Xerjoff classifies Uden as a marine fougere, meaning that it smells of lavender, oak moss, and the sea. To us, although accurate in some ways, it simplifies Uden's unique complexity. If Uden is a marine scent, then its waters surround the Bahamas, where ancient traders traveled weeks across the treacherous Atlantic to barter for coffee and rum, both of which give Uden a delicious warmth. The rum and coffee are then packed in rough wood crates, which pick up the salty scent of the ocean as the boat's wooden timbers rock on the waves for further journey in the New World. Uden's ocean is the world of the seamen who risked their lives traversing the seas to bring the pleasure of the exotic to long ago drawing rooms.
Uden opens with lavender and citrus, the harbingers of a traditional fougere. However, instead of traveling the clean, smooth path for which it seems destined, coffee and rum absolutes add their familiar, delicious notes. Combined with Uden's opening, the coffee and rum create an unfamiliar--yet completely tantalizing--heart to the fragrance. Uden dries down into a warm medley of wood infused with clean musk, providing a counterpoint to its sweet rum, rich coffee, and crisp citrus-lavender. Uden reminds us that wild worlds may belie the simplest pleasures.
Grapefruit, lemon, rum absolute, rose, sandalwood, Gaiac wood, vanilla, coffee absolute, musk
Perfume rating 4.38 out of 5 on Fragrantica