Oud of the Day

[The Scent Guru]

Sumbawa Seufi from mesOUD. My collection and budget are tiny compared to most here, but I love this profile so much I bought two full bottles. For me this is soul stirring oud.

Pipe tobacco, cigar, spices, incense, a tropical forest brimming with life, salt air, honey, an ancient library full of leather-bound books, the faintest suggestion of underripe tropical fruits and jungle flowers, a whiff of woodsmoke from far off. The dry down is blissfully fragrant, gently bubbling agarwood chips. Lasts close to 18 hours on the skin.

Emotionally, my mind goes to Maui, down the muddy road leading to Jaws, through fields of wild grassland soaked with sunlight, the salty ocean breeze getting stronger, then switchbacking down through the dense, fragrant forest, wildflowers peaking out along the trail, and then onto the rocky shores where the impossibly turquoise waves surge against the sylvan shoreline. It's evanescent, yet has immense gravity. It's perfect stillness and composure amidst unceasing motion.

Many thanks to @mesOUD for sharing such treasures with us.

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Wearing this now and yeah this one is rather unique isn't it! Love your description, salt air, marzipan, aromatic spices, new car leather.

@mesOUD

 

[oudstronaut]

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[Rogi_Again]

Another way to distinguish the older batches are shorter crystal flacons with no inner tube. The oil is directly put inside the cyrstal bottles in earlier batches. Modern versions are slightly thinner and taller with an additional glass tube inside. Also color of the oils vary from brown to dark burgundy with some small particles inside.

Does anyone know if this is legit?

I have multiple bottles of Saif Ul Hind… and yeah they each smell different from each other but it’s clear that they are of the same ‘family’.

My latest bottle is of a different design than the other two, see below. The top attaches differently and the glass tube is not visible looking down into the bottle. Also the inner bottle (where the oud is located) is wider than my other two bottles.

Of my three bottles, one is sweet, bordering on a Cambodian mix, one is perfectly balanced (no Cambodian similarities at all), and the other is straight up barnyardy (I smell horses, lol) like any good Hindi… but has a slight rosewood fizziness to it.

 

[User]

RPP Asiki Boven

I said something about it a while ago in the OOTD thread, but I’ve drastically changed my opinion. I recieved it along with samples of Kepi and Cyclops. All of them had a quality that I did not like, especially in the opening. In the drydown I was finding some qualities that I did like. I used it more since then, and now I love it, including the opening. I have been using it close to daily and it seems like I cannot get tired of it, and I almost like it more every time. I almost considered selling it at the beginning, but it's a good thing I didn't because now it's one of my favorites. As of now, Asiki Boven is my favorite of the three Papuan oils I mentioned, but I have also spent much more time with it. The other two have also significantly grown on me.

EO Hoi An

I don't have a full opinion on this one yet. It's pleasant, but hasn't yet justified the price for me. Who knows, it might grow on me like Asiki Boven did. I feel like I haven't fully figured it out yet.

 

[Kolalid]

RPP Asiki Boven

I said something about it a while ago in the OOTD thread, but I’ve drastically changed my opinion. I recieved it along with samples of Kepi and Cyclops. All of them had a quality that I did not like, especially in the opening. In the drydown I was finding some qualities that I did like. I used it more since then, and now I love it, including the opening. I have been using it close to daily and it seems like I cannot get tired of it, and I almost like it more every time. I almost considered selling it at the beginning, but it's a good thing I didn't because now it's one of my favorites. As of now, Asiki Boven is my favorite of the three Papuan oils I mentioned, but I have also spent much more time with it. The other two have also significantly grown on me.

EO Hoi An

I don't have a full opinion on this one yet. It's pleasant, but hasn't yet justified the price for me. Who knows, it might grow on me like Asiki Boven did. I feel like I haven't fully figured it out yet.

How big of a bottle did your pick up for the Asiki Boven.. you’ve piqued my interest lol

 

[oudstronaut]

How big of a bottle did your pick up for the Asiki Boven.. you’ve piqued my interest lol

Asiki is awesome. I bought 0.3g, then went back for another 0.3g. Only reason I didn’t buy more is because I still want to get more of his other Indonesian oils! I really loved his Melawi as well… Kepi looks like a bargain if it’s like either of these. I will try some with my next order!

 

[User]

Asiki is awesome. I bought 0.3g, then went back for another 0.3g. Only reason I didn’t buy more is because I still want to get more of his other Indonesian oils! I really loved his Melawi as well… Kepi looks like a bargain if it’s like either of these. I will try some with my next order!

I think that kepi is a bargain @$150/g

At the same time I think AB is worth the extra money. It's not obvious though, and if your personal preference differs then you might prefer Kepi.

I prefer to swipe Kepi at night, and I like AB better during the day.

 

[Mousse de Chene]

Asiki Boven is superior to Kepi for my personal tastes. I like Kepi a lot but AB has an amazing green floral terpenic quality. It’s dark, but captures that fresh mossy jungle feeling that I adore in Papuan Oud.
Kepi is much more smoky, brooding & less nuanced in my opinion. Some people might prefer that profile though. I like a touch of smoke, but not overdosed.

 

[Kolalid]

EO Tigerwood 1990

Very interesting oil. Smooth and camphoric smell. Great way to start the day 😄

 

[oudstronaut]

EO Tigerwood 1990

Very interesting oil. Smooth and camphoric smell. Great way to start the day 😄

This is one of my favourites! Have you tried Tiger King II from Rising Phoenix? You know how Ensar claims that no one is using high quality tigerwood to make oud oils these days? He must have missed JK’s Tiger King II for which he uses high quality bead-grade wood. Beastly new-gen with powerful floral tones. Pricey, but imo absolutely worth it!
Very different from tigerwood 1990 in its general profile but a really fragrant oil. It’s one of the few oils I’ve opted to buy over 1 gram of and hope to have for many years!

 

[Rename]

Asiki Boven is superior to Kepi for my personal tastes. I like Kepi a lot but AB has an amazing green floral terpenic quality. It’s dark, but captures that fresh mossy jungle feeling that I adore in Papuan Oud.
Kepi is much more smoky, brooding & less nuanced in my opinion. Some people might prefer that profile though. I like a touch of smoke, but not overdosed.

I like dat smoak 🔥

 

[Rename]

This is one of my favourites! Have you tried Tiger King II from Rising Phoenix? You know how Ensar claims that no one is using high quality tigerwood to make oud oils these days? He must have missed JK’s Tiger King II for which he uses high quality bead-grade wood. Beastly new-gen with powerful floral tones. Pricey, but imo absolutely worth it!
Very different from tigerwood 1990 in its general profile but a really fragrant oil. It’s one of the few oils I’ve opted to buy over 1 gram of and hope to have for many years!

Just for fun … here’s some Tiger King series raw materials 😉

 

[User]

My Fushigi order just landed today and they are excellent so far. I haven't swiped all of them properly yet, but what I have smelled is pretty great. I have mostly smelled ceylon, Hainan and pursat, with real normal sized swipes.

Ceylon smells great, and nothing like any Silani I have smelled before. There is a note that I don't like, but it disappeared very quickly, like 30 seconds.

All of the oils took a minute or so to reach their peak, which I found odd. Most oils smell great immediately. The only explanation I can think up is that this might be a characteristic of newly distilled oils.

So far Hainan is my favorite. It smells different than I expected, but I don't have many references for Hainan oil. I can tell you that it doesn't really smell like JS Emperor of China or emperor Guan Yu at all, but it does smell somewhat similar to Hamza's Fragrant Harbour. I guessed that most of the smell in FH came from Hong Kong, but now I am thinking that Hainan probably pulled more weight than I thought.

Pursat is very nice also. To me it smells kinamic and has an uncanny resemblance to strawberry jam.

By the way I didn't order incense sticks at all, or sandalwood oil. That was all given to me as free samples.

 

[Sproaty]

Vietnam Royale by Feel Oud.
Wowee, great oil. Am ~4-5hrs in with a fantastic drydown

Jame - do you find that a lot of those oils have a similar scent? There certainly seeme to be a common trait to all my samples I received from him. I bought quite a lot of wood too and some incense, the incense is good - wood is very so-so IMO

 

[User]

Vietnam Royale by Feel Oud.
Wowee, great oil. Am ~4-5hrs in with a fantastic drydown

Jame - do you find that a lot of those oils have a similar scent? There certainly seeme to be a common trait to all my samples I received from him. I bought quite a lot of wood too and some incense, the incense is good - wood is very so-so IMO

Yeah I found a similarity, but it might be distillation signature. There is also similarity amongst the Oriscent oils, for example.

There was plenty of difference between the ones I tried, and I don’t think any of them are the same as each other or anything like that. Getting two of them would not be redundant.

 

[oudstronaut]

Manipur and Meghalaya - Rising Phoenix Perfumery

An oustanding clean hindi!

Big opening with a medium minty lift. Some boozy fruits; overripe Plums and dark berries. They carry sweetness more than tartness (hence overripe). Cinnamon and pepper (in particular cinnamon at first) blend with this to give a sort of “mulled wine” vibe. All of this is layered over what smells like a cigar straight out of the humidor with some dark palpable tobacco tones. This is really the beginning of the journey though. As the initial storm subsides I’m getting some anise and some of that creamy honey character that sometimes comes with agallocha. Right when I thought it was giving up, the faintest whiff of ambergris and some distant hay brings us into the mid notes. This is where that peppery tone really starts to come forward tamed by some fresh conifer breeze…. still a decently present minty facet even hours in.

This has got to be my current favourite (kind of hate to use that word… but here I go) oud oil. I’m a big fan of hindi oud and, in particular, clean or lightly fermented hindis. I think they offer the most opulence of all of the ouds with their rich leather, chocolate, or tobacco notes... Rising Phoenix has a real winner on their hands with this one. A steam distillation, it’s clear that this oil was made in a way that retained a ton of its volatile compounds as it is teeming with vigour and brilliance right from the initial swipe.

 

[TheOudDood]

I love this oil and I know the note you are talking about. It’s very strong in some Vietnamese oils and I’ve smelled it from Hong Kong as well. Ii don’t believe this is Kinam, but it seems like everyone has a different definition. I thought this was Kinam when I first tried Nha Trang LTD, but I talked to Taha from Agar Aura about it, and he assured me that Nha Trang LTD is not kinamic. I think Ensar would disagree.

NTLTD is not even remotely kynamic in my experience. It just smells like a clean vietnamese profile, kind of like Kynam rouge, but with more of the aggressive gasoline top note. That gasoline note tends to run through most of the oriscent line is very likely what EO is referring to since it has the penetrating face numbing quality.

I once brought this up in the EO FB group and inquired why none of the kynam oils EO sold actually smelled like kynam.

I was mostly ridiculed. The implicit assumption was that I was an idiot and understanding such things was just over my head.

Basically all EO had to say was that if I were ever in London he should show the ways.

Im like bro - Ive bought all your kynam oils and bought actual kynam wood from you, not to mention actual kynam from other vendors.

If you have to really lean in that hard, use so much brain power, and dare I say - a bit of imagination and wishful thinking - then that tells ya all you need to know in terms of the validity.

Long story, a good oil?

Yes.

Oriscent - many great oils, but def not worth the price and the subsequent market inflation that has occured as a result.

Money for me is not a meaningless object nor is oud or incense a culture or status symbol - as it is for many of EOs wealthy clients. As myself and many others have witnessed across many platforms.

So I leave them to their hype, fantasy, and showmanship while I just sold off nearly my entire collection and moved on with my life.

Fetish comes to mind as an accurate descriptor.

Genuinely better things to do in life than spend $5,000 on something that probably costs $500 all the while chasing some kynamic fantasy put forth by the huckter of hucksters.

Unless - fetish is your thing.

 

[User]

NTLTD is not even remotely kynamic in my experience. It just smells like a clean vietnamese profile, kind of like Kynam rouge, but with more of the aggressive gasoline top note. That gasoline note tends to run through most of the oriscent line is very likely what EO is referring to since it has the penetrating face numbing quality.

I once brought this up in the EO FB group and inquired why none of the kynam oils EO sold actually smelled like kynam.

I was mostly ridiculed. The implicit assumption was that I was an idiot and understanding such things was just over my head.

Basically all EO had to say was that if I were ever in London he should show the ways.

Im like bro - Ive bought all your kynam oils and bought actual kynam wood from you, not to mention actual kynam from other vendors.

If you have to really lean in that hard, use so much brain power, and dare I say - a bit of imagination and wishful thinking - then that tells ya all you need to know in terms of the validity.

Long story, a good oil?

Yes.

Oriscent - many great oils, but def not worth the price and the subsequent market inflation that has occured as a result.

Money for me is not a meaningless object nor is oud or incense a culture or status symbol - as it is for many of EOs wealthy clients. As myself and many others have witnessed across many platforms.

So I leave them to their hype, fantasy, and showmanship while I just sold off nearly my entire collection and moved on with my life.

Fetish comes to mind as an accurate descriptor.

Genuinely better things to do in life than spend $5,000 on something that probably costs $500 all the while chasing some kynamic fantasy put forth by the huckter of hucksters.

Unless - fetish is your thing.

Are there any oils that you would say are actually kinamic? I have tried some from other vendors that say that their oils smell kinamic but I just don't really get it. Some people say that NTLTD is very strongly kinamic and some say there is no kinam note. I don't know who to believe.

 

[oudstronaut]

Unless - fetish is your thing.

I mean is there any actual “kinam” going into these stills?

What is the appeal of something that is distilled with the intention of “imitating”kinam anyway? I understand this is an art to a degree and each artist is free to have their vision. But personally, if kinam is known for smelling different from regular agarwood then I don’t necessarily want my agarwood oil to smell like kinam (unless it actually has some of those facets).

Not much of a hobby if everyone is trying to make the same stuff, buying from the same sources. Etc.

 

[User]

Fushigi Brunei Kyere and Malinau

I don’t know if this an alternate smelling for kyara, if it means something different, or if it’s just misspelled on the label. In any case, it smells very, very good.

Malinau is also excellent