The Master Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud has been down in the Louis Vuitton laboratories, monogrammed lab coat on, Cruise 2019 goggles on. With a getup like that it’s no wonder he is the olfactory Master. For the new Les Parfums Ombre Nomade scent Belletrud looked to the Middle East where perfumes are apparently as highly coveted as a suite of jewellery. Love the commitment to smelling good. It goes deeper than that, a traditional, generational culture of high perfumery. So for a fragrance master, this is the dream. With this in mind Belletrud looked to raw materials, particularly oud wood. Apparently it’s all the rage in high perfumery. “You can’t fool the connoisseurs,” says Belletrud. “I absolutely wanted to rise to their expectations.” So rise to them he did, taking the popular material, which FYI comes from Southeast Asian Agar tree, and is a dark resin scent that is often called “liquid gold.” However it’s more expensive than solid gold. Just how we like our fragrances – deriving from a material rich in scent and dollar. This particular perfume is a homage to the lovers of oud and also the lovers of Louis Vuitton, aka us, who will willingly douse ourselves in anything they create. The difference of the use of the oud wood here is that it “diffuses the changing reflections as if there were so many plumes of smoke, shaped by the wind on desert sand.” Oh how picturesque. A scent like this calls for a Middle Eastern trip where we will frolic through the deserts watching sunsets. Obvs it’s not just oud happening here but also a hint of raspberry, a dash of rose with all those spicy, woody notes infused. Other bits here and there but we’ve gone into enough detail with this oud history lesson and are off to Harrods where Ombre Nomade is being sold exclusively now. A new Louis Vuitton perfume and collection in the same week? Blessed.
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