Virtuous Oud by Zara

If you asked me which is Zara’s most overlooked gem, it’s undoubtedly Virtuous Oud. It was a fragrance that got ahead of its time, and people simply failed to appreciate it. The reason for its failure was Carlos Rubio, that YouTuber who lives at Zara, who claimed in a video that it smelled of fish or cuttlefish. He later retracted his statement, saying the tester was broken, but the damage was already done. Furthermore, Virtuous was eclipsed by Elevated Oud, which stole all the spotlight. It was also unfairly labelled as an Acqua Di Gio clone just because Morillas was the creator, much like what happened to its sibling Elevated with Gucci Guilty Absolute, despite having nothing in common. It is an accessible oud ideal for beginners, with no risk of the scent overwhelming you. Although it was compared to Acqua Di Gio’s ADN, for me it follows the path of Tom Ford’s Oud Wood, but much more citrusy at first. It could be the perfect hybrid between both. Its profile is a winter citrus that gives you energy and makes you feel good even in the cold, without being too dense or too fresh. It’s like a white oud, a true all-rounder that goes anywhere. If this had been released by a niche brand for $100, it would have had much more hype. But it came out at Zara at an accessible price and passed without making a splash. I believe if they relaunch it, it will finally put this gem in its rightful place, one we were unable to enjoy.

The only good thing is that it bears Alberto Morillas’ name, because the scent is a disaster. It starts with a very synthetic citrus note, like a cleaning product, then the calone kicks in, which doesn’t smell of fish but rather something rotten. Later, the woody notes appear, but they’re very faint as they get lost in that critical note and the calone. I can’t find any similarity with Acqua Di Gio or other Morillas fragrances, which are usually pleasant and enjoyable. This one, by contrast, just seems like cheap cleaner. I wouldn’t recommend buying it blindly.

I’ve read several reviews saying it smells like fish. Today I tried it at Zara, and the truth is, I don’t find that scent on my skin. It’s a citrus, aquatic, and woody fragrance. Very similar to an Acqua di Gio, though a bit darker. At first, it’s quite different, but after ten minutes, it shares much similarity. At twelve euros on sale, it’s not a bad purchase, although I’m not buying it as I already have many similar to the Acqua di Gio aroma.

I couldn’t visit Zara to test this collection, and being an impulsive shopper, I bought Virtuous Oud blindly based on its notes. It arrived yesterday, and today I watched Carlos Rubio’s video where he claimed it smelled of sepia. Well, terrified, I applied this fragrance this morning, expecting to smell like chocolate meatballs for the rest of the day. Fortunately, I didn’t. Virtuous Oud is a citrus fragrance with a very natural, pleasant, fresh, and suitable opening for this summer. Supposedly it has easy-to-detect notes (calone and ambroxan), but I don’t notice them as clearly, except for the calone in the first fifteen minutes. That’s the only thing noticeable: fifteen minutes. After that, it drops to skin-level and lasts about four hours as a citrus with a faint woody sandalwood base. And that’s it. The same thing happened with the previous Morillas collection for Zara, where I was let down by Morning Sunray in Seville. I can understand the result being limited by the budget Zara asks Morillas to work with, but it doesn’t justify it, as Zara has great perfumes even at lower costs. What did you do, Carlos, to make this smell like sepia to you? (:P)