This smells a lot less like a rose-oud than I expected. The initial blast is petrolly oud with piercing, jammy florals, all of which dies down quickly to make way for the undulating, complex waves of woody oud and, to me, magnoilia first, and then rose and hyrax in equal measures. The rose is reminiscent of the metallic roses Christopher Sheldrake makes for Serge Lutens, although this doesn't smell like a Serge Lutens perfume, make no mistake. There is a breathtaking depth to this, with no synthetic edge whatsoever. You have to like magnolia, and you have to be OK with hyrax, as they're both persistent (I mean, all of the notes are but I feel like these two could be the most challenging, as the oud is a very woody, erudite oud). Before long it starts to develop a rich, ambery, nutty, chocolatey base, which is when my heart really starts to sing. Absolutely wonderful and worth every penny. Update: it seemed light when I wore it in my apartment, but out and about it's NUCLEAR, be careful. Update: the more I wear this, the more the hyraceum dominates. This is way more stinky and challenging than I first thought!