Manos Gerakinis' Silver Oud is a divisive beast: some will swoon, others will run. It's a bold-as-brass, take-no-prisoners kind of scent that you'll either adore or recoil from. Definitely not a blind buy.

A budget rendition of Tom Ford's Tobacco Oud, a rich saffron-oud-leather Private Blend fragrance. The spiced saffron opening into an oud-leather heart is a decent approximation, but the base loses the original's dense, resinous tobacco-oud depth and dries down thinner and quieter.