The new Esprit de Parfum of Oud Ispahan achieves everything you’d want from an extrait rendition of a fragrance, I suppose. It takes the westernised idea of a jammy rose water combined with a basic synthetic oud accord, but takes it that step further into something a little more exciting and interesting. Others have described this as smelling more animalic, I would disagree. It certainly has a degree of subtle filth about it, but this is quite clearly from the dominant presence of cumin - which gives the scent this overall dirty, slightly sweaty feel. A medley of other spices mingle beautifully with the rose and the oud, leaving you with a very bold and intoxicating scent trail. Oud Ispahan was never among my favourites from Dior, although it is a very pleasant scent, but this version I enjoy much more. Despite how lovely it is however, £380 for 80ml cannot be justified for something that overall still smells fairly synthetic and plasticky.
Gotta say as egregiously priced, and pointless as these Esprit creations are, this is the best one. I feel at the very least it will be the saving grace of the collection, appealing to Oud Ispahan fans, of which I believe there’s many. Now, I don’t know how Oud Ispahan has changed over the years, I recall trying it when it came out and thinking it was a superior oud rose but haven’t given subsequent (I believe poor) reformulations a go to compare. However it was on a bandwagon with a million others and although it did shine with a clarity and eventual mass popularity which made it an icon, I wasn’t that interested in owning it. I’d compare it to Portrait of a Lady in that sense, I recognise it’s a HUGE and fragrance culturally important fragrance but it doesn’t massively interest me. Sorry. It’s that broad strokes ‘leathery’ animalic synth oud thing (which has never been so much as near an animal) and has that ‘opulent’ modern accord which smells expensive (and reassuringly IS!!!) and is extra tenacious (lasted a good day on my skin easy) So yeah I liked it, I have to say… As my Caledonian brothers and sisters would say “Yas can get tae fuck with £380!!!”