With its rich, resinous aromas of leather, amber and smoke, oud’s evocative blend of spirituality and sensuality has fascinated mankind for millennia. The precious resin produced by the South-east Asian Aquilaria tree when it is affected by a type of mould is mentioned as far back as the Indian Vedas, one of the oldest written texts in history. For Buddha, it was the smell of Nirvana; the regal lovers of the Song of Songs mixed it with myrrh in their chambers… 
Still today, oud is one of the most precious aromatic ingredients in the world, particularly in the Middle-east where its best qualities can fetch higher prices than gold. In recent years, Western connoisseurs seeking a bold signature fragrance have embraced it, and Parisian perfumers have learned to bring out new aspects of its beauty, transforming the scent of the One Thousand and One Nights into a cutting-edge luxury material.
Chopard’s new masculine fragrance offers the ultimate expression of this meeting of East and West. Oud Malaki means “Royal Oud” in Arabic, a fitting name for the most luxurious interpretation of this noble accord. To give it the greatest possible balance and radiance, a peerless artist was called for: the French master perfumer Dominique Ropion, who has signed countless best-sellers since the 1980s and is renowned for the meticulous care he takes in crafting his formulas.
“The idea was to create a mastered and precise construction around beautiful qualities of materials”, Dominique Ropion explains. “It could be compared to the extreme quality and the attention to details brought into Chopard’s products.” His interpretation of the note, he adds, “offers a more refined, structured and complex sensuality than traditional oud fragrances”.
Oud Malaki opens with bracing, luminous, aromatic top notes. The sunny burst of grapefruit, the cleanliness of lavender and the slight herbal bitterness of artemisia contrast with the addictive smoothness of heart notes, a warm accord of tobacco and spices with leather undertones. To enhance the most elegant facets of his oud accord, its deep, liqueur-like sensuousness is conjured by Dominique Ropion with a vibrant, textured accord of dark woods and suave ambergris. These upscale ingredients are reflected by the rich amber colour of the juice.
Powerful, seductive and passionately masculine, this connoisseur’s blend expresses the sensual personality of the Oud Malaki man, a lover of life’s finer pleasures and of beautiful objects. To showcase his regal scent, the precious, heavy glass bottle is adorned with a high-quality gold cap reprising the codes of the Chopard watch universe, and a gold-like metallic label bearing the bold and graphic Chopard signature. The elegant moucharaby motif of the advertising mirrors the interplay between the radiant facets of the scent and its dark sensuousness, as well as evoking its Arabian Nights inspiration.
Notes:
Top: Grapefruit, Lavender and Artemisia
Heart: Tobaco, Spices and Leather
Base: Woody notes, ambergris
