Guerlain Ouds, Quartana Ierofante, Francesca Bianchi Unspoken Musk Reviews – 2022

From skin to space. That was the trip we took in a recent episode of Love At First Scent, as we travelled from the body-nuzzling intimacies of Francesca Bianchi‘s Unspoken Musk, to the rocket-fuelled velocity of Quartana Ierofante, via three new ouds from Guerlain. Here’s a link to the episode: Guerlain Cherry Oud, Oud Nude, Oud Khol, Quartana Ierofante, Francesca Bianchi Unspoken Musk reviews. For timestamps, please keep scrolling.

Guerlain Cherry Oud (Delphine Jelk) 2:51
Guerlain Oud Nude (Delphine Jelk) 8:05
Guerlain Oud Khol (Thierry Wasser) 12:05
Quartana Ierofante (Luca Maffei) 24:39
Francesca Bianchi Unspoken Musk (Francesca Bianchi) 32:53

We could spend hours going around in circles arguing about whether we ‘need’ any new ouds. Indeed, most attempts to introduce the notion of necessity into a discussion about perfume are destined to result in failure, which is why the question is usually best avoided. Regardless of whether we need them, what we have in these three releases from Guerlain is an interesting example of a venerable, ‘establishment’ brand finally trying to move away from conventional agarwood codes.

Until now, Guerlain’s take on oud has fallen, more or less, into traditional categories. But with Cherry Oud, Delphine Jelk attempts, with some success, to explore the material’s more mischievous side, while Oud Khol sees Thierry Wasser embracing the sour-sweet, part-cheap, part-ecclesiastical territory of perfume-infused bakhoor wood chips. Oud Nude is perhaps the most intriguing of the trio, presenting an unexpectedly quiet mix of oud with vanilla. It’s not quite L’Heure Bleue in the desert, but it’s certainly heading that way.

If Guerlain now feel that they can take this somewhat more irreverent approach to agarwood (similar to what Mathilde Laurent has been doing at Cartier for a few years) then perhaps we are finally nearing the point where the material will be seen for what it is: one member (of several hundred) of the perfumer’s palette, to be treated with as little and as much respect as all the others.

Of the five scents I reviewed in the video, I’d particularly like to draw your attention to Quartana Ierofante, not necessarily because it’s the best of the quintet (although it may well be) but because it’s not going to be the sort of thing you’re likely to stumble upon during an outing to your local high street. Like a supercharged update of Bulgari Black, it kicks up a tornado of rubber, leather and petroleum before blasting off to an especially trippy segment of the moon and landing in an eerie, contemplative, shadow-filled crater. Seek it out, if you can.

Persolaise

[Samples provided by the brands.]

—
If you’ve enjoyed this post, please consider supporting my work
by ‘buying me a coffee’ using the panel below.
Thanks very much indeed.

—