Pure Oudi Eau de Parfum Gift Set

Ten materials and the price of a cinema ticket: Lattafa Pure Oudi Eau de Parfum 100ml is the sort of bottle that explains why this house turns up in so many collections. Oud leads it, and it is used generously rather than as a garnish. Dry, sour and faintly medicinal, it does what oud always does, which is to make everything around it smell more serious. Cinnamon and nutmeg join it in the opening, the cinnamon hot and barky, the nutmeg dusty and soft, and together they warm the wood up and make the first ten minutes considerably more approachable than straight oud would be.

The heart is brief and well chosen. Jasmine adds a creamy floral lift that stops the composition from being relentlessly dark, and sandalwood begins the smoothing process that the base then finishes. And the base is generous. Amber brings resinous sweetness, guaiac wood brings a tarry smoke like a blown out candle, vanilla softens everything, musk pulls it close to the skin, and cedarwood keeps a dry clean line running through the middle of all that warmth. It is a thick, sweet, smoky drydown and it lasts for hours.

Expect genuine strength. The eau de parfum concentration projects for the first two or three hours and remains on clothing much longer, so one or two sprays is the dose and anyone who empties half the atomiser onto a jumper will regret it. Winter, evenings, and the colder end of autumn. It reads masculine.

Seven brands, one Sharjah company, trading on Emirates manufacture and built on precisely this kind of composition long before Western buyers discovered it. Pure Oudi is the house doing what it does best, and doing it for less than the cost of a decent shirt.