# The House of Oud — Bonbon Pop

> Bonbon Pop is a 2023 fruity-gourmand by Italian niche house The House of Oud (THoO), composed by French perfumer Douglas Morel and released as the lead fragrance of the brand's new "Crazy Collection."

## Essence
Bonbon Pop is a 2023 fruity-gourmand by Italian niche house The House of Oud (THoO), composed by French perfumer Douglas Morel and released as the lead fragrance of the brand's new "Crazy Collection." Despite the candy-shop name and the house's oud branding, this is essentially a peach-and-brown-sugar patchouli gourmand with a creamy coconut top - the oud is absent or vestigial. It is best understood as THoO's entry into the late-2010s/2020s sweet-patchouli gourmand craze (the Kayali / Xerjoff Erba Pura lineage), wrapped in the house's signature hand-finished egg-shaped art bottle. The juice is solid; the bottle and the gourmand-trend timing are the commercial drivers.
## Scent Profile
The opening is a juicy, candied white peach with creamy coconut and a bright bergamot lift - a "peaches and cream" effect that several reviewers describe as candied peach or peach jam rather than fresh fruit. The peach is the THoO house style: not airy-fresh but thick, sticky, almost the "scent left behind after eating a juicy peach," as one published coverage reviewer put it. As it develops, patchouli is the structural pivot - it "leans into dark chocolate territory" but retains enough earthiness to keep the sweetness from collapsing into pure candy; one reviewer caught an unlit-pipe-tobacco facet. Jasmine adds a soft floral roundness rather than a distinct flower.
The base is where the gourmand settles: brown sugar, dry amber (vanillic), woods, and musk, producing a warm caramel-latte / peach-cobbler-with-vanilla-ice-cream drydown. Note that THoO's official and retailer pyramids vary - published coverage lists the base as "Musk, Cane sugar, Woody notes, and Amber," while the brand's own pyramid (via specialist retail) extends it to "Tolu balsam, Tonka bean, Musk, Vanilla, Burma oud, Peru balsam"; the catalog base here is brown sugar, woody, amber, musk. A recurring criticism is a sharp, "scratchy," near-gasoline synthetic facet in the background that some noses find intermittently grating and difficult to scrub off. Skin chemistry varies widely: some get heavy caramel, others sour peach, others dominant musk.
## Performance
Performance is a genuine strength and a frequent selling point. wearers reports cluster around strong projection and 6+ hours of longevity, with the scent detectable on skin and clothing the next morning. One published coverage reviewer: "It projects like crazy and lasts a good 6+ hours on my skin and clothes." Another noted it is "extremely long-lasting." It is potent enough that one or two sprays suffice; a minority find it "beast mode" and overwhelming, particularly the bergamot-patchouli combination. As an EDP it performs at or above expectation.
## Wearing Context
A cool-weather, casual-to-evening gourmand. Most reviewers place it in autumn/winter for its caramel-sugar warmth, though some wear it year-round and the brand markets it as universally wearable. It skews sweet and is wearers-classified as unisex/feminine-leaning; several men wear it but a few find it tips feminine. Best for casual outings, "fun night out," and comfort/cozy wear rather than formal or office settings (the projection and sweetness can be intrusive in close quarters). Layering-friendly per several users.
## Comparisons & DNA
Bonbon Pop sits squarely in the sweet-patchouli-fruity-gourmand family. The most cited comparison is Kayali - specifically Kayali Vanilla Royale Sugared Patchouli (one published coverage reviewer called Bonbon Pop "a worse version" of it) and the broader Kayali sweet style. specialist retail's own copy likens its fruitiness to Xerjoff Erba Pura. wearers "reminds me of" notes include Lattafa Éclaire (offered as a cheaper near-dupe of the caramel-latte facet), Mancera/Montale-style fruity ambers (Mula Mula), and even Navitus Chocolate Queen in the musky drydown. Within THoO it is compared to the house's own "Pop"/gourmand efforts , What About Pop, Keep Glazed). Its DNA is candied peach + brown sugar + chocolate-y patchouli + creamy musk.
## Reception
Reception is genuinely split. Enthusiasts love the candied-peach-and-cream profile, the performance, and the artwork bottle, with several blind-buying full bottles off a single sample and reporting compliments. Detractors are unusually harsh: one published coverage reviewer who received samples called it "Just. Bad... an overload of synthetic peach along with a foul mixture of patchouli and sugar," and accused the house of "capitalizing on the current niche 'gourmand' craze" and trading on its bottles. The German blog Das Duft-Tagebuch de) reviewed it within the Crazy Collection and found the sweet-tropical profile pleasant if not groundbreaking, while noting a published coverage tester disliked the name as beneath the composition's complexity. The recurring critical thread is the synthetic/scratchy background facet and the gap between the playful name and the actual heft.
## Versions & Reformulation
Released 2023; per published coverage's "ESXENCE 2023: Crazy Collection by THOO," the colorful Alice-in-Wonderland-style bottles "[were] thought up by the collection's art director Christina Mercaldo and embodied by CFF perfumers Douglas Morel, Maurizio Cerizza, and Christian Calabro," and "The Crazy Collection was first announced at Cannes last year and finally presented at the recent ESXENCE-2023 exhibition in Milan." The collection's art direction broke from THoO's usual marbled gemstone "smooth stone" flacons toward colorful, steampunk/collage pieces. Bonbon Pop is one of several Crazy launches alongside Wabisabi (a wasabi-themed green scent by Cristian Calabrò) and Gambling (a whisky-coffee scent). Perfumer is consistently credited as Douglas Morel, one of the CFF (Creative Flavours & Fragrances) perfumers; THoO founder Andrea Casotti is CEO of CFF. No reformulation documented (too recent). Note the brand is sometimes styled "THoO" - "the brand formerly known as The House of Oud" - reflecting a partial rebrand.
## Acquisition Notes
A niche-priced fragrance: roughly US $208-260 for the standard bottle (one US retailer listed 5 oz at $208 on sale from $260). Sold through niche boutiques and the brand's distribution (specialist retail, ZGO, etc.) rather than mass retail. The hand-painted egg-shaped bottle is a genuine collectible draw - buyers report purchasing two (one to use, one to display). Sampling first is strongly advised given the polarizing synthetic facet and skin-chemistry variability; samples and decants are widely available.
## Notable Facts & Lore
- The Crazy Collection bottles are a deliberate departure from THoO's usual hand-dipped/marbled "smooth stone" egg flacons; they were conceived as colorful art-collage pieces.