Agarwoud James Heeley for women and men

A well behaved rose - aoud combo seen million times before. The rose here is a bit too soapy and too fresh for my likening, but this might be a good choice for those who usually do not enjoy heavy rose - aoud combos.
I am actually disappointed. There is no incense, just the soapy rose with well behaved aoud, reminds me a bit of expensive soap with an edge from the aoud.
Give this a try if you must and have the chance, not worth the hunt for a sample.

Nice accord of rose-oud very natural never syntetic never soapy.
A conteporary vision of gothic era or a man with smoking and many tattoo
for evening very pleasant oud coming out without being aggressive
a tamed fragrance for man and woman in full style Heeley.
I can't understand why Heeley has so many detractors maybe 'couse his perfumes aren't arrogant like other around.

A rather sweet (candy/berry) opening with oud. The rose slowly appears to accompany the oud, mimicking the usual oud/rose attempts that many houses try.

I am not impressed. It actually smells cheap and for some reason has a bubble bath type of smell. Save your money and go for the many other, better quality rose/oud fragrances out on the market.

I find this to be one of the best oud / rose combinations. Unlike many oud scents, this one doesn't smell like a barnyard, thanks to the lack of the leather note along side of the Oud. This seems to be a sport flanker of those deeper oud fragrances. It's a champagne-like oud / rose. Bubbly and light. An oud for the summertime. Inoffensive and clean.
One of the best oud fragran... No, one of the best fragrances I have smelled. They want a lot for this, but I will give it to them gladly.

For four years in the making Agarwoud is unfortunately ... um ... rather uninspired and uninspiring. So I'd say for fans of rose flavoured ouds only. (But even then, there are already so many such that far surpass it. So all in all a touch redundant unfortunately. So I'd change that to, for die-hard Heeley fan-heads only rather.)

When I first saw this new line by Heeley I really got excited to see he finally decided to introduce in the market three new fragrances in extrait de parfums diluition. I've always been a "fan" of many of his previous fragrances such as Cuir Pleine Fleur, Sel Marin and Iris De Nuit but longevity has always been an issue, so seeing these extraits made me think about something even more satysfying. Last but not least, my curiosity to smell Heeley's take on oud was definitely genuine. This is to say that I was really well disposed towards this new launches and I was sure to smell something brilliant, original and unique.

I got the three samples together with an informative brochure and I decided to start with Agarwoud (Agarwoud?? I had to double check it wasn't a typo). Looking at the inspirational words I see "Siddartha", "Extrait De Devotion", "Control", "Poverty"...I started getting suspicios. Ok, let's smell it...

Yet another iteration of the rose/oud combo? Really??? Ok, calm down. Rumours wants that this composition has been on the making for more than four years, so at the time we weren't yet overwhelmed by the oud overkill and James Heeley was probably not aware of the huge amount of oud compositions that in a few years would have over crowded the market.

Agarwoud smells like the basic structure of many western oud-centered compositions. It's not as boombastic and dark as Black Aoud and the rose note is definitely more restrained. It's not refined and opulent as Epic Woman. It doesn't have the gourmandic twist of Red Aoud...it's just oud and rose laying on an ambery base. Minimalistic (as many of the Heeley's previous compositions), moderately powerful (considering is an extrait), honestly crafted but not particularly interesting.

Overall Agarwoud smells fine but it arrived on the market a bit too late.

As a friend used to say: "What's... Agarwoud? It wood if it could."

Rating: 6.5/10