Tom Ford Oud Wood and Tuscan Leather

Took a little trip to a large shopping mall in Jo'burg this week, where they have the full range of Tom Ford fragrances. I sprayed some Oud Wood on the left wrist, and Tuscan leather on the right… so now, a couple of questions for you fine gents: is the scent of Oud Wood a reasonable approximation of actual oud? I know the "right" answer here is that there countless different varieties of oud, and that each one is unique. However, I imagine that as with wine, whisky, tobacco, etc, there might be some kind of general baseline where you could say "yes, that smells like oud" without putting too fine a point on it? Or am I out of my depth on this one?

In any case, I really enjoyed both of them… for the whole hour or so that they lasted. I don't think that I could justify paying this kind of price for frags with such short staying power, but I will definitely be trying them again.

i don't recall Tuscan leather having such short staying power... definitely not my experience.

Silk said:

Took a little trip to a large shopping mall in Jo'burg this week, where they have the full range of Tom Ford fragrances. I sprayed some Oud Wood on the left wrist, and Tuscan leather on the right… so now, a couple of questions for you fine gents: is the scent of Oud Wood a reasonable approximation of actual oud? I know the "right" answer here is that there countless different varieties of oud, and that each one is unique. However, I imagine that as with wine, whisky, tobacco, etc, there might be some kind of general baseline where you could say "yes, that smells like oud" without putting too fine a point on it? Or am I out of my depth on this one?

In any case, I really enjoyed both of them… for the whole hour or so that they lasted. I don't think that I could justify paying this kind of price for frags with such short staying power, but I will definitely be trying them again.

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I've been wondering the same thing for a while now but never asked, looking forward to hearing the responses from some of the members here. BUT, Tom Ford frags are notorious for their longevity. I can't believe that they disappeared after an hour, not when both of those frags last a good 12-24 hours on me and most folks I know. You would have to be anosmic or something is the only thing I can think of - but I wouldn't spend money on anything I couldn't smell, either.

The Chandos said:

I've been wondering the same thing for a while now but never asked, looking forward to hearing the responses from some of the members here. BUT, Tom Ford frags are notorious for their longevity. I can't believe that they disappeared after an hour, not when both of those frags last a good 12-24 hours on me and most folks I know. You would have to be anosmic or something is the only thing I can think of - but I wouldn't spend money on anything I couldn't smell, either.

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+1
I sprayed Tom Ford Italian Cypress early yesterday morning, and I woke up with it on today.

I'm not an oud expert or even that familiar with the finer oud oils, but my understanding is the oud note in most fragrances, including Tom Ford's Oud Wood, is a synthetic interpretation that gives a general idea of what real oud smells like, but is in a different league from the real deal.

I am familiar with Tom Ford Oud Wood, and to me, it smells very similar the oud note in YSL M7, which was also created by Tom Ford. When I smell TF Oud Wood, I smell a fragrance that to me is similar to M7 but doesn't have the additional oriental notes that are in M7. I like them both, but prefer the more complex, slightly dirty oriental blend in M7. But of course, YMMV!

Not that big of a fan of Oud Wood. I need one of the girls at NM or the TF store to give me a 4ml of Tuscan Leather, I always seem to like it when I retry it there.

I've only smelled Oud Wood from an empty bottle, and remember liking it. I own TL and on me it stays for several hours, easily 6+ hours. Even beyond that, I can smell it faintly for a few hours more.

Kind of shocked by the comment about longevity. Our Wood wears a bit light on me, but Tuscan Leather is nuclear.

As to the question about oud, the answer is kind of yes, and kind of no.
The oud in Oud Wood smells quite similar to the oud notes in most other EdTs that make use of synthetic oud, yes.
True oud oils have a variety of different smells and aspects to their character that really can't be captured in a synthetic IMO. The oud synthetics used in EdTs like Oud Wood seem to try and capture a bit of oud personality, but it is blended in with other notes as well.

To my knowledge, a true oud is worn alone, and parents different characteristics over the course of wearing.

Thanks for the replies! WRT the staying power of the scents, I must point out two things: my skin is a bit temperamental (but generally quite dry). For example, the frag I wear most frequently is C & S No.88; some days, it's also gone within a couple of hours, and other days it easily lasts 14 hours or more… the second point is that it's high summer here in South Africa (hot and muggy - I think it was around 35 Celsius on the day in question); perhaps these two factors combined with me walking around in a shopping mall simply burned the scent off very quickly... I would definitely like to try both of these again (and quite a few others in the Tom Ford lineup). To be clear, the scents projected very nicely for a couple of hours, but then seemed to taper off suddenly, after which I was left with very light skin scents which lasted for a few more hours (i.e. if I held my wrists up to my nose and sniffed deeply, I could still smell something, but it was very faint and muted). Anyway, I will definitely be investigating further.

I also found a lot of similarities between Oud Wood and M7, although at first sniff I found Oud Wood to be a lot more pleasant and less challenging than M7 (to my nose, the initial stages of M7 have a very strong "cherry cough syrup" kind of smell, which I don't like very much - overall, I really do like M7 a lot, but I think I prefer Oud Wood).

Something else I forgot to mention is that the wife sprayed on some TF Violet Blonde, which is also lovely. I didn't find a review for it on Basenotes, so I'm guessing it's fairly new?

BTW, is there anything out there that's similar to Tuscan Leather? Montale Oud Cuir d'Arabie maybe?

I had to check my drink when I read your thread to see if someone slipped something in there. Longevity issues with Tuscan Leather? I just can't even fathom it. I get 18-24 hours from this stuff easily. I will still smell it the next day before a shower. It's insanely potent. It's also astounding. I love the stuff.

As far as Oud Wood goes, it's not quite as potent, but I still get 8-10 hours from it without any issues. It's much stronger than most EdTs and some EdPs I have tried. As do whether it smells like real oud or not, well no it doesn't at all smell like real oud. Not even close to my nose. As StylinLA mentioned, it's similar to the synthetic that other perfumers use to imitate an oud-like note, but bears almost no resemblance to the real stuff. Not in my top 10 frags, but probably in my top 25 still. It's a great scent!

As far as Tuscan Leather smell-alikes are concerned, probably the most referenced will be Mark Birley's Charles Street. It's like a Tuscan Leather "light", so if TL doesn't get it done for you in the longevity department, Charles Street surely won't. But it's a fraction of the cost of the Tom Ford. Montale's Aoud Leather is somewhat similar as well. Montale's Oud Cuir d'Arabie is an entirely different beast, but also an amazing beast at that. Worth owning both and I love both.

Yeah, I'm going to have to echo the above responses. I love Tuscany Leather for its longevity (as well as scent). TF has some others that don't last as long (on me), but TL isn't one of them.

Try some other Ouds. It is, to me, a loaded question. As, oud scents (like sandalwood or vetiver) can be all over the place. Smell a couple of Oud-based fragrances to obtain your own "feel" of the note. M7 by YSL, Pure Oud by Killian.