Chopard Oud Malaki EDP

Oud Malaki EDP Chopard

Malaki the Arabic word for royal. And royalty, in the great Arabian perfumery tradition, has always been expressed in oud. Oud Malaki by Chopard is a 2012 Woody Spicy Eau de Parfum for men composed by the legendary master perfumer Dominique Ropion one of the most celebrated and decorated noses of the modern era, creator of some of the most critically admired fragrances of the past four decades. It is a fragrance of sovereign, unhurried authority: fresh and aromatic at the surface, dark and spiced at the heart, and anchored in a base of extraordinary oud, ambergris, and dark woods that speaks with the quiet, absolute confidence of something that has nothing to prove and everything to command.

The opening is cool, aromatic, and immediately distinguished: the sharp, slightly bitter freshness of Grapefruit opens with clean, vivid citrus clarity, while Lavender adds its timeless, warm, herbal-aromatic depth the great classical material of fine masculine perfumery, here given a slightly cooler, more resinous quality by its companions. Artemisia the silvery, slightly bitter, intensely aromatic herb of the wormwood family, used in perfumery for its distinctive green-herbal, almost absinthe-like complexity adds an unexpectedly wild, slightly medicinal edge to the opening that gives Oud Malaki its most distinctive and original top-note character: not simply fresh and aromatic, but fresh with a dark, slightly dangerous undertone that hints at everything that is to come.

The heart deepens into a richly complex, beautifully dark accord of masculine materials: Tobacco warm, slightly sweet, dried-leaf rich forms a deeply comforting, deeply masculine core of great presence. Leather adds its smooth, supple authority, the refined leather of a perfectly made article rather than anything raw or abrasive. And Spices warm, aromatic, and slightly sharp weave through the tobacco and leather with a vivid, Eastern warmth that begins the transition towards the composition’s magnificent, oud-centred base with complete, unhurried confidence.

The dry-down is where Oud Malaki earns its royal name most fully and most magnificently: Agarwood (Oud) the resinous heartwood of the Aquilaria tree, formed only when the tree responds to infection with a dark, extraordinarily complex resin, one of the rarest and most precious materials on earth rises with its characteristic smoky, multi-faceted, deeply resinous authority that no other material in perfumery can replicate or replace. Dark Woodsy Notes layer beneath the oud with dense, deep, forest-floor richness that amplifies its complexity and gives the base its remarkable depth. And Ambergris — the legendary, ancient fixative material of sperm whale origin, now replicated synthetically, with its distinctive clean, slightly sweet, marine-animalic warmth and extraordinary ability to amplify and extend every note around it gives Oud Malaki its defining, radiant longevity: a dry-down that does not simply fade but evolves, deepens, and becomes more beautiful with every passing hour.

• Fragrance Family: Woody Spicy
• For: Men
• Launched: 2012
• Perfumer: Dominique Ropion
• Top Notes: Grapefruit, Lavender, Artemisia
• Middle Notes: Tobacco, Spices, Leather
• Base Notes: Agarwood (Oud), Dark Woodsy Notes, Ambergris
• Concentration: Eau de Parfum
• House: Chopard

Oud Malaki is royalty in scent dark, sovereign, and endlessly, magnificently commanding.