SoOud Fam, Kanz, Asmar & Burqa

By Marian Stephane Humbert Lucas, perfumer behind SoOud, which made its debut at the Elements Showcase, aims to marry French and Arabian sensibilities in perfumes that meld European elegance with Arabian sensuality. Although not all of the perfumes feature notes that are typically “Arabian”, the overall aesthetic- from the packaging, with it’s clear slit circling the middle of the otherwise opaque bottle, clearly an abstraction of the niqab, to the heavy density of the scents- leans way more towards the East than it does towards Europe. The four perfumes in the “oud group” are: Fam, meaning “The Mouth”, is a powdery floral. Rose, pepper and saffron are prominent, as are sandalwood and musk in the base notes. Kanz, “The Treasure”, is the male counterpart to Fam. Oud, nagarmotha and sandalwood provide a woody backdrop against which the softness of rose and the more angular sweetness of jasmine are highlighted to a degree that might make this fragrance more suitable for women than the male audience for which is was intended. Asmar-“Dark Brown”- notes of Arabian coffee, honey, cloves and tobacco add spice and earthiness to the thick sweetness and ambered warmth of raisins, heliotrope, amber, vanilla and musk. Asmar is classified as a “woody amber” and is the only one of the oud group in which carnation is the featured flower. Burqa- The woodiest of the four “oud perfumes, though rose, amber and patchouli very much help to define it. Each scent is available as Nektar or in the less strong Eaux Fines concentration. Four other scents are part of the SoOud line. A description of them can be found here. (Use Google translate to decipher the French) This line has stirred up some political/social controversy. For those interested, see the comments on 1000 fragrances.