Maison Francis Kurkdjian has launched OUD velvet mood, the third fragrance in its OUD mood series, and has named the dunes of Liwa Oasis in the United Arab Emirates as its inspiration. The extrait de parfum went on sale on 1 September 2026 at authorised Maison Francis Kurkdjian retailers and on franciskurkdjian.com, following OUD silk mood and OUD satin mood. No price was published in the reports read for this story.
Harper’s Bazaar Arabia describes the inspiration as the dunes of Liwa and the Dubai desert. Either way, it is rare for a Paris house to point so directly at an Emirati landscape, and the launch arrives in a season when several scent brands are looking at the region with fresh attention.
The desert, in a bottle
Francis Kurkdjian explained the idea in terms of space. He said he was struck by the infinite horizons of the dunes, where the gaze is swallowed into nothingness, and that impression shapes a fragrance built for softness rather than weight.
Oud wood is the core. According to Grazia Malaysia, the composition opens on a textured peach and moves into osmanthus with leathery, apricot facets. Harper’s Bazaar Arabia lists the notes as oud, juicy peach, osmanthus and a suede accord. Osmanthus is a small, fragrant flower whose scent is often compared to apricot and leather, which explains the thread that runs through those descriptions.
Kurkdjian also spoke about oud itself. He said it allows perfumers to use an animalic facet that is becoming increasingly rare in modern perfumery. He described OUD velvet mood as a fairly simple composition in a very contemporary style, which fits the name of the series: each mood, in his scheme, is a texture as much as a scent.
The bottle is square, in dark tinted glass, with a golden cap that carries the KK monogram.
Why Liwa
Liwa Oasis lies in Abu Dhabi’s Al Dhafra region and borders the Rub’ al Khali, the Empty Quarter, with some of the highest dunes in the world. Oud, the resin that forms in the wood of Aquilaria trees and is also called agarwood, is central to Gulf perfumery. Kurkdjian, who has led Christian Dior Parfums as creative director since 2021 in addition to running his own house, is therefore joining two Gulf subjects at once: the landscape and the material that scents it.
Three more launches for the region
Other houses have timed their autumn news to the same audience, although each of the following items rests on a single source, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, and none came with a published price.
Dolce&Gabbana Velvet Precious Jewel. Part of the Velvet Collection, this extrait is limited to 40 individually numbered pieces. Its flacon sits in a handcrafted cage set with decorative stones. The perfumer is Cécile Zarokian, who blends Amarelli liquorice, tobacco leaf and myrrh. The report says she did so with Middle Eastern olfactory influences. Myrrh, like oud and frankincense, is a resin with a long place in the region’s scent traditions.
Bvlgari Baciami Ancora. The name means kiss me again in Italian, and the fragrance is a richer version of Baciami. Its Master Perfumer is Jacques Cavallier. The notes are gardenia and vanilla, with cedarwood, black pepper, cinnamon and ginger, and the Allegra flacon appears in a deeper red.
Atelier Rebul at The Dubai Mall. The Istanbul house is running a pop-up at Bloomingdale’s, The Dubai Mall, from 17 September to 26 October. It features the İstanbul Golden Hour range by the perfumer Pascal Gaurin, and visitors can have their bottles engraved and explore the fragrances.
What the season says
Taken together, the launches suggest a pattern. Oud is being treated less as a heavy, smoky statement and more as a texture that can be paired with peach, suede, liquorice or gardenia. Resins such as myrrh turn up in a limited edition. Even a pop-up from Istanbul chooses the Dubai Mall as its stage.
For readers who already wear oud, OUD velvet mood offers a gentler reading of a familiar material. For those new to it, the softness may make a useful starting point, and the fact that it is inspired by a place many in the Emirates know first-hand gives it a local reference point. Prices have not been announced, so anyone interested should check with an authorised retailer or the maison’s website before planning a purchase.
The series names now run through three fabrics: silk, satin and velvet. Each fragrance in the line is an extrait de parfum, and each takes a different texture as its theme, so the new release can be read as the third answer to the same question: how soft can oud be made to feel?
Sources: Grazia Malaysia, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia