Tom Ford Oud Wood Eau de Parfum 50ml

Oud without the medicine cabinet. Most oud fragrances open sharp and animalic; this one opens on rosewood and cardamom, warm and faintly creamy, and the oud arrives underneath as smoke rather than as a punch. Sandalwood and vetiver keep it dry, tonka bean and amber round the edges, and it settles into something that smells expensive and quiet at once. Released in 2007, it is still the bottle people are handed when they want to try oud without being knocked over by it.

Top: Rosewood · Cardamom · Pink Pepper · Heart: Oud · Sandalwood · Vetiver · Base: Tonka Bean · Amber · Patchouli

Oud Wood behaves unusually well in heat for a woody amber, mostly because it was built soft to begin with. It does not project hard even at full strength - two sprays give you an arm's-length bubble for about two hours, then a warm skin scent for another five or six. Humidity helps rather than hurts: the moisture keeps sandalwood and tonka from going papery, and the smoke reads rounder in August than it does in January. The sun is where it gets tricky. Direct midday exposure pushes the amber forward and can make it feel heavier than you intended, so most people here reach for it in the late afternoon or before an evening out instead of on the way to a 10am meeting. It leaves a lovely ghost in a jacket lining for days afterward.

Unisex in practice as well as on paper. Quiet enough to be office-safe if you are conservative with it, and a strong choice for dinners, weddings and anything where you want to be noticed at close range rather than across a room. The cooler months suit it best, though it does not fall apart in summer the way heavier ouds do.

The 50ml is the standard commitment, so if you are oud-curious rather than oud-certain, start with a 5ml or 10ml decant and give it a week. Or stop into the Miami Gardens shop and wear it out of here - the cardamom-to-smoke transition reads differently on everyone.