Over the past months I have been experimenting with a fragrance known as Eternal Oud from the famous cognac family known as Kilian. Research will show you that one son from the Kilian family decided to break off and embark on a journey to use the taste of their fine spirits and translate it into fragrance. Our olfactory senses truly are remarkable and for him, I'm sure this journey must pay homage to his families successful name. From the few that I've been lucky enough to sample and wear, I believe his vision is staying the course. Eternal Oud though, much like his other oud fragrances, takes a turn from what was his standard base of spirits-themed scents. Eternal Oud however, remains spiritual. There is something about this fragrance that is intoxicating to my senses and at an attempt to describe it, I will do my best.
In a world of clustered notes, Kilian's vision manages to take three supreme ones and create a symphony. Rose, Oud, Saffron...together these make up the baseline for Eternal Oud; the rest is up to your skin and how the two will react together. From the top, to an untrained nose, the scent of roses and oud will react in a way that can be confusing. It's unapologetic in strength and will permeate the area in which you stay for a little while...but it is not your normal strength. To smell up close on your skin when first applied, this fragrance is hard to understand. Give it time though and even directly on your skin this scent can be matched by no other that I've experienced. From a distance, I get the feeling that Eternal Oud can be intimidating and hard to understand for a few reasons. One, it is unlike anything you'll ever smell on anyone else and I think because of that, people may mistake you for simply smelling like that. I have noticed a level of respect that comes along with wearing this fragrance. Though I have never received an open compliment, I find conversation to be completely professional on days that I wear this. It's almost as if the scent itself creates the atmosphere around me...and then of course my attitude reinforces that air. It is why this fragrance works for me...and only one reason why I will always try to keep it on hand.
Breaking from the technical standpoints, this fragrance also does something for me on an intangible level. Never before have I experienced a fragrance that has taken me so off guard. This first time I wore this to work was at 8 A.M. on a Sunday morning and I did this as a way of testing it in the open air while I was alone. It very quickly became apparent that I was dealing with something that would touch me on a spiritual level. I found myself smiling, I could feel my mood being uplifted...it was like a drug in a sense. The moments of peppery oud and saffron would fuel adrenaline until a note of soft rose would rise and blossom a blanket over the incredible sensations, creating a sense of intoxicating calmness. Fast forward to the next morning more than 24 hours later. The rose, gone, my mind only remembering and studying my experience from the day before. As I made my coffee, "What? No...certainly...there it is." A strong peppery note, the oud and saffron still there but somehow different. Ingrained in the back of my neck, for just a few short hours when air passed over me I would re-live that sensation that only Eternal Oud brings me to. It was that morning I realized that I had found the one fragrance that would stay in my collection. It is one that I will wear on days that are meant to remember my sister.
Those days come often.
Thank you for reading,
-Nicholas
