NEW FRAGRANCE REVIEW Caron Secret Oud “Beauty as Balance” + Unusual Beauty Draw

Tell me, dear all: when is beauty not enough ?

“A rose by any other name..?”

Caron’s new release Secret Oud poses this question.

 

There are plentiful- even copious– ouds available everywhere!

Do we need one more?

Perhaps we do – if we aren’t obsessed with linear literalism.

Secret Oud provides a beautiful balance of exquisite elements, oud being only one of several.

If it is pure oud you crave, the Internet will gladly supply you with an embarrassment of choice; if it’s subtle entanglements of an exotic nature you’re after, Caron’s Secret Oud will surely delight you.

It isn’t a zero-sum game.

Enjoyment of one- or the other- doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive 😉

Now that I’ve ranted sufficiently, let’s take a closer look at Secret Oud.

[I owe a boon of gratitude to gentle Diane Haska of the Caron boutique in NYC- she reserved one of her very few bottles for me to purchase!]


East meets West.


From the East we cull Atlas cedar, so richly resinous- and commingle it with oud, the native Southeast Asian heartwood of depth, tenacity, and a certain mystery.

We dapple this with saffron of Southwestern Asian origin, first cultivated in Greece. It now flourishes in the climate of the chaparral and arid areas such as Crete, Spain, Morocco, and Iran.

Jatamansi, also known as spikenard or nard– is a member of the valerian family.

It came to us via travels through Tibet, China, and India.

Jatamansi’s uses are manifold-  in Medieval cuisine and potables [stingo, hypocras], as a sedative, perfume, incense, medicine, and anointment [reference  Pliny, Ancient Rome and the recipes of Apicius, Ayurvedic practices, the Old Testament, Talmud, New Testament…nothing is new under the sun 😉 ]

The Western components include an element of ‘crossover’, in that they may inhabit  both locales.

Jasmine will bloom wherever the conditions are favorable: Egypt, California, Florida, Spain, France, Morocco, et al.

Damask rose follows a similar path; it arrived in Europe from Syria in the mid- 1200’s; Iran and Kabul have a long history of otto production, but variants of this rose flourish throughout the world.

Grey-haired rockrose, aka cistus incanus or labdanum – is a hearty flowering shrub which thrives in poor, often rocky soil. Its resin is exquisitely scented and one of my favorites!

Indigenous to the Mediterranean basin, it can be cultivated in Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and extensively in the Middle East as well.

Musk– in ancient times it was exclusively of animal origin [ male musk deer from Siberia, India, Pakistan, Tibet, China, and Mongolia] and this extraction continued until the end of the 19th century.

Today, its source is far more likely to be vegetal [ambrette, hibiscus’ cousin] or synthetic.

Mosques utilized musk in their temple mortar, and centuries later, one can actually smell it still!

Napoleon’s Josephine, when piqued in the extreme, scented her closets with musk- which aggravated the Emperor no end, as he couldn’t rid himself of the pong 😉


Secret Oud is really about the stealth of seamlessness.

So many essences could be seen as potentially medicinal and troublesome:

Say, saffron, oud, and jatamansi.

Their spicy, no-nonsense personalities interweave with the rosy thick resin of labdanum and experience the sweet mitigation of jasmine and damask rose, softened further by downy musk.

Atlas cedar contributes its stalwart balsam woodiness tinged with spice; in Secret Oud there is no apparition of pencil shavings.

One could almost swear there was a faint patchouli-like presence, but the nose is tricked by Richard Fraysse’s skillful blending.

 

Deeply troubling, suavely perverse and ultimately mystifying-

Secret Oud is about The Secret, rather than The Oud.

The hidden dark chambers of desire where East meets West in a sophisticated seraglio of oriental opulence.

It intones  ritual, sacrificial offerings in Temple times, and the willful abandon of the flesh.

I see no reason whatever why it can’t be enjoyed by everyone-

Although bon marché, it is NOT 😉

Thanks to our friends at Caron New York/ Phyto Universe we have a sample of Secret Oud for one lucky commenter. To be eligible please leave a comment naming an example of unusual beauty to you. Draw will end on December 16, 2011.

Ida Meister, Senior Editor

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28 comments

  • There are many beauties I’ve seen, mostly views from the airplane, animals, almost all has something to do with the nature and natural beauties – the sky, flowers, etc. But also happiness in the people’s eyes. Thanks!

  • Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, every single one of us perceives beauty differently and that makes life interesting!!

  • An example of unusual beauty…hmm, how about that odd blue color of super-compacted ice that you see in icebergs and glaciers? Suffused by light, and Mediterranean blue, but strangely solid.

  • Traversee du Bosphore is an example of unusual beauty that I love very much. On paper the notes are so weird and wonderful, but it works very well for me!

  • There are many, but one of my personal favorites is leafless trees. Nature asks one to look more closely to find the remote beauty of the landscape in late fall/winter, after supplying such obvious beauty in warmer months.

  • Queen Cupcake says:

    Mona di Orio had a captivating but unusual beauty. I have been studying the angles of her face with fascination. So sorry she is gone from our world now.

  • hotlanta linda says:

    Many people think old/ancient trees are ugly – WHAT??? Huge, long-limbed, wirey, and lush, these are BEAUTY!!

  • I agree with Rosarita and Hotlanta linda about the beauty of leafless and ancient trees.
    And I add the beauty of children’s drawings. Sometimes they are so naif and simple… In one way they are ugly but there is so much beauty in them!

  • An unusual beauty for me is the sound of old church bells. When I hear them, I usually stop what I am doing to take a moment to close my eyes and listen.

  • What always strikes me about beauty in people is when you meet someone who is classically pretty but with a bad personality, they grow uglier. Likewise, when you meet someone without traditional good looks with a wonderful persaonality, they grow prettier everyday. I LOVE that!!
    I have yet to try any Caron fragrances so this would be a fun win. Thx.

  • Ah, brings to mind the phrase une jolie-laide, which you covered last month or so. People who fall into this category have an unusual beauty that I love.

    To break down the question “what is unusually beautiful to you”, well, there are some abstract paintings I love, like the works of Clyfford Still. Similar abstract art can be found everywhere. I enjoy picking out random bits of ruin in my urban landscape, such as old crumbling bricks, billboards peeling, vegetation sprouting through sidewalk cracks, paint chipping off paint chipping off paint chipping, electric cables winding around themselves like nesting snakes… I like looking. 🙂

  • i think there is a beauty in sun bleached bones painted by Georgia O keefe… more beautiful than any flower paintings.

    i love Nuit de noel and there is an unusual beauty in many Caron fragrances.

  • Many people find it gross but I think tea tree oil has perfume qualities… don’t hate me.
    Oh and I also find snakes adorable

  • donna s kopenhaver says:

    unusual beauty..to me is.. the “odd” one person male or female that just hasn’t reached the full potential of inner beauty (usually in our 20’s, sometimes later).. I know that in a few years they are going to be so beautiful and confident ..I can just see it..with the awkwardness we all have had..that to me is unusual beauty..

  • Seconding O’Keeffe’s bleached bone paintings as an example of unusual beauty: when I went to the American wing of the MFA in Boston with my sister, we came to a room with several of her paintings (and a really cool touchscreen interactive thingy) and the flowers and leaves did nothing for me but a picture of an animal skull hanging on wood, with a deep blue sky behind, was just breathaking. We talked about which piece in each room we would love to be able to take home, and it was my pick out of the entire wing.

    I am generally squeamish about bones in real life, but must wonder what my life would be like if I were better at seeing the stark beauty in their forms.

    I have some pics from my teenage photography phase of light hitting puddles and raindrops. The gray, sometimes dreary light which saturates the world when it rains has a slender beauty of its own, and so does the smell of mud and the sounds of storms and drizzles alike. I think it might qualify as an unusual beauty, but it might not be so unusual

    Turkeys, which run wild in my neighborhood, are also unusual beauties to me. They’re like gangly, jolie-laide peacocks with attitude. When I see one on a walk I try to take a minute to appreciate.

  • I have always thought that women when they are around children and men when they are engaged in work are beautiful. There is something that brings out the inner light and beauty of the individual in these situations.

  • The first thing that came to my mind when I stopped to think about unusual beauty was the Guérewol. It is a ritual display of male beauty among the Wodaabe people of Niger.

    If you do an image search for Guérewol you will see what I mean. It is only unusual to me because it is not my culture, but if I try, I can understand what the Wodaabe women are looking for in their men during this ritual — white teeth and eyes, both signs of good health and strength.

  • The Rare “Corpse Flower” is a very unusual beauty. Stark and magnificent when it flowers. The aroma that this produces is not one that I would care for in a perfume.
    Lovely article, and I am a big Caron fan..

  • I’ve been discovering unconventional beauty everywhere around me.I can start with one of the main ingredients of this perfume,the oud.I enjoy the oud alone and often apply it,wear it and enjoy it.I lot of modern artists can be an example for something unconventionaly beautiful.Recently I saw videos from the tour of Amon Tobin for his new album.Very interesting artist for most of the people his music might be strange but I find it amazing and the show was out of this world.I would love to see it live.

  • Paul-Laurentiu says:

    A not so unusual beauty compared to those of people who commented above me, but the beauty of love poems is simply perfection to me and my eyes.

  • Michelle Hunt says:

    Spikenard has an unusual beauty…I first time I smelled it I was struck, mostly because I it smelled familiar, yet so strange..not pretty, yet beautiful and it seemed sacred even before I knew of its historical and religious significance.

  • For me the example of unusual beauty is music of Philip Glass.
    If I name his style – serialism, minimalism – or if I describe his music – it will never explain what is so ultimately gorgeous about it.

  • The beauty of the dew on the leaves when I wake up in the morning and I go in the garden.

    Thanks for the giveaway.