Tobacco Oud
Tom Ford (2013)

Tom Ford has become so ubiquitous, and now has so much competition, that it's increasingly difficult to remember why the Private Blend line was a game-changer for the broader industry and the fragrance community.

The year in which Tobacco Oud released, 2013, arguably marked the end of the Private Blend's influential run. In 2013, alongside Tobacco Oud, additions included London and Oud Fleur and Plum Japonais, which mostly felt like natural extension of the lines as it had developed to that point.

Upon release, Tobacco Oud was received by many as "Tom Ford"-y to a fault. Gillotin, the perfumer behind the smash-hit Tobacco Vanille, returned to do a darker take on tobacco with facets of Amber Absolute (smoky amber) and Tuscan Leather (an ashtray drydown), and, in name and packaging, a nod to Oud Wood (though there's not much, if any, "oud" here, so that's really just spin). So, depending on who you talked to, Tobacco Oud was either a sign of the house running out of new tricks, or, more charitably, a welcome remix of TF's greatest hits. (Indeed, just a few years later, the Private Blend would shift towards issuing outright flankers.)

In the broader scheme of things, though, Tobacco Oud is fairly unique. I'm a tobacco fragrance junkie, and I've tried many, many tobacco scents and can't say I've tried much of anything that falls into a similar vein.

Tobacco Oud delivers a very linear dose of raw, rich tobacco with cold, ashtry smokiness, and a bit of booziness to provide some moisture. As it slowly fades out, the late drydown takes the form of a grayish, ashy amber, like a pipe that has gone out but is still warm. It is certainly not pretty, and in heavy application quickly becomes nauseating (so go light on that trigger, I say). This is one scent that will get friends asking if you've been out smoking.

Even in the broader luxury/niche space, it's not all that common to encounter such a full-bodied tobacco accord in a scent. This offers the kind of tobacco you usually have to go to artisanal perfumery in order to find. The downside is that that's almost all you get - it's a one-effect perfume. It's aggressively straightforward even by Tom Ford standards.

Allow me to propose that what Encre Noire does for vetiver, Tobacco Oud does for tobacco, and for both, the severity and purity of the experience is the point.

Straight off, it is indeed surprisingly close to L'air du Desert Morocain. Then TO morphs into a pleasant mix of church incense, pepper, a hint of bourbon, and if you sniff carefully, something faintly resembling oud. After an hour, the bourbon is sweeter and on top but by then, it's barely detectible. Overall, it's well-constructed so I'll give it a just-barely thumbs up, but there are other examples of this pyramid with way more staying power for a lot less cash.

The opening is loaded with dry spices, tobacco, and a good bit of badass. The amber emerges more strongly as the perfume develops, representing a sort of whisky accord, eventually settling into a warm tobacco-amber number. One of my favorites from the brand.

The opening blast is really the only time when the two eponymous core ingredients are present concurrently:

The tobacco is an mix of dry stale cigars - without the sandy undertone typical, for instance, of Sumatra cigars; it is more on the earthy side. The oud is rather discreet, pleasantly mixing the woodsy with a gently spicy undertone. Soon it disappears, leaving behind a more nonspecific woodsiness that occasionally displays characteristics of a faint sandalwood impression.

Soon the main part of this creation becomes evident: a delightful sweetly restrained triad of oriental spices, with a darker coriander complimenting a deeper labdanum very aptly; a cistus gives them a crispier and brighter touch. The latter received another touch of brightness by a slightly bitter castoreum that develops at a later stage. Towards the end, a soft and light-bodied patchouli delivers a rather innocuous boost.

The last note added over the final third of its development id a medium-bodies dark coffee impression.

I get moderate sillage, excellent projection, and seven hours of longevity on my skin.


Apart form the nigh-absence of the oud, this autumn scent in quite good; it combines an original spice impression based on fairly common ingredients - not an easy feat - with some more generic components that make some stretches less convincing towards the somewhat anaemic end. 3.5/5

Full-spectrum tobacco, now with extra amber calories. No one could accuse Tobacco Oud of being skimpy, even if the oud is missing in action. This is a rich tobacco smelling of opening long closed wooden wardrobes and of bone-dry leaves, before a peaty moistness creeps in. Sweetish, yet with an almost umami meatiness to it. It's backed by a nice raw, stripped wood accent (cedar). Impressive for a short while, I find the lack of any deviation from the gents' club vision of tobacco from which this thing seems to have sprung wears me down.

A slightly sweet spicy/ashy boozy tobacco

A Fantastic boozy slightly sweet whiskey, spice (cinnamon), ashy tobacco (including unlit cigars) with some benzoin and amber in the drydown. Excellent performance.

Overall score: 9.2/10