Oud Loukoum by Bortnikoff

Good heavens, Bortnikoff is going from bad to worse… I’m a huge fan of the brand and there are simply fantastic fragrances from their early collections where quality is hard to beat, although Ensar Oud does manage to surpass them, albeit at prohibitively high prices costing 5, 6, or even more than seven times the difference compared to a Bortnikoff. I bought this perfume because I’m a fanatic for typical Turkish sweets (a beautiful country I’d return to) called ‘loukoum’, which are gelatinous with a powdered sugar coating and filled with nuts. ➡️ Oud Loukoum opens with an intensely smoky scent due to the oud (organic and wild) which dominates the perfume at 70-80%, with the remainder being ylang-ylang in a sweet base that’s barely perceptible, having a slightly powdery texture. 🚨 The dry down is ambiguous; you don’t exactly know what you’re smelling, it lacks a defined aroma, and you certainly don’t know where the composition is going or what the perfumer’s intention was unless you know the name of the perfume to have some idea, but even then (and knowing the brand’s DNA), I didn’t know what to expect. Is it a chypre? An oriental? Is it going to turn into a gourmand? You have no idea. They should have called it ‘Enigma’ instead of Oud Loukoum. ➡️ After about 10 minutes, the intensity of the oud drops a bit and a little more Peruvian balsam with nuts becomes noticeable; the perfume tries to remind you of Turkish sweets but you have to do a very powerful mental exercise to imagine it. The dry down continues to have an ill-defined scent. Performance is very modest, unisex-masculine. Versatile. Does the perfume remind me of the Turkish sweets I’ve eaten boxes of? No. Is the perfume worth the ridiculous amount of US$350? Not by a long shot. Would I recommend it? No. I expected a gourmand perfume with a resemblance to Turkish sweets and a good dose of woody oud with tobacco nuances and other notes, but no. The problem I see is that Dimitry Bortnikoff is a master distiller of exotic and expensive raw materials, not a perfumer, and here he can use oud (both organic and wild) which I appreciate and am grateful for, but the perfume doesn’t become a gourmand, lacks character, and has no defined aroma. It’s not that it smells bad (it’s pleasant) but it’s a VERY weak offering. My consolation is that I paid 35-40% less than the list price. Discontinued.