When someone like Andy Tauer decides to do an oud, you sit up and pay attention. Unlike most other brands, Tauer never jumped on the oud wagon, because he disagreed with the way oud synthetics were being marketed to customers as the real thing. Now, having secured a sustainable source of real oud from a Laotian plantation, it’s time to show people what a Tauer oud smells like. Let’s cut to the chase: this is a smoky, leathery take on oud that illustrates the true darkness of the material without eating you for breakfast. It’s not only wearable, but addictive and oh-so-sexy.
L’oudh opens with an inky, raw leather note that’s smoky and soaked in spilled gasoline. Eschewing the traditional accompaniments of rose or amber, there’s nothing here to soften the bluntness of the oud, but it still comes across as smooth, with an oily or buttery texture. The metallic facet of Laotian plantation oud gives L’oudh a cool industrial vibe that suits the Tauer aesthetic very well. But what’s really impressive is that while the L’oudh is certainly animalic, the oud note is not at all sour or fecal. Instead, the accompanying materials have been cleverly chosen to accentuate and draw out the smokier leather and tar notes of oud, rather than its funk. Thus, castoreum emphasizes the warm, rubbery facet of oud, cypriol its inky smokiness, and Java vetiver its brooding, rooty character. L’oudh is an essay in darkness, as black and as unfathomably deep as a tar pit. Despite the darkness, however, L’oudh feels comfortable and lived-in, like a beloved black leather jacket that’s been to a few campfires in its day. Which is, of course, part of what makes L’oudh so phenomenally sexy.
