CARTIER
Les Heures Voyageuses – Oud & Santal

2016

PERFUMER
Mathilde Laurent

OUD
SANDALWOOD
PLUM

‘Natural Oud resin has the bewitching allure of sensuous, seductive sandalwood, as smooth and sweet as plum syrup.’ – Cartier

The Cartier ‘exclusives’ Les Heures Voyageuses is one of the lines that I’m least familiar with; having tried a couple of them in-store in Paris once. A friend of mine had a sample of Oud & Santal lying around, so I finally had a chance to wear this one. And it’s a good one.

Much sweeter than I anticipated (perhaps aided by a older/semi-used sample vial). This opens the way I expected; mushy, lifelike Mysore-esque sandalwood and a spicier woodiness. There’s no skankiness or ‘barnyard’ from the oud here to my nose. Overall, it registers as a spiced wood-shavings, perhaps even with some iris.

What follows is a growing sweetness with a slight hint of (dried) warm, spiced fruits. It reminded me a lot of  my (vintage) bottle of Serge Lutens Arabie as it dried; which has always given me a Christmassy feeling; like a spiced fruit cake.

Sweeter and fruitier than anticipated, but still classy and mature. Not a loud performer at all, but I had no issues with the performance. Happy to have tried it and I enjoyed it, albeit that I wasn’t wowed enough to add it to my wishlist at its price.