The House of Oud Live in Colors

The perfect citrus is an elusive thing. Pretty much the Holy Grail of perfumery, in fact. Citrus notes are so volatile that the perfumer has to figure out how to keep them aloft and keep the scent smelling natural all the way through, a balancing act that’s far harder than you might imagine. We’re happy to report that Live in Colors pulls it off. It sparkles from top to bottom, without losing momentum along the way. In other words, this is the new summer freshie to beat.

The fizz of the opening is invigorating, with a burst of lemon and grapefruit so sharp you can taste it. It smells like an entire citrus tree pulped down and squeezed into the bottle, with everything from leaf to pulp and rind. The scent then deftly switches the charge to aromatics, running the juice over a bed of pink pepper and ginger root to keep those volatile citrus notes alive. There’s a wonderful hot-cold effect going on in the background, the juicy sweetness of red fruit rubbing up against the coldness of spice. In the base, a soft, silvery hinoki wood supports the more aromatic notes but doesn’t impose its own personality as insistently as cedar or gaiac.

Live in Colors doesn’t so much end as fade out gently, in a musky-woody trail that stays soft and clean. It’s not a projection monster and it won’t break any longevity records. But a citrus scent doesn’t need to perform acrobatics to please us – it just needs to smell fresh and natural. And in that respect, Live in Colors scores a perfect 10.

Notes:
Lemon, grapefruit, red fruits, ginger, pink pepper, musk, hinoki wood, amber