The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Oud Liaisons arrived in 2025 as part of Ormonde Jayne's Four Corners of the Earth Reimagined collection. Linda Jayne Pilkington composed it, and the composition marks another oud-led entry in her ongoing work with the material. The opening belongs to rose and licorice, two notes that share the first minutes while the oud holds back beneath them. The licorice arrives with a clean bitterness, almost medicinal at first, and the rose underneath reads pale and slightly green before deepening. As the top notes settle, the oud begins to surface, smoky and leathery, pulling the sweetness of the rose into darker territory. The transition is gradual, not dramatic.
The licorice here is the unusual choice. Most oud compositions lead with saffron, ambroxan, or the wood itself. Pilkington puts licorice in the top notes, and it does something structural. The bitterness counters the rose, keeps the sweetness from tipping into confection, and gives the oud a darker runway to land on. The suede note in the heart bridges rose and wood without the usual iris or jasmine scaffolding. It's a shorter path, more direct. The licorice root carries a cool, anise-like sweetness, almost like fennel seed after a meal, and it sharpens the rose rather than smothering it.
The evolution
The opening belongs to licorice and rose, with pink pepper adding a faint static. The rose reads soapy and slightly bitter rather than jammy. Lemon brightens the edges but never announces itself. As the composition wears on, guaiac wood and oud take over. The suede settles in like a second skin. Eventually the cypriol and patchouli surface underneath, pulling the composition toward something resinous and dry. The vanilla stays close, never sugary, more like dust on old wood. On fabric the next morning, it reads as warm suede with a ghost of the opening rose. The progression is steady, with each phase announcing itself clearly without rushing the next. The pink pepper's static crackle fades into the suede's softness, and the oud's smoke gradually replaces the licorice's bite.
Cultural impact
Oud Liaisons sits within Ormonde Jayne's Four Corners of the Earth Reimagined collection, a series that brings together different regional scent vocabularies under a single house umbrella. The licorice-rose opening is the clearest signal: familiar oriental material, rearranged into something less expected. The composition speaks to wearers who approach the genre with curiosity rather than familiarity, and who want oud presented with a lighter touch. The fragrance earns its smoke through patient wear, with the oud revealing itself slowly rather than announcing its presence in the first minutes.
