Roja Parfums
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Artemisia's herbal bitterness cuts through bergamot-laced sweetness like a knife through honeycomb, while cardamom adds a green, eucalyptus-tinged sharpness that momentarily suggests this might behave itself. It doesn't last—within minutes, the gourmand sweetness begins its slow, inevitable bloom, and you realise resistance is futile.
The May rose emerges drenched in amber and labdanum, a floral accord so thick with resin you could practically spread it on toast, whilst the oud weaves through with its signature medicinal twang softened by frankincense smoke. Cumin adds a body-warm, almost savoury quality that prevents this from reading as dessert, instead suggesting something far more carnal—spiced skin and sweetened smoke.
What remains is a woody-amber haze where patchouli, cedarwood, and cypriol meld into a single earthy-sweet entity, the oud now fully tamed and domesticated. The sweetness persists but deepens, less candy-like and more like aged wood saturated with decades of incense and rose oil, clinging to skin with the tenacity of a fragrance that knows its own worth.
Roja Dove's Sweetie Aoud is an audacious exercise in cognitive dissonance—a gourmand oud that shouldn't work yet somehow does, brilliantly. The perfumer has taken the medicinal, leathery facets of proper agarwood and draped them in an amber-spun sweetness so enveloping that the result feels like stumbling into a Beirut patisserie that shares a wall with an incense merchant. The May rose here isn't the demure English garden variety; it's honeyed, almost syrupy, intertwining with labdanum and cistus to create a resinous floral heart that pulses with warmth. Meanwhile, the supporting cast of woods—cypriol's earthy musk, guaiac's smoky depth, amyris's gentle cream—provide enough textural complexity to prevent this from sliding into cloying territory.
What's remarkable is how Dove balances the cumin and cardamom against the frankincense, creating a savoury-sweet tension that keeps you sniffing. This is unabashedly rich, unapologetically maximal perfumery for those who find Tom Ford's oud experiments too polite and Montale's offerings too linear. It's for the wearer who wants their presence announced before they enter the room, who considers fragrance an art form rather than an accessory. Winter evenings in cashmere and velvet. Gallery openings where the art on the walls pales in comparison to what you're wearing. This is oud for people who've smelled enough oud to know that sometimes, breaking the rules yields something far more interesting than following them.
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3.9/5 (1.1k)