Arabian Oud is exactly why I don’t like when people throw every Middle Eastern fragrance company into the same bucket. There is a huge difference between a Middle Eastern clone house and a real Middle Eastern luxury fragrance house. Arabian Oud is the latter. If your entire experience with Middle Eastern fragrances is Lattafa, Fragrance World, Paris Corner, Armaf and all of the other clone-heavy brands, Arabian Oud is a completely different conversation. This house has been around since 1982, comes out of Saudi Arabia, and has built its identity around actual Middle Eastern perfumery rather than chasing whatever Creed, Louis Vuitton, Xerjoff or Parfums de Marly released last year. Now, Arabian Oud is also huge, so I wouldn’t call it niche in the small independent sense. To me, the proper category is: Middle Eastern luxury perfumery. And I think that is where they belong. The foundation is still unmistakably Middle Eastern. Oud. Amber. Musk. Rose. Incense. Woods. Resins. Spices. But the important thing is that Arabian Oud doesn’t feel trapped by those materials. They can go traditional, modern, Western-facing, clean, dark, sweet, woody, resinous or polished. That range is what separates them from a lot of houses that basically have one loud woody-amber base and keep changing the top notes. KALEMAT Kalemat is probably one of the best examples of the traditional Arabian Oud identity. Warm amber. Sweet resins. Woods. Musk. That slightly honeyed, glowing Middle Eastern richness. This smells like it actually belongs to the region it comes from. And that matters. A lot of inexpensive Middle Eastern fragrances today are technically made in the Middle East but are designed almost entirely around recreating Western fragrances. Kalemat doesn’t need to pretend to be anything else. It has its own personality. It has richness and depth without turning into one of those cheap, screaming synthetic oud fragrances that people sometimes associate with Middle Eastern perfumery.

Today I received the last one I won in August 13th: - Moschino: Toy Boy 2 - $71 This is not a flanker of the OG. It’s completely different, and very I glad! Out of my second impression, it didn’t disappointed me. A full review coming with my first wearing tomorrow.