It is a problem when an art is turned into caricature. Nowadays, perfumery is a kind of caricature of itself. Vanilla is not the only ingredient that exists. Neither is caramel. I think it causes real damage and is a real pity when it feels like everything smells of either fruit or vanilla or caramel.
— Perfumer Mathilde Laurent. Read more at Cartier in-house perfumer Mathilde Laurent: 'People don’t know what they want, and they don’t know what they like' at The National.
I don’t think of Oud as surprising in 2017 so, in my mind, vanilla, fruit and oud are all a bit old hat. Surprising would be unusual blends, combinations I didn’t expect or an interpretation of s scent object ( like CDG Concrete…which I haven’t smelled). I guess that working within an ‘elegant’ genre narrows the choices so maybe a bit of vulgar to shake it up could be good.
I suppose it might still seem “surprising” if you were not a perfumista, that is, if you didn’t really shop for perfume all the time, its existence could have totally passed you by? Whereas vanilla and caramel, you’d have to be living in a closet, perhaps.
BUT, if you do shop for perfume regularly, yes, oud is been there, done that.