PDM Layton Exclusive vs Amouage King Blue - fragrance first impressions 

Thanks! I think I established a concept I like and I have many comparisons in the list. I plan to release a 1st impression every 2-3 videos coming forward ❤️

🤣 Agree…

Thanks for the preamble! I agree that PDM are not really “worth it” in an objective sense but I’ll never fight fans of the brand that are happy with their purchase, I’m just happy people enjoy perfumery 🙂

​​​@@SeldomlyOftenwatched it, enjoyed it, thumbs up! I would like to share with you what worked for me, with respect to the King Blue experience, as I was suggested by a perfumer. He said oud heavy scents are not supposed to be smelled up close, certainly not King Blue. It should be sprayed from afar, and at the very least allowed to settle for a few minutes. I went from hating it, with the very first spray, to loving it, but sadly finished both samples I had. Now, in regards to the name, King Blue has never been marketed as a fresh scent. Its name stands for the fact it's a rather easy to wear oud heavy fragrance, less animalic, less oud earthy if we compare to Silver Oud. As for the citrus and pepper accords, they are not there to make a fresh impression like they do in a summer scent, but to provide this heavy fragrance with lift and sillage. Although, I would argue that King Blue does, in fact, feel rather fresh in the air, especially outside. That's what my wife told me when I was wearing it, so I'd better take it for granted 😅

@@andrei-cosmin.popa85 thanks for the feedback. Yes, I know that most of the more challenging fragrances are not meant to be smelled up close 🙂 I didn’t dislike the scent by all means, I just feel that most of the mixed reviews come from the weird marketing. Also, subjectively, I find Silver Oud to be easier to wear and more pleasing, even up close, as it succeeds more in transmitting a specific vibe. I found King Blue to be a little confusing. I still have a lot in the sample and I plan to explore it more for sure 👍

No need to excuse yourself! Yes, PDM has way more brand identity than Mancera. What I meant was for the actual fragrance and scent style, as they offer ‘a bit of everything’ with no underlying idea. This is not only they issue by all means, Xerjoff also has this but they somewhat manage to package their fragrances in lines or collections to ‘organize them’, leaving the user a little less ‘stranded’ 🙂

Thanks so much and glad I didn’t disappoint!More to come 🙃

@@thanakonnilsonti5132 love the “strawberry whipped cream mixed with dry cow manure” 🤣🤣

Yeah I noticed 😅 How would you describe King Blue?

I’d say intense Indian Oud tempered with sweet dark fruit.

I need to fully explore Memo, they seem really interesting! I have a first impression video lined up to be shot featuring Memo’s Russian Leather to start 🙂

@@SeldomlyOften they're very intriguing, I need your opinion on the whole leather like , but specifically for the Italian leather.

@@abhideeptiwari4268 I’ll keep that in mind 🙂

If I would to choose between the two I would definitely go King Blue as well. For sure a more interesting fragrance 👍

LE is one of my all time faves. Give me a good deal on it and I’ll buy it as a back up bottle!

@@dorianducker4802 I don’t have a bottle, this was just a sample 🙂

Hope you like it 😊

@@Mauricioa1096 not a real smell, I liked it but definitely need to revisit. Current almond is Tom Ford F-ing Fabulous 👍

@@ethanrrs well, the perfumer for this was the same guy that did Layton so definitely not shy about using boosters. I am quite tolerant to oud but here I get a lot of barnyard type smells compared to Silver Oud, which is one of my all time favorite fragrances of this type 👍 I definitely have to revisit my sample as well!

@@SeldomlyOften I personally don't get the connections between the two even though I see a ton of 'this reminds me' votes for one another on fragrantica. SO is much more smoky and has less of that amber sweetness, the bases are very different. I think the fruity opening of king blue lends to enhancing that barnyard nature of the oud which is definitely off putting at first imo but settles down into that forever Amberwood lol, with some hints of the opening staying . But each nose is different for sure haha. I definitely didn't love that fruity candy sweetness in king blue at the very least

@@SeldomlyOften update! I have another huge comment with some findings and some insight on them! hope you enjoy it and learn some stuff because i sure did! i talked on the basenotes forum for a bit about king blue's sweet and fruity facet along with the ambery quality. The fruity sweetness in both paragon and king blue that i was noticing can be attributed maybe to the inclusion of raspberry ketones, or DMBCB/ DMBCA and pyroprunal to give a "dried fruit" or another deep fruityness that can be marketed or coaxed in a direction for plum or black currant accord etc. A kind user also gave some percentages for the more purely sweet compounds presumably from his own gcms analyses: King Blue = 2.7% Ethyl Maltol + 1.2% Vanillin + 0.07% Ethyl Vanillin Paragon = 2.75% Heliotropin + 3% Vanillin + 1% Coumarin + 0.23% Ethyl Vanillin + 0.01% Maltol Things to note here: - King Blue has a TON of Ethyl Maltol, rivaling or even surpassing the sweeter batches of baccarat rouge 540, which would make them BOTH have a cotton candy feel if focused on or dried down for a while. - Heliotropin is what is responsible for giving the playdoh feel to paragon, but it isnt present in king blue, so i probably had a bit of placebo because i was experiencing such a similar synthetic fruity vibe. basenotes also has a free gc-ms analysis of Interlude Black Iris, so i thought it would be interesting to compare with that one, since i think the balsamic sweetness in it is much more tolerable, blended, and subdued compared to King Blue. Interlude Black Iris has: 4.9% Ethyl Vanillin + 2.3% Anisylacetone (Raspberry Ketone related) + 1.6% Vanillin + 0.27% Ethyl Maltol + 0.13% Coumarin + 0.11% Gamma Octalactone (milky) + trace amounts of p-Methoxyacetophenone (fruity, nutty, vanillic), Guaiacol (smoky sweet), and Methyl Cinnamate (balsamic berry). - The vanillins is much more present as opposed to the sugary maltol, which in conjunction with the deep woody and smoky notes makes it much more tolerable and similar to a bourbon vanilla accord to help fill out the balsamic feel. - There's also a good amount of anisylacetone, and very small amounts of other fruity ingredients, which is pretty much only present in the opening, and i'll assume is part of the big differences for the black iris' creamier, more floral opening and the original interlude's spicier and jagged opening. If i can get some percentages for Silver Oud, I'd also relay them back here as well. I find these aspects really interesting personally -- of course with most, if not all of modern perfumes there will be varying levels of sweetness simply due to the fact of it being trendy. But the amounts, blending, and intention behind it really changes the perception. I have a feeling silver oud's will be much closer to the interlude style, to round out an otherwise wildly smoky balsamic base, instead of king blue which follows a more mass appealing amberwood sweet bomb like a PDM, Initio, BR540 etc.

@@ethanrrsback to the comment! Yes, agree, they smell nothing alike, SO actually smells a lot more like Interlude (specifically the drydown) than King Blue, so much so that I held off purchasing at first (also the price 😅). I usually come around to most Amouage scents, they just need more time.

​@@SeldomlyOften ah i guess my MOST recent comment actually didn't show up, maybe it was too long! lol. I'll try to repost here since your interlude comment does relate to it: i talked on the basenotes forum for a bit about king blue's sweet and fruity facet along with the ambery quality. The fruity sweetness in both paragon and king blue that i was noticing can be attributed maybe to the inclusion of similar compounds to give a "dried fruit" feel that can be marketed or coaxed in a direction for plum or black currant accord etc. A kind user also gave some percentages for the more purely sweet compounds presumably from his own gcms analyses: King Blue = 2.7% Ethyl Maltol + 1.2% Vanillin + 0.07% Ethyl Vanillin Paragon = 2.75% Heliotropin + 3% Vanillin + 1% Coumarin + 0.23% Ethyl Vanillin + 0.01% Maltol Things to note here: 1) King Blue has a TON of Ethyl Maltol, rivaling or even surpassing the sweeter batches of baccarat rouge 540, which would make them BOTH have a cotton candy feel if focused on or dried down for a while. -2) Heliotropin is what is responsible for giving the playdoh feel to paragon, but it isnt present in king blue, so i probably had a bit of placebo because i was experiencing such a similar synthetic fruity vibe. someone also posted Interlude Black Iris' analysis, so i thought it would be interesting to compare, since i think the balsamic sweetness in it is much more tolerable, blended, and subdued compared to King Blue. Interlude Black Iris has: 4.9% Ethyl Vanillin + 2.3% Anisylacetone (Raspberry Ketone related) + 1.6% Vanillin + 0.27% Ethyl Maltol + 0.13% Coumarin + 0.11% Gamma Octalactone (milky) + trace amounts of p-Methoxyacetophenone (fruity, nutty, vanillic), Guaiacol (smoky sweet), and Methyl Cinnamate (balsamic berry). - The vanillins are much more present as opposed to the sugary maltol, which in conjunction with the deep woody and smoky notes makes it much more tolerable and similar to a bourbon vanilla accord to help fill out the balsamic feel. - There's also a good amount of anisylacetone, and very small amounts of other fruity ingredients, which is pretty much only present in the opening, and i'll assume is part of the big differences for the black iris' creamier, more floral opening and the original interlude's spicier and jagged opening. If i can get some percentages for Silver Oud, I'd also relay them back here as well. I find these aspects really interesting personally -- of course with most, if not all of modern perfumes there will be varying levels of sweetness simply due to the fact of it being trendy. But the amounts, blending, and intention behind it really changes the perception. I have a feeling silver oud's will be much closer to the interlude style, to round out an otherwise wildly smoky balsamic base, instead of king blue which follows a more mass appealing amberwood sweet bomb like a PDM, Initio, BR540 etc.

Welcome aboard!

@@Arturo_MCT it’s the official Apple trail loop.

@@SeldomlyOften oh sh**t.. looks different. But, man... recently I purchased Reflection Man, the full bottle, and got some official 2ml samples for my wife. I've been looking for some reviews about all Amouage's line up. Sincerely I don't really enjoy the REAL challenging animalistic/poo/sweaty aromas. I tried two sprays of Royal Tobacco, my wife and I got crazy (in a good way) about that one. So I'll buy some samples during the next days... the shopping cart is like this by now: 1. Royal Tobacco 2. Beach Hut 3. Interlude Man 4. Interlude Black Iris 4. Lyric Man 5. Memoir 6. Purpose. Any thoughts or suggestions? Just trying to get into the real Amouage.

@@Arturo_MCT if you want to get into Amouage and don’t want to go total weird I would try Boundless, Journey, Epic (although reformulated into the ground), Jubilation. Interlude is not for everyone, maybe Black Iris.

@@SeldomlyOften gracias!!

Both were like 20ish bucks

@@Principemostprincipe I don’t feel like jumping to conclusions because I don’t have a bottle and love Amouage, all I can say is that it pales in comparison to Silver Oud 🙂

@@SeldomlyOften i prefer silver oud much more over it. It has that amouage signature dna which is awesome, and it performs way way better

Yes yes, I totally understand and know that you are not really supposed to "dig right in". I own many Amouages and they are complex scents that require many wears to really get to know them but these are first impressions and as such, I'm trying to keep it simple and relatable :)

​@@SeldomlyOften thanks a lot for clarifying. King Blue gets a lot of hate unfairly, if you take the time and let it do its magic and reach you, you will appreciate it more. The oud in it is an Indian oud from Ajmal, it goes through a series of transitions and the barnyardy smell doesn't last very long. Love the channel ⭐.

I know, I’m still exploring how to do this one shorter.