Vanille Havane Coeur de Oud, from Les Indemodables was released in 2024. The perfumer behind this creation is Antoine Lie. The notes are Cacao Pod, Cambodian Oud, Jasmine, Vanilla.
Well... I liked the original Vanille Havane I thought it captured really enjoyable facets of both Vanilla (actually much more resinous and woody) and tobacco (actually smells like a tobacco absolute rather than the broad accords found in many tobacco fragrances) I found it to be reminiscent of some hand rolled cigarillos my friend brought me back from the Dominican Republic, and even the wooden box they came in. So I found it impressive but it was still quite a soupy, heavy sort of fragrance, quite artisan in that sense, while I could understand how the prospect of an additional oud material would be complementary, I was thinking it might just further weigh down an already pretty damn, dense fragrance. They've done something pretty miraculous here after a predicable opening of somewhat of the original, rich and sweet earthy tones, you get that heavy, chocolate, resinous, lightly fruity sensation of the oud and then in the drydown it's much more civilized and clearly has some aroma chemical fixation, giving it a lighter, more modern feel but you can still smell the oud which is all important. I think it succeeds in being a very good, very opulent fragrance, which takes the original material, incidentally this was sent along with my sample (a dilute oil, sort of Thai type, fruity oud) which was more animalic and had that slight funk to it which comes out in the opening but is slightly lost later on, which could be a critique from big oud fans. However, I'm a fan of perfumery and I think this perfume accentuates other facets of the material which is it's intent. The one thing I would say is that combining these perfumes you don't get Vanille Havane + Oud (well you do get that) I actually think the sweetness and overall feel of the perfume completely changes direction and feel, to the point die hard fans of the original might not understand this one. Price is prohibitive however the materials are not in question here and perfume price points are mental at the moment for stuff with zero transparency regarding expensive naturals used, so at least here you know what you're getting. Still it's a lot of money and as much as I'm loving wearing this today It's not interesting enough to get me onboard. The example being when I smelled the oud, it's very good but there's many oud oils like this with the more mellow, sweeter facets. I'd like to have seen the rarer weirder shit, like some Chinese oud which smells more like vetiver oil or Indian stuff which is plain animalic, blue cheese, farmyard shit!
Well... I liked the original Vanille Havane I thought it captured really enjoyable facets of both Vanilla (actually much more resinous and woody) and tobacco (actually smells like a tobacco absolute rather than the broad accords found in many tobacco fragrances) I found it to be reminiscent of some hand rolled cigarillos my friend brought me back from the Dominican Republic, and even the wooden box they came in. So I found it impressive but it was still quite a soupy, heavy sort of fragrance, quite artisan in that sense, while I could understand how the prospect of an additional oud material would be complementary, I was thinking it might just further weigh down an already pretty damn, dense fragrance. They've done something pretty miraculous here after a predicable opening of somewhat of the original, rich and sweet earthy tones, you get that heavy, chocolate, resinous, lightly fruity sensation of the oud and then in the drydown it's much more civilized and clearly has some aroma chemical fixation, giving it a lighter, more modern feel but you can still smell the oud which is all important. I think it succeeds in being a very good, very opulent fragrance, which takes the original material, incidentally this was sent along with my sample (a dilute oil, sort of Thai type, fruity oud) which was more animalic and had that slight funk to it which comes out in the opening but is slightly lost later on, which could be a critique from big oud fans. However, I'm a fan of perfumery and I think this perfume accentuates other facets of the material which is it's intent. The one thing I would say is that combining these perfumes you don't get Vanille Havane + Oud (well you do get that) I actually think the sweetness and overall feel of the perfume completely changes direction and feel, to the point die hard fans of the original might not understand this one. Price is prohibitive however the materials are not in question here and perfume price points are mental at the moment for stuff with zero transparency regarding expensive naturals used, so at least here you know what you're getting. Still it's a lot of money and as much as I'm loving wearing this today It's not interesting enough to get me onboard. The example being when I smelled the oud, it's very good but there's many oud oils like this with the more mellow, sweeter facets. I'd like to have seen the rarer weirder shit, like some Chinese oud which smells more like vetiver oil or Indian stuff which is plain animalic, blue cheese, farmyard shit!