Creed’s New Men’s Fragrance Oud Zarian Makes the Note Feel Wearable

Creed never rushes an idea. For more than 250 years, the fragrance house has built a reputation on an almost stubborn devotion to craftsmanship, even if such painstaking work takes years to perfect. And its newest men’s fragrance, Oud Zarian, feels like an inevitable product of that philosophy. 

At the core of Oud Zarian is an 80-year-old oud from Bangladesh, sourced through a partnership with another storied house, Jalali Agarwood, one of the world’s most respected oud cultivators. While oud can be polarizing—prized by some for its longevity and scorned by others for its animalic bite—the version in this bottle is rounder, creamier, and more nuanced than your standard-issue oud oil, with a clarity that feels paradoxical given its depth. 

Harvested from the Sylhet forests of Bangladesh, it comes from agarwood trees that have matured for eight decades (an age almost unheard of in modern perfumery). Typical oud oils are distilled from much younger trees, which often produce those sharp, “barnyard” notes that some can find challenging or overpowering.

The provenance of this oud is as important as its age: Jalali Agarwood has cultivated its namesake tree for six generations, and its forests have been used as a source of oud oil since the 16th century. The company approached Creed with this extraordinarily aged oud, confident that the house would treat it with reverence. “They wanted to be sure the wood would not be lost among dozens of competing notes,” explains Creed CEO Nathalie Berger-Duquene. “They wanted it to be the heart of a fragrance. That is exactly what we did.”

For this particular extraction, Jalali used an uncommon production process. Artisans sort the wood by hand, selecting only the darkest heartwood, and distill it for just three days. The typical three-week distillation used across the industry can pull in impurities and accentuate the notes’ polarizing qualities. This shorter method, employed solely for Oud Zarian, yields a resin of unusual refinement. 

Berger-Duquene likens it to olive oil production, where the first press produces the fruit’s truest expression. “Sometimes taking only the beginning of a process gives you the best outcome,” she says. “With this oud, the shorter distillation preserves its purity.”

For Erwin Creed, part of the fragrance family’s seventh generation, this collaboration with Jalali was intuitive. “We immediately connected over shared values of heritage, craftsmanship, artistry, and a deep respect for nature,” he says. “I still remember the first time I smelled it: I expected something heavy, but instead there was this incredible depth paired with a surprising clarity, so different from the animalic notes you usually get in younger ouds.”

Berger-Duquene describes Oud Zarian as a fragrance that “comes back to the brand’s DNA,” which makes sense: many of Creed’s scents celebrate a single ingredient at the highest level of purity. As she outlines, the composition is not just satisfying Creed’s loyal clientele but also drawing in new fragrance lovers who are searching for something rare and special.

It also creates an interesting counterpoint within Creed’s portfolio. Aventus remains the brand’s modern icon, a fresh and energetic signature recognized worldwide. Oud Zarian offers another kind of benchmark, one that is deeper, more unisex, and more intimate on the skin while still projecting Creed’s signature strength and longevity.

Creed has explored oud before, though never in this way. Royal Oud (2011) frames the note within a structure of cedar and spice (targeted at men), while its feminine counterpart Royal Princess Oud (2015) projects a powerfully powdery radius. With Oud Zarian, the oud itself becomes the star, supported but never overshadowed by ginger, patchouli, and vanilla. Together, these compositions frame Creed’s ability to speak to different sides of luxury perfumery: the exuberant and the refined, the iconic and the rare.

So how does the new scent smell? Oud Zarian opens with a bright, sparkling lift of bergamot and ginger that sets an unexpectedly fresh stage for such a weighty central ingredient. In the heart, the aged oud takes place alongside licorice and patchouli, adding both spice and earthiness while allowing the wood’s creamy roundness to shine. The base is anchored with vanilla and benzoin, giving the fragrance a warm, resinous finish that lingers for hours on skin. It’s going to feel right at home during the colder months.

Creed refers to its catalog as a collection of “sleeping giants,” and Oud Zarian feels like one that arrives wide awake. It captures the richness of oud while showing restraint, offering longevity and strength without ever tipping into heaviness. Hours after application, and even after a shower, it can linger close to the skin in a creamy, rounded way that feels personal and refined. For a material that so often overwhelms, this kind of wearability is rare and noteworthy.

Aventus may define Creed in the public eye, but the house’s quiet icons (Green Irish Tweed, Silver Mountain Water, and Millésime Impérial) are no less important. Oud Zarian establishes a new benchmark, not just for the house but also for oud itself. It is a modern masterpiece within Creed’s lineage, destined to be spoken of alongside its established greats.

And the unisex appeal strengthens its case. On different wearers, Oud Zarian presents shifting accents: some of my peers call out the licorice at its heart, while I find the real magic in its evolution into a skin scent. That duality makes it both versatile and memorable, as collectible as it is wearable.