Warm, smoky, leathery and subtly spicy, and as Aftelier fans know, Mandy’s solid scents are among the best in the business. I would recommend that oud fans keep some of this around for reference purposes as well as to wear, because this is what high grade natural oud perfume is supposed to smell like
-- Perfume Smellin’ Things

The beauty of Oud Luban is well balanced, suave, and debonair. No stinky synthetic oud here. This stuff is extremely versatile. Just wear by itself (in your hair) for a wonderfully smooth woody oud day. Apply on skin to boost a floral scent. Experiment and layer, the combinations are endless
-- Base Notes

I feel strongly that Oud Luban is one of Mandy Aftel's greatest triumphs, and it represents a broadening scope in her body of work. I love that there are no heart notes in Oud Luban, it has citrus top notes that sing out clearly high up in the register, then a few of the more volatile elements of incense, and its soul rests in the rich and complex base notes. The longevity of Oud Luban on the skin is quite impressive for a solid perfume, topping off at about 5 hours. It's such an intimate and intoxicating scent that on days that I wear it, I need to keep it with me at all times for touch-ups. I just can't bear to have the magic fade out on me for a second!
-- Eyeliner On A Cat

Leave it to Mandy Aftel to create not only an oud perfume that works beautifully on my skin, but to blend one that stands out from the crowd of other oud-based perfumes. It's a unique take on a fairly familiar note, an interpretation that modernizes and Westernizes oud but still remains true to oud's basic nature.
-- This Blog Really Stinks

Opening with fresh citrus notes blended with elemi and frankincense CO2 extract, Oud Luban Perfume bypasses the evolution to heart notes and descends instead to the rich base featuring benzoin, opopanax and patchouli. Smoky choya ral (a product of the destructive distillation of resin from the Shorea robusta tree) and a sumptuous oud note blended from eight different varieties of the precious essence are woven throughout the base, for an intimate and softly animalic presence.
-- Fragrantica

I feel like you have passed me a life preserver with this scent Oud Luban. I envision it as ancient highly polished wood that has weathered many storms…what a waft of the most incredible…costly and rare essences!
-- Perfume Pharmer

Some Oud perfumes can be sharp and tangy, but Mandy's is so smooth and sensual. Such an intelligent blend of the higher mind and body.
-- Scent Hive

Oud Luban’s blur of glorious orange with piney frankincense say 'hello!' right at lift-off, but within minutes, the oud asserts its waxy-burnt-leathery M.O. and predominates in the scent. Kitten-paw softness, antique dirtiness and naughty moose roister-doistering. .
-- Katie Puckrik Smells

Oud Lubanis a wonderful perfume, rich and smoky and with an overtone of Frankincense fairly oozes a lovely tension, a delightful struggle between duty and passion. In this perfume passion clearly wins because the incense that she has layered between all of magnificent resins fairly scream of exotic opium dens and sensual thoughts. There is something balsam like as well, a tinge of sweetness , a hint of citrus , sweat and leather. The smoky choya lends a complex fairly religious austere emotion to the scent. Oud Luban is a perfect solid perfume, elegant and raw, yet sensual and buttery. Oud Luban is dirty and I mean that in the very best way because it grounds and relaxes me. It’s a scent to wear when you’re completely naked because it loves sweat and skin much like a perfect caramel tastes even better with a bit of sea salt and chocolate. It layers beautifully with florals and gives them an unworldly depth. I think that Oud Luban is fascinating because It’s a little bit conflicted, yet very complete which makes it all the more delicious and provocative to a girl like me. The yearning…the torment…..the inappropriateness of it all…..bring it on…..I love it! I’m one of those peculiar (maybe not so!) ladies who finds her passions completely aroused when she’s in the least appropriate of places so anything that smells remotely monastic is a delightful temptation for me, an audacious invitation to misbehave. Thanks to Mandy for giving me the perfect excuse……
-- Perfume Smellin’ Things

Oud Luban opens with orange and frankincense, then segues into a base of warm, dry, spiced woods. It smells almost austere and yet at the same time comforting, like the smell of winter pomanders in a church where a censer is burning. The ouds in the base are warm and smooth, never overpowering or oily smelling. This is a beautiful fragrance for anyone who prefers something un-flowery, and is also a great choice for a man. Oud Luban is an almost minimalist pared-down blend of highs and lows.
-- London Makeup Girl

I find it sonorous, meditative, and centering. Once it has released some of the top notes, so closely married to the dark base, moments of a fully celestial air waft up around me.
-- Indieperfumes

As Oud Luban warms and evolves on my skin, oud entwines around those basso profondo notes like the smoke of a thurible, but this is no oud I have ever encountered before. Blended from eight varieties of oud, it glows its unearthly, animal aura through a decadent velvet patchouli dream that lingers with the smoky burnt aroma of choya ral, opoponax and benzoin.
-- Scent Less Sensibilities—The Sanctity of Solace

Oud Luban is a solid perfume that holds eight different types of oud in its midst. Surprisingly, it is a subtle and supple oud that caresses with suede, ethereal smoke and a smoothly aged patchouli. It is both sensual and reverential.
-- Scent Hive

Oud Luban recreates the smell of the Church with a blend of frankincense, no less than eight varieties of oud, and an incredible orange note - the combination makes for a deliciously smoky orange lacquer while first applied to the skin. However, Oud Luban is all top and base notes - no middle - and the notes transition from piety to passion, a delicious and deep skin scent emerging.
-- Beauty, Bacon, Bunnies

Oud Luban offers an almost ecstatic experience, a moment of epiphany when one remembers our link with the earth and with a greater power out there.
-- Life of Venus

It reminds me of Georgia O’Keeffe’s precisionist flowers. From a distance flowers are colorful, beautiful. Up close they are slightly terrifying but beautifully mesmerizing. Oud Luban morphs into a sweet benzoin and earthy patchouli. Oud Luban is “high and low”. From a distance it is a juicy citrus that is gamboge in color. Up close it is a smoky, earthy choya and patchouli that is dark and indigo in color.
--EauMG

Oud Luban manages to be spiritual while smelling like a million dollars
-- The Non-Blonde

The resins offer a sweetness that is also earthy but earthy is a bad analogy, Sky/Earth, tree-ish. But a tree still alive and growing. Oud Luban is the scent of the freedom of climbing trees, and scrub and bushland. Humanity there is too as Oud Lubin becomes softer, warmer, I am a spicy skinned sensual adventurer.
-- Australian Perfume Junkies

It’s a smouldering, rich, resinous and animalic incense perfume with smoky undertones (from the choya ral) that is only brightened with elemi, frankincense and blood orange. To experience a real agarwood perfume is especially refreshing.
-- Ayala Smelly Blog