When the guys at Zoha told me that they will start selling the original YSL M7, I immediately placed an order! I've had a bottle of the M7 Oud Absolu and was turned off from the myrhh and mandarin orange. I gave it a few years, but it still couldn't grow on to me. I've read so many great things about the original M7 that debuted in 2002 that I was very curious to smell it, but not with the price tag that most people are asking on various online outlets.
Since Zoha Aroma has been so consistent on their accuracy to the original fragrances, I figured that this would be very close to the original. With that being said, I can't confirm if this is a close copy to the original, but I can tell you that this is smells like the description people have given of the original M7 on its Fragrantica page. Zoha's M7 has a sweet woody smell with a tad of musk. I definitely get the "Coca-Cola/Dr.Pepper" smell that many have described about the original M7. It actually reminds me of Versace Blue Jeans cologne, but this is not as cloying as VBJ to my nose. And yes, performance is pretty good overall.
This scent was kinda ahead of its time in the western world with the OUD accord. Tom Ford did a great thing and this actually smells kinda niche. Can you smell the Oud in Zoha Aroma's? Well, to my nose, yes you can smell it, but it won't be a barnyard in your face middle eastern type of attar. It is a very mild oud which makes this more crowd friendly. Another great fragrance from Zoha and would recommend this to anyone starting their oud journey or original M7 owners that may want to preserve their bottle.
