Perry Ellis is always a fun fragrance house to keep tabs on, what with their constant quest to create affordable doppelganger scents of popular, overpriced designer colognes. They do a pretty good job of it to, so I was definitely looking forward to seeing what they were going to do with the "oud craze."
Black Vanilla Absolute is part of an oud trilogy by Perry Ellis, which includes Saffron Rose Absolute and Vetiver Royale Absolute. It is marked as a unisex fragrance, and a few whiffs quickly reveal why.
It's a very nice vanilla scent, blended with rum and tobacco that gives it an odd similarity to the vanilla extract you would use for baking. It's a light vanilla, airy and not at all invasive.
The oud, on the other hand? I've seen reviews where people claim that there is no oud in this fragrance, and I understand why. It all depends on how close you are to the skin when smelling it. (Keep this in mind when you're deciding whether to wear this to work, or on a date where there might be up-close interaction.)
The oud stays very, very close to the skin, so that from a foot or two away, what you get is 80% sweet vanilla, 20% mild oud. Put your nose up close to the skin, however, and suddenly it's 90% sour (and synthetic) oud and only 10% distant vanilla.
I don't like the smell of this fragrance from that close of a distance, but even the distance between my neck and my nose is enough to give vanilla the upper hand. And it's a very nice vanilla indeed. (Is it ok to say I love the bottle as well? Very sturdy, weighty, dense. It feels good to hold it.)
The projection is moderate, as is the longevity. Sites like Fragrance Net (which has this filed as a woman's fragrance, heads up) are offering 3.4 oz bottles for the very reasonable price of $34.99, so I would definitely recommend picking one up.
7/10 stars.
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