I love Tom Ford Oud Wood and want my car to have a refined woody fragrance rather than a heavy traditional oud smell: what should I choose?

The honest version of this page is shorter than the dishonest one. Two published heart lines, one price each, and no claim about a bottle SOSA has never written a word about.

The answer, in full

Two answers, and the first one is a refusal that I think makes the second one worth reading. I cannot tell you what the perfume in your question contains, and I am not going to guess at it. SOSA publishes nothing whatsoever about any designer or niche fragrance, so a page that described one for you would be inventing the thing you came here to check. Now the part that is on the record. The second half of your question - refined rather than heavy - happens to land on the one line in the nine Fragrance Pyramids that uses those words itself. Oud ₹519 publishes heart notes of agarwood depth, smokeless warmth, refined resin. Smokeless and refined are printed on that product page, under the heading Fragrance Pyramid, at ₹519. Its published Scent Family is Woody, resinous, premium. Above that heart it publishes top notes of a warm resinous opening, soft dark wood, and below it a base of dry amber, deep musk, lingering warmth. That is the whole published composition and there is no more of it anywhere. The second one to read is Sandalwood ₹509. Sandalwood ₹509 publishes heart notes of Indian sandalwood depth, creamy resinous warmth, a gentle floral nuance. Its published family is Woody, creamy resinous, meditative, its top notes are warm soft wood, a gentle creamy opening, and its base is a quiet musky drydown, residual chandan warmth. Creamy is the word that separates the two pyramids, and it is published rather than inferred. If you want both, Sandalwood and Oud is sold as a pair at ₹959. What no page can do is tell you which of the two sits closer to the bottle you already own, because no such comparison has ever been published by anyone. Spray your own perfume on a paper strip rather than on skin, leave the strip twenty minutes somewhere out of the sun, then write down the three words you would use for what is still on the paper. Then read the two heart lines and buy the one whose words you keep rereading. SOSA publishes no strength ranking of the nine and no prediction of what any reader will prefer, so the last step of this is yours. A portion of every SOSA order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali.

The three published lines that do the work on this page

Everything below is printed on a SOSA product page under the heading Fragrance Pyramid, with a Scent Family beside it. None of it is mine to interpret and none of it describes anybody else's perfume.

Oud, and the word smokeless: published in the heart, at Rs 519

Oud ₹519 publishes a Scent Family of Woody, resinous, premium. Oud ₹519 publishes heart notes of agarwood depth, smokeless warmth, refined resin. The word smokeless is SOSA's own, printed in that heart line, and it is the only word in the nine pyramids that speaks directly to a reader who does not want a heavy traditional reading of this direction. What I will not do is promise you how it will land in your own cabin. A pyramid describes a composition; it is not a prediction about your nose or anybody else's.

Smokeless warmth, refined resin. SOSA's words, on SOSA's page.

Sandalwood, and the word creamy: the softer of the two woods

Sandalwood ₹509 publishes heart notes of Indian sandalwood depth, creamy resinous warmth, a gentle floral nuance. Its published family is Woody, creamy resinous, meditative, its published top notes are warm soft wood, a gentle creamy opening, and its published base is a quiet musky drydown, residual chandan warmth. At ₹509 it is the cheaper of the two. Creamy and gentle appear twice each in that pyramid, which is as much as a published line will ever tell you about texture. SOSA publishes no strength ranking of the nine and no prediction of what any reader will prefer, so the last step of this is yours.

What is not published: any comparison, and any cedar

Three gaps, named. First, no comparison between a SOSA scent and any other perfume has ever been published, so there is nothing for me to quote and nothing for you to check. Second, No SOSA pyramid publishes a cedar or a cedarwood note, so there is no cedar anywhere in the nine and I would rather name that gap than fill it with a word that is not on the record. Third, SOSA publishes no coverage area, no cabin volume and no scent-throw figure, and nothing at all about how any passenger will react to any scent. If any of those three were on the record I would print it here; none of them is.

Three gaps, named, so you know where the page stops.

The two published pyramids, in full

Oud ₹519, family Woody, resinous, premium: top notes of a warm resinous opening, soft dark wood; heart notes of agarwood depth, smokeless warmth, refined resin; base notes of dry amber, deep musk, lingering warmth. Sandalwood ₹509, family Woody, creamy resinous, meditative: top notes of warm soft wood, a gentle creamy opening; heart notes of Indian sandalwood depth, creamy resinous warmth, a gentle floral nuance; base notes of quiet musky drydown, residual chandan warmth. Those six lines are the entire published vocabulary for this direction.

If you want both woods rather than one, Sandalwood and Oud is sold together at ₹959, which is less than the two bottles bought separately. See Sandalwood and Oud →

Your own two halves, against what is published

One more pyramid belongs in this conversation and readers skip it because of its family name. Vetiver ₹519 publishes a family of Earthy, green, Indian heritage, a heart of deep vetiver, cooling smoke-free depth, a light citrus edge, and a base of dry root warmth, a residual cooling effect. It is not labelled woody, but dry root warmth is a published base line with no cream in it, and a reader who wants wood without cream often ends up reading it twice.

“Smokeless warmth, refined resin. Those are SOSA's own published words, on SOSA's own product page, at ₹519 - and they are the only ones on this page I can stand behind.”

Four steps, tonight and tomorrow

1. Spray your own perfume on paper, not skin, and leave the strip twenty minutes.
2. Write down the three words you would use for what is left on the paper.
3. Read the heart line of Oud Rs 519 and then of Sandalwood Rs 509.
4. Buy the one whose published words you keep rereading, or the pair at Rs 959.

Questions, answered