The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Cyrille Carles designed Oud Altius as part of Soma Parfums' Oud Collection, released in 2022 alongside its counterpart Oud Fortius. The inspiration draws from the sensory chaos of narrow market alleys, vendors hawking aromatic wares, shoppers bargaining over pungent spices, white sheets billowing overhead in the breeze. The fragrance captures that tension between outward commotion and inner focus: protecting something precious while the world churns around you. It is a scent about keeping your nerve when everything else is in motion.
The note structure makes this possible. Raspberry at the top is an unusual choice for an oud fragrance, it brings brightness, even pop, cutting through the heavier materials that follow. Cardamom and cinnamon amplify the spice without tipping into sweetness. Then the heart introduces iris powder and rose, creating a floral middle ground that bridges the fruity opening and the deep base. The oud does not arrive immediately. It earns its position, arriving in the drydown where leather, sandalwood, and vanilla create a warmth that sustains the composition long after the top notes have settled.
The evolution
The opening is immediate: raspberry pops against a backdrop of warm spice, cardamom giving it an edge that raspberry alone could not achieve. Thirty minutes in, the heart begins to emerge, saffron first, then the rose and iris arriving together in a dusty-floral wave that softens everything that came before. The top notes do not disappear so much as they fade into the background, becoming warmth rather than brightness. By hour three, the oud announces itself. Not loudly, but with certainty. It settles into leather and vanilla, the sandalwood adding creaminess that prevents the base from reading as harsh. On fabric, this fragrance outlasts itself, a faint warmth remains the next morning, more memory than presence. On skin, six to eight hours is the range, with moderate sillage that announces itself to those close enough to notice, then retreats.
Cultural impact
Oud Altius positions itself within a specific niche tradition: warm, spicy, oud-forward compositions that draw from Middle Eastern fragrance conventions without being bound by them. The addition of raspberry and iris gives it a powdery-fruity character that distinguishes it from heavier straight oud compositions. Wearers describe it as the scent of someone who walks into a room and does not need to announce themselves.
The House
Soma ParfumsThe Creator
Cyrille CarlesInheriting a legacy like Jean Carles's could make a lesser perfumer derivative, but the Carles method was never about copying the past. It was about building frameworks that generate new possibilities.
