Oud of the Day

[Mr.P]

I just swiped a bit of an assam oil called “Omar” from an najwa - holy moly this is nice. I’ve smelled a handful of these traditional agallocha ouds and this is right in line with the best of them. What really stood out in this particular swipe is the vertical complexity of the scent. It’s like when i smelled it at one level of closeness it comes across as a complete classic Assam profile but then when i sniffed closer it’s like there’s a whole other different hindi hiding inside of the outer wrapper. This is a really nice specimen and I’m going make this sample last. The scent-within-a-scent was truly surprising.

 

[Sproaty]

I think this is from nose blindness. If you’re sitting in a cloud of scent your nose will start to block it out. You need to swipe less to begin with so that it’s not surrounding you constantly, or you can swipe a larger amount and move around so that you’re not constantly in the cloud.

Could also be from body heat or heat from the sun.

“Norberto pills” - I meant to say ‘Borneo oils’. I don’t know what auto correct was up to that day.


What do you mean “these oils”?

Yeah Men Tien isn’t very strong; it’s not like other oriscent oils.

It’s also just not as good as other oriscent oils. Same with Fushigi men Tien; they’re very similar.

Yeah I'd say it's nose blindness too, I get it with the spray frags I wear when I'm just inactive at my desk.
The ones I own from him, can't remember them all from the top of my head

Which ones do you have?

Will need to check, think I have one from ASO - Mustaqbil (old sample) & MesOud

Today I am wearing Mighty Mizo from Al Najwa which is a really nice new-age Hindi. I'm finding it hard to think of much to say to be honest, it's very enjoyable - but I was actually thinking last night that with a lot of these Hindis distilled in the new, "barnless" way that I can't find that much difference to them. It seems a common theme of smelling golden, sun-drenched polleny, somewhat sweet, vibrant, but (mentally) comparing it to others I've tried then they're rather similar.
Like I said, I find this oil good - I really do like this new-age profile but am just struggling to find the nuanced differences between them. I have several of these types of oils and one day I'll need to do some side-by-side swipes.

To save a post in 'attar of the day', I'm wearing Malik al Shamama also by An Naja. This is great, I've tried 2 other Shamama oils, but this comes across as less spicy and pungent. I also notice deer musk grains at the bottom which changes the characteristic of what I'd call a 'standard' shamama (based on the similarites that the other 2 oils have to each other) - it brings a deeper base, and gives it this fiery vibe that I tend to get from musk.

 

[Mr.P]

“Like I said, I find this oil good - I really do like this new-age profile but am just struggling to find the nuanced differences between them. I have of these types of oils and one day I'll need to do some side-by-side swipes.”


You know, I found the same thing was happening with the different patchouli oils in my collection. They were vastly different ages and different origins, and I wore them all pretty regularly, but applied full strength they were all just more or less potent patchouly with subtle differences that emerged later on. That’s what prompted a recent post i made comparing five different patchouly specimens diluted to 10% and applied to a blotter.

This obviously does not replicate the experience of wearing the oil as a personal fragrance, but I really do enjoy experiencing all of the subtle differences that emerge when you study them this way.

I just dilute them, put them on the end of a blotter strip and then leave it in my living room and sniff it whenever I have the chance. if i notice a difference of interest, i write it down.

 

[Kolalid]

Received a sample pack with some really special scents today. Courtesy of Jame.

First up is Meghalaya 77’ by Ensar Oud

Very strong, rich and smooth Oud. A small swipe goes a long way. Nice camphoric scent that brings a very satisfying tingle up my sinuses. Reminds me of the sample of Burmi 79’ I tried but I don’t have any to compare side by side. Maybe I like this one even more.

 

[Sproaty]

“Like I said, I find this oil good - I really do like this new-age profile but am just struggling to find the nuanced differences between them. I have of these types of oils and one day I'll need to do some side-by-side swipes.”


You know, I found the same thing was happening with the different patchouli oils in my collection. They were vastly different ages and different origins, and I wore them all pretty regularly, but applied full strength they were all just more or less potent patchouly with subtle differences that emerged later on. That’s what prompted a recent post i made comparing five different patchouly specimens diluted to 10% and applied to a blotter.

This obviously does not replicate the experience of wearing the oil as a personal fragrance, but I really do enjoy experiencing all of the subtle differences that emerge when you study them this way.

I just dilute them, put them on the end of a blotter strip and then leave it in my living room and sniff it whenever I have the chance. if i notice a difference of interest, i write it down.

that's a good idea, I may do the same but perhaps undiluted - I'm still a bit sceptical of this perfumer's alcohol that I have. Just dab a little bit onto some paper, label it and sniff randomly - good shout!

 

[Ahmaoud]

@mesOUD 's CK Huaisheng - upon application takes about 20 - 30 seconds to start blooming. The cool mentholic comes in stages and feels like keeps on getting louder. Underneath there's a very slightly sweet balsamic backbone, within a bed of green herbal aromas. The coolness keep growing until finally starts to moderate itself, then I get the subtle green leafiness of mint, just a subtle tinge of it however. There's this watery undertone, reminiscent of a tisane (I'm thinking fennel and ironwort) which sits right in-between the coolness and the balsamic base. Then the base and the middle combine to give me a citrus rind scent. After this it changes into a beautifully green incense, however the camphor-y or the mentholic quality always remains present, lifting the dense nature of the base notes. A perfect harmony between the sweet and the bitter, neither ever becomes dominant, whereas some Sinesis oils have that "freshly snapped green branch" aroma to them, which drives a nail through the profile. Nothing not to like here!

 

[Ahmaoud]

that's a good idea, I may do the same but perhaps undiluted - I'm still a bit sceptical of this perfumer's alcohol that I have. Just dab a little bit onto some paper, label it and sniff randomly - good shout!

Was the perfumer's alcohol you purchased TSDA SD-40b ? SD-40b is being sold by a retailer here and wondering if I'd be purchasing the same thing.

 

[Loudover]

#ootd Kampot Red from craftoud.

 

[Obada]

Habzoud - Koh King
I let 1 drop slide on my hands surface. It smelled like a thick golden piece of oud when the drop was still thick on my skin. I then rubbed part of it on the surface of my hand and booom 🤯 Its like a flower that bloomed. Just WoW 😍 The scents were exploding, sweet honey, slightly floral and slightly fruity. Everything at once blowing my nostrils away. It has a penetrant stingy character giving it a big projection that a friend who came over smelled by entering the door.
After a while all these scents combine back together and settle down to this nice golden oudy scent with the typical cambodian sweetness we love 🤍

 

[Dr B1414]

Jinkoh Store Emperor of Kedah
Agar Aura Lao Gold

I really forgot how good and satisfying Lao Gold is. I see Taha has a version 2 available now. Is it similar to the first one? If it is, man, this might be one of the best oils to purchase for someone getting into oud oils with a limited budget but who still wants to get an amazing oil. Value for money, this one is amazing stuff. Clean as mountain water, hay, green apple, honey, vanilla, cinnamon. Delicious for sure. Not overly complicated, easy to understand and enjoy.

 

[Kolalid]

RPP - Asiki Boven

Very complex and unique oil. To my nose it started out very earthy. Almost like a wet clay, with notes of green moss as well. Perhaps a very slight whiff of something oceanic/salty hiding in there. After a few hours a slightly floral component comes out as well.

 

[Ahmaoud]

An Najwa's Khlong Yai - An oud with at least 3 distinct phases, and today's my first day wearing it. Aged Thai crassnas seem have this internal conflict between the fruity and the woody/incensey facets coming through during the aging processing. Often the woody facets dominate, leaving either no discernable trace of the fruitiness or a fermented fruitiness (I might be stretching on that last part).

Starts off with a medicinal coolness, and it feels like there's whisper of a berry fruitiness hiding within it. This stays for a little bit, with berry fruitiness slowly coming forward as the coolness starts to tone itself down. Not only was that unique but the fruitiness didn't feel fermented to me, as it often does whenever its present, but felt more like it was cooked down. Then onto the last stage, which pushed to me write this, I was just sitting around, sipping some tea and got this beautiful aroma. The coolness is back, but this time its sweetened and heavy, recall at the start it was airier. Think a slightly sweet, citrusy balsam (a bit heavier than bright frankincense) that's slowly heated up, no noticeable fruitiness anywhere! I feel like I can smell a herbal lavender, very subtle but present. A brilliant dry down, lovely incensey coolness with each sniff!

 

[Mr.P]

I’m trying to detach my wrist from my nose without much success. I just tried my second dab of “Mighty Mizo”
that was in the sample set i got recently from An Najwa.

This oil is quite interesting and I’m trying to wrap my head around it still which always takes time. I smell a brief something almost like cassie in the top note: sweet powdery, vanillin, ionone, some kind of salicylate / faint wintergreen (?) quality over what i feel is a “hard” oud note. In the sense of a solid dense resiny oud backbone. I really know nothing about distillation of oud but some oils like this manage to capture a bit more of the bittersweet edge of oud on coals or higher temps and i find these kinds of oils (for example the mesoud tarakan smells different but has a similar solid simmering oud backbone) to be especially striking.

What is the common factor - Is it soak time? Degree of resin formation in the wood? Temperature and pressure and duration of distillation? Post distillation maturation? I know not..

 

[Sproaty]

Was the perfumer's alcohol you purchased TSDA SD-40b ? SD-40b is being sold by a retailer here and wondering if I'd be purchasing the same thing.

no idea sorry

I'm wearing Hainan Imperiale & Assam Leather by Imperial Oud.
I've gone so overboard with the Assam, it looked like the sample was almost empty and I decided to wear it all. I've covered one hand and then used a toothpick to get as much oil out of the bottom of the vial (it's kinda oxidized and rather viscous)
This is stradling the line of wearable barnyard to me - it's very fermented with the farm/cow shit smell but thankfully not too over the top and I know it'll fade within the hour. I took many swipes trying to collect the oil onto the toothpick, and having ran out of room on my hand I've swiped under my chin and my chin loads and loads. Still some little bit of oil left but I'll save i.

Hainan Imperiale is lovely and smells quite perfumey! At first there's a rather nuttiness which I also remember being prominent in Fragrant Harbour Imperial (by IO) and I've also picked up on that same note in a Hainan oil from Mellifluence.


I've worn a few other oils recently - I've been super busy lately and haven't had time to come on the forum to read, which I love to do as some "unwinding" time.

Al Shareef Oudh - Al Malik al Kalakassi. Supreme oil! Very sweet from the start, low in the barn aspect and super long lasting - I could smell this over 12 hrs later. However this commands a very hety price and I couldn't bring myself to spend that. I very much appreciate the sample included with my order

An Najwa - Pinoy Imperiale - Wore this on the other hand as I wore the ASO above. Bad idea maybe, as I didn't apply much and got very poor longevity from this at about 3hrs. Smell wise, I'll be honest I didn't pay too much attention to it and it was fairly light to notice it

Oudologie - Kalakassi - decent, low-barn Hindi, very smooth with good performance. Wore it late at night before going to bed but could still smell it in the morning
Oudologie - Premium Philippines - also decent. I bought this as I'd owned one or two Filipino oils in the past which I had then sold and wanted to try some again. Wasn't blown away with this and it seems a bit flat and linear.
I was going to buy some more from this vendor, I was holding off on making my purchases for a bit, but in this short time, their prices increased drastically (Phillippines is $32 more - the Kalakassi costs almost $100 more now!) and I was really put off by that.

 

[Kolalid]

Jinkoh Store - Grand Emperor of Pursat

Enjoyed a swipe of this incredible oil last night. Probably my favorite of the samples I’ve tried from James so far.

Opens up with an amazingly strong and clear menthol note. Really hits me high up in the sinuses and that note is just intoxicating.

Rounding out the menthol is a syrupy cherry smell that is somehow sweet, bitter, medicinal all at the same time. As the oil dries down the menthol note becomes a bit more muted and takes on a more mineralic character.

Really really awesome oil. To me it was very soothing and even meditative. Kinda blew my mind with this one haha

 

[Ahmaoud]

Wearing An Najwa's Pinoy Imperiale - my first Filipino oil and quite interesting. Soon after initial application I thought I must have been mistaken, because I started getting a profile similar to Papuan oils I have, not the Merauke style, which I don't enjoy. The ones I do enjoy are a bit hard to describe but assuming you know what that is, mix a Malinua profile into that and that's what I get from Pinoy Imperiale, in general.

Digging a bit deeper it's fruitier than either of those, with this feeling which makes me think of coastal waters. Very little minty coolness, but oddly doesn't feel heavy. I think what I'm describing as fruitiness would be better described as floral fruits, these aren't your fruit preserves but slightly fresh and under ripe. A woodiness is there throughout, subtle but present, what it really doesn't have is any spiciness, which I actually prefer, and the spiciness I'm referring to here is dessert spices, not chilies. As it dries down you get a sweeet incense-y note, void of smokiness, with the floral fruitiness from earlier becoming heavier.

 

[Mr.P]

I’ve had a sniff of that one from the bottle haven’t had a chance to sample it. Your description matches more or less what I was anticipating based on the way the threads and the cap smelled. I think i know exactly which type of Papua oil you are talking about. I’ll get a dab of this on later and share my thoughts.

 

[Arabiad07]

no idea sorry

I'm wearing Hainan Imperiale & Assam Leather by Imperial Oud.
I've gone so overboard with the Assam, it looked like the sample was almost empty and I decided to wear it all. I've covered one hand and then used a toothpick to get as much oil out of the bottom of the vial (it's kinda oxidized and rather viscous)
This is stradling the line of wearable barnyard to me - it's very fermented with the farm/cow shit smell but thankfully not too over the top and I know it'll fade within the hour. I took many swipes trying to collect the oil onto the toothpick, and having ran out of room on my hand I've swiped under my chin and my chin loads and loads. Still some little bit of oil left but I'll save i.

Hainan Imperiale is lovely and smells quite perfumey! At first there's a rather nuttiness which I also remember being prominent in Fragrant Harbour Imperial (by IO) and I've also picked up on that same note in a Hainan oil from Mellifluence.


I've worn a few other oils recently - I've been super busy lately and haven't had time to come on the forum to read, which I love to do as some "unwinding" time.

Al Shareef Oudh - Al Malik al Kalakassi. Supreme oil! Very sweet from the start, low in the barn aspect and super long lasting - I could smell this over 12 hrs later. However this commands a very hety price and I couldn't bring myself to spend that. I very much appreciate the sample included with my order

An Najwa - Pinoy Imperiale - Wore this on the other hand as I wore the ASO above. Bad idea maybe, as I didn't apply much and got very poor longevity from this at about 3hrs. Smell wise, I'll be honest I didn't pay too much attention to it and it was fairly light to notice it

Oudologie - Kalakassi - decent, low-barn Hindi, very smooth with good performance. Wore it late at night before going to bed but could still smell it in the morning
Oudologie - Premium Philippines - also decent. I bought this as I'd owned one or two Filipino oils in the past which I had then sold and wanted to try some again. Wasn't blown away with this and it seems a bit flat and linear.
I was going to buy some more from this vendor, I was holding off on making my purchases for a bit, but in this short time, their prices increased drastically (Phillippines is $32 more - the Kalakassi costs almost $100 more now!) and I was really put off by that.

Have you tried other Al Shareef Malik oils?

 

[Mr.P]

The ones i have sampled were great specimens - malayzi, ceen, and another whose name eludes me - something like “asiya”

They all seemed carefully selected and with lots of depth and complexity, sense of age, great aroma at all points in development, no shrieky or insectoid notes. Way out of my league but i was lucky enough (thanks to ASO’s generosity) to get a tiny sample of these.

 

[Sproaty]

Have you tried other Al Shareef Malik oils?

yes, I have a sample of Al Malyizi which I've yet to smell again, I think I have another sample of it from years ago, and possibly another one. Not sure from memory

I was very surprised with my 2x IO wearings from yesterday that I was able to smell them around 11:30pm at night, lasting well over 13hrs, and this is after I'd cycled with some thick gloves covering my hands (figured the oil would rub off onto the microfibre lining and not be perceivable)

Today, another 2 Imperial Oud samples. That's 4 samples that I've finished in 2 days. hurrah.
It took me ages of scraping the bottom of the vial with a toothpick to get all the oil out - some bits remain but almost impossible to grasp at with a toothpick. So, I'l consider them finished

Nagaland Imperiale - lovely golden hay. Fantastic Hindi, always been a fan of this. Unfortunately it's oxidized and lost some of its character now
Martabat - smooth Brunei oil, a little sweet