odor merging with smoked pipe tobacco, burned cherry wood and fresh mulch. Maurice used a tincture of Indian Suyufi agarwood that he created himself. The combination of oud and resin, each echoing the other, gives Loudo a complex woody-earthiness that is quite addictive.

 

Perfumer Chris Maurice via Sarah Baker Perfumes©

What is particularly wonderful about Sarah Baker Perfumes Loudo is the way Maurice underscores the refined oud-agarwood accord with a gourmand undercurrent that references classic childhood sweets – in particular, ice cream parfait – with cherry, vanilla and white chocolate. These notes hopscotch alongside the burnished, very grown-up oud and agarwood accord in the heart, adding a frolicsome touch but never pushing the composition into dessert territory. The ongoing interplay between the high-tone central notes and the elementary school sweets is subtle but effective. Loudo is the Bond Street sophisticate who dresses in Prada and sips bellinis at The Court but who will jump happily into a big rain puddle on her way out, posh threads be damned.

Just when I thought I’d smelled about every permutation of oud on the planet by now – this resinous oil has been flavour of the month for going on a decade, now – Baker challenges me to rethink that. With its unique marriage of elegant oud and quirky, gourmand undercurrent, Loudo is unexpectedly delicious. And it is my favourite of the entire line to date.

Notes: Bergamot, neroli, petitgrain, black cherry, cypriol, orange blossom, white chocolate, Laos oud, Suyufi agarwood, musk, amber, vanilla.

Disclaimer: sample of Loudo kindly provided by Sarah Baker Perfumes. My opinions, as always, are my own.

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

Sarah Baker Perfumes Loudo

Thanks to the generosity of Sarah Baker Perfumes, we have a 50 ml bottle of Sarah Baker Perfumes Loudo extrait de parfum for one registered reader in the UK or U.S. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what strikes you about Sarah Baker Perfumes Loudo based on Lauryn’s review,  where you live and whether you have a favourite Sarah Baker fragrance. Draw closes 11/10/2021

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