Oh I see. That's interesting. May be the amount of cardamom EO matters? unless there is something else at play which I am not exactly aware of. You seem to have already done the cardamom + oud experiment and you smell it as warm. So, not sure whatever I said before applies to the dubious sample you have.
Garo Jing, or Maharaja ? I have a Bulgarian otto, not mesOud's aged version though, I can try it with Garo Jing soon inshaAllah. I find Bulgarian very pretty pink, with a lot more dewiness and a smidge of greenery at least the one I have, it doesn't move me quite as much as something like Ispartan or Ta'ifi, but maybe I need to wear it more.
Bulgarian can be anywhere from dull and sweaty smelling to absolutely sparkling / effervescent / lifelike. Kind of a crap shoot each time i try a new source. I think a lot has to do with how quickly the flowers get into the still. If there's a delay they start to ferment and sweat a bit and then you get some of those mediocre oils
Good luck! I hope they promote you keeping in mind how much you love oud oils. 😀
Yes, the best rose soliflore I have smelled so far.
Seriously - they should consider offering an oud allowance as an incentive to stay on.
May be offer a few visits to the countries where they grow oud per year so the employers can study the effect of aromatics-centered vacations in boosting employee morale.
Gargo Jing
Thank you! Oud vendors are going to love to see me coming if I get the promotion 😂
I could actually see my company doing this for a select few HR execs. Then they'd offer aromatherapy workshops as part of their employee mental health initiative lol
Sounds interesting! You can easily access so many locations while keeping your base in Hong Kong. May be you will run into someone from Ensar in one of his heroic expeditions in sourcing rare ouds 😛
I think it very well could have been the amount of cardamom eo used, and my tiny sample, the one I made I haven't check up on, so perhaps I'm misremembering. I just remember wanting to accent the Hindi oud with cardamom, and you know, it hadn't occurred to me till now, but perhaps Hindi oud is more likely to become cooler smelling, than a Thai? I know with my tests with rose, the outcome was very different in both ouds, and the blend which smelled hot, did in fact use a Thai in the base.
I have some cardamom CO2. It’s about as true to the actual scent of the seeds as you can imagine. Much closer than most other plant extracts.
Funny but I could see how cardamom could be physically cooling on the skin with a kind of menthol effect, but still have a warm sense when it comes to the aroma or flavor. I think because I associate cardamom with chai and often with ginger I think of it as "warming" even if it may actually be cooling. I've never really tuned into the herb itself and have not experimented much with the oil.
Cardomom as a spice, if you just eat it by itself has a cooling effect and it is really good for someone with high blood pressure. Lowers it by a few points.
So many variables to think about! I don't have much experience with the hindi oud. May be I should swipe and compare the hindi vs thai.
