Oud Al Sahraa by Parfums Berdoues is a Oriental Woody fragrance for women and men. Oud Al Sahraa was launched in 2015. The nose behind this
"Created by Christian Vermorel, this sensual EDP uses the honoured practices of French high perfumery to form a powerful and charming fragrance that pays homage to the voluptuous and bewitching note of Oud Wood. From the Arabic: "Oud Al Sahraa" or "Oud of the desert", it conjures up the land of the Orient, blending notes of Italian Mandarin Peel with Namibian Myrrh and Malaysian Agarwood Oud to create an impactful olfactory cocktail." [X]
When the first thing Brain shouts is "ALCOHOL!", you know you need to give the perfume a few long seconds to settle before leaning in for a second hit. 🙄
I don't know if they do this anymore, but back when I was a kid in the 80s, part of your dental treatment routine was a fluoride soak. There was a choice of 5-8 flavours, and the ones that sounded most appetising to a child's palate were always the most disgusting approximations of flavour imaginable (I'm talking about you, "chocolate").
After selecting your flavour, the dentist would fill a pair of foamy-plastic dental guards with fluoride, which had the consistency of Elmer's Glue, and you would bite down on the guards to soak your teeth for several minutes while you were shamed for not flossing and/or not brushing adequately.
If you've never had the pleasure of experiencing the treatment and now feel a sudden void in your life, I have good news for you - especially if you were the freak-child who would've requested something distinctly citrusy - the mandarin note in Oud Al Sahraa is spot-on for orange-flavoured fluoride.
(Just to be clear, I was not a citrusy freak-child. Undiagnosed autism was systematically working its way through all the flavours offered to find the least offensive. I'm willing to concede, though, that orange fluoride was less disgusting than chocolate fluoride.)
I wouldn't have guessed oud was one of the three listed notes, and I certainly wouldn't have guessed myrrh was either. (Oud is sort of my husband's thing, and myrrh is sort of mine, so I feel pretty familiar with the spectrum of both notes after spending about twenty years swimming in the perfume pool.)
Maybe it's just skin chemistry, or maybe it's just sample age, but the only things I'm clocking are orange-flavoured fluoride and baby powder. Not, like, straight-up cheap talc, but a delicate, smooth Johnson's baby powder formulated for delicate skin. No projection, no longevity, but a hefty dose of relief that something that should have worked spectrally failed to even clear the launchpad.
(THOU SHALT NOT COVET LONG-DISCONTINUED PERFUME.)
⚜️ Oud Al Sahraa, by Parfums Berdoues (DISCONTINUED)
