Gucci Guilty Oud
Gucci (2018)

Better-than-average rose/amber/oud. Sillage is excellent and longevity is decent. Not as memorable as some of its flankers, but well-worth owning.

Gucci Guilty Oud by Gucci (2018) was a brief flash in the pan that was "officially unofficially" a combination of both Gucci Guilty Absolute pour Homme (2017) and Gucci Guilty Absolute pour Femme (2017) with a small dollop of synthetic oud on top, advertised as such by the brand itself for all of the one year it was sold on the market. Something tells me this wasn't actually a sales disaster or some product that was aborted after a bout of creative remorse from former Gucci director Alesandro Michele; but rather the usual limited-edition oud fragrance meant to bait the usual Middle Eastern royal magnate market that Western brands tend to go after in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Oman, and the U.A.E. Thus, this unisex fragrance likely to be worn more by wealthy men in Middle Eastern urban centers than anyone else, takes the "best" parts of both Gucci Guilty Absolute varieties (but mostly from the Femme flavor ironically), then gives it all a light glaze of nagormotha and oud to feel palatable to the populace it was aimed at. Since this was intentionally limited and likely didn't sell every available bottle made once the oil money elite had their take, the rest was dumped into the West via discounters, which is why nobody ever saw it in stores beyond maybe Bergdorf or Neiman's, but every influencer online yacked about it. Thus, these flooded resellers at about $50 a pop, which was a steal, until the hype led all the "FragBros" to go hungry-hungry-hippos on the bottles, making prices rise.

Gucci Oud by Gucci (2014) and Gucci Intense Oud by Gucci (2016) were both delivered this way, in one-off batches that the Middle East got first-dibs on, then never heard from again beyond the brief window they lived rent-free in the brains of YouTube shills trying to hype the "oud craze" that had already mostly died in the West by 2010 anyway, moving up to niche and luxury markets only. What makes Gucci Guilty Oud different from them though is perfumer Alberto Morillas' signature approach to oud, which had gotten its genesis in the original "oud craze" began by Yves Saint Laurent M7 (2002), then co-opted by Tom Ford, and transformed into a scratchy monster with Tom Ford Oud Wood (2007), but continuously refined by Morillas with other releases for other houses thereafter. The type of oud accord present in Gucci Guilty Oud can trace its roots back to By Kilian Musk Oud (2013), then continuously toyed with under the Mizensir brand, before ending up here. The quick and dirty of this scent will reveal blackberry notes over a rich Bulgarian rose note, mixed with pink pepper and patchouli over some of the Gucci Guilty amber and leather from the Femme and Homme releases respectively. I don't really get much of the leather either, and honestly think this may not suit guys used to more of a woody or medicinal oud structure found in the usual Western takes, as this veers more "oriental" in approach. Oud and nagarmotha are dosed very small and this is not particularly sour or fecal, but very long-lasting if you don't blast yourself and go nose-blind from the also-present ambroxan.

At one time, this might have been a more-affordable alternative to the similar (but better) Parfums de Marly Akaster (2015), or Morillas' own By Kilian Musk Oud from which this is mostly a derivation. There is no Gucci Guilty DNA here otherwise, so no orange blossom, no juniper berry, none of that from the original Gucci Guilty pour Homme (2011) which seems all but forgotten now that Alesandro Michele has creatively rebooted the line yet again, after dropping the Absolute range and their companion Gucci Guilty Cologne by Gucci (2019) to rework the rosey Absolute pour Femme DNA into two new Gucci Guilty masculines in eau de parfum and parfum concentrations. The whole genderbend vibe of the house under his direction was encapsulated first here, then expanded to the unisex upmarket "The Alchemist's Garden" range, which is a complete rip-off as the quality is no different than the standard ranges, with the Gucci Guilty Oud structure suspiciously appearing again in Voice of the Snake by Gucci (2019) from that range the following year. I guess someone decided people should pay $400 for this fragrance rather than the original $150 MSRP it had. If you can get this short-lived flanker for under $100, you'll have yourself a good deal if you enjoy rose/patchouli/oud with a touch of fruity sweetness; otherwise, I'd say this is only for collectors. Fans of "serious" oud also need not apply here, as this reads mostly as a rose patchouli amber combo with just a hint of the star material. Thumbs up

TLDR: Good (3/5). Better than run-of-the-mill designer ouds, but nothing too special. Thumbs up, barely, because of the quality of the oud used here.

Normally, I find myself in agreement with Brooks Otterlake's reviews. On this one, however, I have to take issue with his conclusion that Gucci Guilty Oud is "not quite as nice as the cheaper [Banana Repiblic] Oud Mosaic, which has a better and stronger version of the oud accord".

As I type, I have Oud Mosaic on one hand and this fragrance on the other. On my skin, the oud in the Gucci is stronger and smells closer to a slightly medicinal, vaguely animalic version of the real thing than the oud accord used in the Banana Republic product.

I do agree that the fragrances are similar. After multiple wearings of both scents from full bottles, I find the berry and pepper top notes of this fragrance preferable to the cardamom and plum in Oud Mosaic, but in the way I find a sprained ankle better than a sprained wrist--they are both undesirable, but one is just a bit less desirable than the other.

I could happily do without the fruit in both compositions. It feels forced and, if anything, detracts from my enjoyment of these scents. I suppose that the reality of the modern marketplace is that fruity notes and sweetness sell fragrances and add considerable pop to the behaviour of this sort of fragrance on in-store test strips. is

Mercifully, the fruit fades from both of these scents quickly to be replaced by a jammy rose that compliments the oud (even if it is a combination that has been done to death at this point). I get better longevity from Guilty Oud, up to 12 hours on my skin, than I get with Oud Mosaic. Both are moderate projectors over the first few hours.

Presentation and atomizer are both better with Oud Mosaic. These products are close enough to be duplicative. You don't need both.

So even though I would give the Gucci a slight edge in the ratings if pressed; I would buy the much cheaper Banana Republic product. Prices for Guilty Oud continue to creep upwards (as best as I can tell), and Oud Mosaic is dirt cheap. Value for money matters to most folks and by that measure only, Gucci Guilty Oud doesn't come close to the otherwise inferior Oud Mosaic.

Quick aside: Guilty Oud also is emphatically not as good as Gucci Intense Oud. Guilty Oud is not, in my opinion, interchangeable with Intense Oud. Intense Oud smells of higher quality, is better blended and has a superior oud accord. Of course, Intense Oud is also getting very, very expensive. I recently bought a heavily discounted tester of Gucci's The Voice of The Snake from the luxury Alchemist's Garden Collection for only $7 more than the same seller was asking for Intense Oud. If memory serves, the difference at retail was about $150 and the superiority of the more expensive fragrance is telling when they are compared side-by-side. But I digress.

To sum up Gucci Guilty Oud: it is good, but not appreciably better than scents costing well under half of its current asking price. As such, I give this one the most tepid imaginable thumbs up solely in recognition of the fact that considered purely on its own merits, Gucci Guilty Oud is a decent, if by no means unique, rose oud fragrance with decent longevity.

Strong barnyard oud and rose in the beginning. The late drydown is much more appreciable by non-oud lovers, softer and cleaner.

I'm not getting any Gucci Guilty DNA and the oud is on par with niche oud that I've smelled. This punches above designer level.

Very good performance overall. Strong projection with minimal sprays and lasts all day.

Essentially it's Banana Republic Oud Mosaic with a spicy opening (some cumin), and blackberry instead of plum.

It's pleasant (it's not quite as nice as the cheaper Oud Mosaic, which has a better and stronger version of the oud accord), but it's also just another rose-oud in a sea of rose-ouds.

The third Alberto Morillas composition of late from Gucci, Gucci Guilty Oud, follows two successful releases (at least to me) in Gucci Guilty Absolute Pour Homme and Pour Femme.

Certainly the most-recent Oud feels like a logical continuity from the next-most-recent Femme, as there is an overlap of berries, rose, patchouli, and amber (in order of descending prominence).

With Femme, we get red berries, but in Oud, we get a sharper, more distinct blackberry note that sings from the top, surely the brightest part of the entire fragrance, but nevertheless (similarly to Femme) quickly drying down into a rose/patchouli/amber blend, with very subtle hints at leather and woods.

Oud's performance is strong, a bit denser than Femme (and perhaps even slightly edging out Homme), with a couple hours of great projection followed by another 6+ on skin.

Certainly these latest releases feel of niche quality and execution, and in the case of Oud specifically, a synthetic, smooth oud serves nicely in lieu of a richer, albeit more animalic or medicinal, counterpart, seen in higher-end offerings.

Pricing ($137-$146 for 90ml via retail) is higher than Femme and a lot higher than Homme, but I'd expect Oud, like its predecessors, to be available on the secondary market at a significant discount. It's a bit of a tough sell at retail, but under $100, it may turn a lot of heads like Gucci Intense Oud did years ago.

8 out of 10