Ex Idolo’s Ryder: An Eighties Perfume That Grew Up To Be Sublime

Ex Idolo is a London based perfumery, headed up by Matthew Zhuk, a Canadian of Eastern European descent who lives in the UK. Matthew launched his first scent, Thirty Three, in 2013. It is an exceptional perfume, and has a fascinating and beautiful provenance, and is created around a rare batch of vintage Chinese oud and rose oil. It’s exceptional for me, as it is the only oud perfume I like. Oud is a funny note, and a strong oud has a medicinal band-aid scent that is just too much for my nose. There is, even in the standard oud scents out there, an addictive quality that makes one want to keep sniffing. I get that from ambregris, but oud has it too, and has become hugely popular and ubiquitous thanks to that quality.

I find it rather masculine and can’t carry most oud perfume’s off, nor would I want to. But, Ex Idolo’s Thirty Three is what I recommend to anyone who asks me about oud scents. It’s divine and delicate, but not shy, and not lacking in soul and strength. Seriously, if any of this intrigues you, find Thirty Three and smell it. Every perfume lover should. Sergey Bourisov wrote an intriguing review of Ex Idolo Thirty-Three over at Fragrantica.

So, you can imagine I was excited to hear about, and, get a chance to review the newest release from Ex Idolo, Ryder. This is what Ex Idolo says about Ryder:

A fragrance inspired by the history of Mayfair & St James:

True to the traditions of the grand houses of the golden age of perfume, Ex Idolo has created an exceptional blend inspired by the history of the members clubs of Mayfair and St. James in London. The fragrance is a juxtaposition of sweet tobacco and boozy notes against a warm woody-amber accord. The fragrance is anchored by a sparkling and ultra rare Omani (Hougari) frankincense. Although inspired by the past, Ryder is a modern fragrance; it is worth mentioning that although many of the members clubs started as male-only – a large number of them now invite women as well. To represent this, Ryder’s distinctive character has been enhanced with a heady, indolic Royal jasmine. Ryder is a unisex fragrance.

Ex Idolo window display at Fenwick Bond Street

That is terrific imagery and when I close my eyes and smell the fragrance I can almost feel the leather chair I’ve settled into with a cognac and cigar, after attending the premier of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado earlier in the evening. Ok, I’d have to be a man, but anyways. Ryder wears like an extrait on my skin, needing only a drop on each wrist and the back of my neck to experience it’s beauty. It comes and goes in different incarnations as the scent progresses. One moment I smell the stunning classic sandalwood – this is the sandalwood of my dreams, with aspects that remind of my vintage Chanel Bois des Iles, which I am hoarding. Then I’m smelling the sweet and soft tobacco as it wafts around me. The amber and resins in the base are beyond beautiful, as Ryder features the ultra-rare Omani (Hougari) frankincense. Ahhh you can almost taste it – maybe that is the Tahitian vanilla with it’s sneaky heliotropic properties. Honestly, Ryder has A Presence. A lovely purring jasmine peeks out from time to time, for a perfect floral flourish that is never cloying or indolic.

Only Madonna could do Marlene as good as Marlene does.

I had an intense scent memory while wearing Ryder. It was to 1986, and I wore the divine Must de Cartier Parfum*. I had the signature bottle in the heavy gold bottle, and I adored it. It had that thick, resinous amber with vanilla that was almost chocolate. I was walking behind a gorgeous and stylish woman, maybe a little older than me, in Toronto last year and her sillage was so incredible I had to ask her what perfume she was wearing. She said Must de Cartier, the parfum, and that she had a few bottle left that she had been hoarding since the 80s. My people.

Must de Cartier managed to envelope you in a velvet fog of fragrance without ever being cloyingly sweet. Ryder is decidedly unisex, and I mean that. There is no way this would smell girly on a man, or manly on a woman, if you know what I mean. Ryder has a classic perfume feeling to it, and if I’d sniffed it blind I would have said it smelled like a perfume I loved in the eighties that had been aged, like a fine cognac, to perfection.

I could go on and on, but really, you should just smell it yourself.

Ex Idolo Ryder, 30ml, avail (as of Aug 2015, subject to change) in USA/Canada: Luckyscent, Twisted Lily, Indigo, Etiket, and Indiescents. And more retailers to come. $185 USD. Not sure yet what the CAN price is.

*Must de Cartier is still sold on the Cartier website and in Cartier boutiques.