Oud Imperial Eau de Parfum 
Perris Monte Carlo (2012)

Holy moly. I can't believe I found an alternative to Oud Cashmere Mood by MFK. That fragrance has been discontinued so I was looking for something that smelled really similar. The opening smells a bit unrefined compared to OCM, but the drydown smells 80% similar.

It's pretty much a dry oud and incense fragrance with a bit of vetiver in the base. Some say it's like a dry sauna. It definitely has that blackwood note that gives off a sauna vibe. If you can get past the harsh opening, the drydown is worth the wait.

The performance is pretty good and it last the entire day. I think I'll have to get a full bottle of this so I can replace Oud Cashmere Mood.

Perris Monte Carlo is an interesting mid-tier niche house out of Monaco, themed around every fragrance having some relation to the substance of gold, the color of which adorns every bottle. The collection straddles both Western and Middle Eastern styles, but veers slightly towards the former with ingredients usage and exectution, so it's of no surprise that Oud Imperial (2012) does the same. For starters, this is mostly a Western-themed oud fragrance that is, for better or worse, a child of Yves Saint Laurent M7 (2002) with its medicinal sythetic oud note. Unlike most designers toying with this note, Perris Monte Carlo by way of perfumer Luca Maffei tries to dress it up with a bit of Middle Eastern barnyard muskiness, then pads the rest out with good old-fashioned 1980's powerhouse masculinity. I feel the last part makes Oud Imperial a veritable shoe-in for vintage masculine connoisseurs, the kind of whom usually hang out in Basenotes Vintage Forum or in various Facebook groups dedicated to the decade, and could almost be an entry point into the oud phenomenon for guys of this taste persuasion. For everyone else, Oud Imperial may be a bit of a hard sell in the face of popular "Comet cleanser" Tom Ford ouds (also the children of M7), or the really dyed-in-the-wool oud addict stuff like Areej le Dore, Bortnikoff, Parfums Dusita, or any host of Arabian attar makers produce.

The opening of Oud Imperial is a blast of petrol-like aldehydes, jasmine indole, caraway seed, and that rubbery, medicinal oud note that is made a bit more animalic by the former. At first glance, one might suspect this of being something truly "barnyard" in scope, but these opening touches die away rather quickly to let the oud note play around with more aromatic tones of camphorous patchouli, spicy saffron, and a bit of olibanum. Smokey 80's-style vetiver makes Oud Imperial sit somewhere between Jacomo de Jacomo (1980) and Giorgio Beverly Hills for Men (1984), but graced with that ever-present oud molecule. The base has labdaum and a high-quality sandalwood note (probably polysantal) that adds to the oriental muskiness of the compositon, with a few other woody notes zinging about to underpin the "oud" theme. Wear time is pretty much all day and sillage is appreciable but not suffocating. However, if you want a warmer and closer-to-skin version of this scent, the extrait de parfum is available too, which smooths, extends, and enriches the scent at the usual cost of projection. I'd say use this in formal or evening situations during cooler weather when you want something that isn't an amber or leather fragrance. Oud Imperial is almost a modern Antaeus by Chanel (1981), if not for that glaring lack of castoreum-fueled leather.

Perris Monte Carlo Oud Imperial is sold as unisex, but unless you're a stone-cold fan of this powerhouse brute style, it is likely not to wear well on people who prefer fragrance that reads feminine according to conventional wisdom. Also, while the price tag of $190USD is far from the most expensive of niche oud perfumes out there (although the extrait is much higher), Oud Imperiale barely does more than your average designer oud take outside being a bit more daring with animalic notes or anachronistic style. Also, there's the fact that Jacques Bogart more or less copied this scent with their One Man Show Oud Edition (2014), which sells for a fraction of the price for those less-willing to risk a blind buy and unable to sample. To be fair, the Bogart is much more synthetic and less smooth than the Perris Monte Carlo, but offers the same aesthetic and even better performance (which may in fact be too much performance) per dollar spent. One could almost use the Bogart scent as a test bed to see if they'd like a more-refined and rounded version of the same concept, then upgrade to Oud Imperial afterword. All in all this is a good, punchy, masculine Western take on oud, offering a nice middle ground between the department store, and the souk. Thumbs up.

One of the permanent of my small collection: something I will never give up. Perfectly made, with a tremendous presence that does not nullify the attractiveness of its calibrated character. The opening of a stroke of dry and exaggerated verdure turns your head to fainting. It is beautiful to see how the wood appears in its conspiracy seated on a pure oud, simply clad in a leather accord and dark spices, in turn firmly entwined in a carpet of grass and dry moss. I love the terrible alcoholic enigma that sharpens, with serious decision, the maintenance of this forceful mixture. Eventually everything settles down, and the oud that begins to flourish in all its black character reminds me of other wild compositions of the market, which, however, have not excited me as much as the present here.
This is wood with more wood. Dark and brown, resinous and polished. It is superlative and balanced, and, somehow, pure in its bizarre unity. I like the conceptualization of the perfume worked by this house, and I would present this creation as the most finished emblem of its art.

An incredibly beautiful and intense Oud. Much like Killian Pure Oud. This is a gladiator of a fragrance that will always win. And I love it. This again is not for the meek, nor for those who like a sweet fragrance. It is a very assertive scent. Very distinctive and much to my liking. Next to Derby this scent gets more comments from friends who either love it or are frightened by its power and shy away from it.