Review: Mesmerizing Oudh Accord & Gold by Molten Brown

Photo: Barneys.com

Mesmerizing Oudh Accord & Gold was a blind buy for me. I tried so hard to get on board with it, and I just cant. It contains so many of my favorite notes--myrrh, tobacco, tea, honey, nutmeg. It should have been perfection for me. I actually get virtually none of the notes it's supposed to contain. Instead it smells very synthetic, like a mix of pencil shavings and Iso E Super. I can't specifically make out any nutmeg nor cinnamon, only some sort of spicy aromachemical. About two hours in, a robust black tea note becomes more prominent, and from there it fades into a soft vetiver. I don't smell oud at all, which is actually fine with me, but I would have liked to smell ANY of those favorite notes I mentioned. I used to love this brand's Myrrh & Cypress bath gel, and that's just it, this smells like a really nice bath gel, not a fine fragrance.