Oud of the Day

[Mr.P]

A bit o' Royal Kinam from 2005 or whenever it was. I cringe a bit every time I write the name. Nice bright Vietnamese sinensis profile, plenty of carrot seed and nagarmotha and bright woody in the dry down. Kind of on the pungent side in the opening for better and for worse. This has become more soapy in that rich full oud sense, rounded, and gained a light pleasant semi-metallic element over the years. As you would expect there is a dense bitterness sitting in the heart of it all - somewhat roasted, bittersweet

This one I think performs especially well diluted in alcohol, sacrilegious though that sounds. Some essential oils react with alcohol in interesting ways (patchouli being one example that is well known for this) and I find this oil at around one percent in everclear creates an absolutely delightful scent on the skin, delicacy emerges that is hidden in the pungency of the top when worn neat.

(no I did not dump my entire bottle into a spray bottle full of ethanol)

 

[Mr.P]

And... from the Dark Ages of oud comes this old rksons double super that was discussed a whole bunch in the early BN days. Kind of dense, dark resinous, oily ambergris vibe... this is smelling better than the last time I smelled it a few years ago when I thought it had a kind of ashtray aspect. Still smells muddled and dirty, like a low grade oil. Smells unadulterated at least and is pleasant for its dry down.

Kind of pointless photograph I admit.

 

[Escentually]

@mesOUD - Cambodi Classic
greensilani_oud - “Revolutionary” Silani

Banged out a medical procedure today and took a bit out of me. Needed to recharge with some potent oils to bring me back to life.

Cambodi Classic is a classicly soaked funky style oud. More of a fecal note as opposed to some of the other style of barns. Like sweet honeyed gorilla feces, delicious😋 Bits of leathery chewy chocolatey goodness pop out, fruits baking in the scorching heat. A warm spice gives this oil a beautiful orange hued, giving it an oriental like vibe at times. Simple to wear, easy to love.

“Revolutionary” Silani is something I’m getting more comfortable with. The initial coppery, fishy, beach air like gasoline is so strong and pungent that it’s hard to tolerate at times. Smells like crab shells and I think playdoh? The vaporous fumes of gasoline are constantly hitting the back of your nose and throat when smelling this one too. Acrid might be another good descriptor, almost burning your nose when you smell it. Saved only by an ethereal sweetness of guava skins and other mysterious fruit notes I can’t pick out. The more I wear this one the less I feel like I understand it.

 

[Quintillus]

Myitkyinia 4k V1
Had to revisit and wear this one today 🙂
In your (my) face opening. Such a kaleidoscope of colors and scents. I get an array off berries, cream, incense all intertwined in this metallic texture. I now see resemblance to Royal Myanma that I wore the other day that is supposed to be "higher grade wood" but I prefer M4K. Stunning.

 

[Mike Jonez]

Myitkyinia 4k V1
Had to revisit and wear this one today 🙂
In your (my) face opening. Such a kaleidoscope of colors and scents. I get an array off berries, cream, incense all intertwined in this metallic texture. I now see resemblance to Royal Myanma that I wore the other day that is supposed to be "higher grade wood" but I prefer M4K. Stunning.

Word I hear RM is a step up in grade but it seems you & everyone else prefers M4K. I'd like to get my nose on RM just to compare.

 

[Mike Jonez]

@Maunamoku - Balayong

Oceanic , floral , jammy , colorful , resinous goodness 🖤

 

[Escentually]

Agar Aura - Myitkyina 4K
myoudshop - Meiktila

Light day today so decided to try to study two Burmese oils I have in my collection. No idea on the wood used in M4K, maybe sinensis, maybe a co-distillation. Meiktila is A. Sinensis from the Burmese region, albeit a much younger distillation that has room to grow and change.

M4K began with many of those metallic purple florals and a heady blast of spicy honey creaminess. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what going on in the opening of this one. What caught me off guard the most this wearing was how pronounced the cinnamon became during the middle. There’s a baked pastry note that builds with the honey, cinnamon, and sugary sweetness that combines to a Cinnabon/cinnamon roll accord. Not overpoweringly sugary sweet, you smell the layers of the baked pastry evenly with the sugar and spice. This was quite long lasting this wear and every time I was sniffing my wrist all I could picture was freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Further along I’m getting less pronounced cinnamon, and more of the opium like honey, with the cinnamon still recognizable in the background.

Meiktila was weird today. Upon application all I could smell was a meaty buttery rich sandalwood. I thought for a second I applied some silani santal instead in my morning brain fog. This buttery and almost musky animalic sandalwood note was loud and dominating this wearing for quite some time. I was genuinely shocked how closely it resembled the smell. It was only after a solid 10 minutes that the sandalwood was transforming to more of a custard creaminess. Dried fruits such as raisins and prunes swirling in a custard cream, with a buttery woody note still present. As it continues to sit there’s less salty fatty butter, and more sweet custard. The transitions are wild to observe! A pleasant honeyed creamy woody note being the major player in the base of the oil as well. Will be interesting to see how this young oil ages.

 

[Mike Jonez]

AA - Myitkyina 4K

Hittin just as good as yesterday 😮‍💨

 

[Mr.P]

HM Badashi Halflong 1981 from Sulaym

Applied a swipe of this yesterday afternoon and again today. In the top notes yesterday I was struck by something that brought oakmoss to mind, and also sweet candied violets / orris. I am less tuned into those notes today though the violetish note is clearly playing its part in tuning the rich oud resin and light leatheriness of the profile. Has some heavy gulf aspects but without the dull wet wood that sometimes gets in. I did not notice anything particularly fecal or barnyard or lactic in the top notes of this even though I would guess it had a good soaking. Perhaps that's the magic of time.

It's a bit chilly in the house today and as you can see in the photo something crystallizating on the top layer, which i think is not unusual with base-heavy oud from Assam.

Smell is rich resinous bittersweet, with some rich oily notes that I associate with old oud.

 

[-Renton-]

HabzOud - Al Hareer. Only 1hr and 15 mins in.

Starts off with a beautiful dark resinous note, soon after comes in a Hindi agarwood note, then some high quality, sweetness + hay, then an incense note with all these notes. The more it develops you start to smell fresh greenery, notes of velvety suede mixed with well treated beautiful leather, notes of a kinda funky sweet creaminess with some rich, high quality, fresh pipe tobacco smoke, some hints of milky creamy funky chocolate, earthiness, agarwood incense notes are very prominent throughout this oil (or at least this experience, its seems I get different experiences with any oil I put on, but the dose makes the poison, if you put too much of this on you will regret it, it is a POTENT oil, it is nice with 3-4 translucent swipes and 2 fat coloured swipes) and it actually feels really nice, it smells exactly how the woods in this oil smell like when heating moderately medium/high temps with a big piece and it is slowly bubbling away with the resin notes and the woodiness is beautiful. I got some berry notes in there too but they are fleeting. Funky Creamy and butteriness and vibes of being in the deep country, but smoothly. Some spicy tones, too.

The more it goes on you get this absolutely beautiful leather note that smells like new leather items.

Overall nice experience with another brilliant oil from @Habz786

Very velvety going up the nose 😉 .

EDIT: I am actually trying to age this oil since I have quite a lot left in the bottle as I dont use it very often, I am really interested to see what it is like in even 6-12 months time, see any changes. I am actually starting to see (minor) pleasant changes so far after just a few months. I also dont like putting on the same oil too much in a short time frame. So, I hop between woods, then oils, then different oils and different woods. Just to keep it interesting.

 

[Escentually]

@mesOUD - Dehnal Oud Hindi Siraj

Barnyard bliss, this time in the shade of horse stables, goat hair, raw hide leather, molten asphalt, and a punchy medicinal twang. Resinous wood and old dusty attic notes are mixed with loud leather as it dries. Not quite fecal like cambodi classic, or civet musky like oud Hindi Amjad, definitely more of a horse and goat kind of smell. Another classic Hindi powerhouse oil. Although grandma said to not wear this around her ever again😂

 

[Dr B1414]

Jinkoh Store Emperor Guan Yu. Not an overly complex journey but it's perfect before bed, mostly because of that. There is no time for long development. What this oil lacks in complexity it delivers through sheer beauty. Golden honey Sinensis profile, perfectly balanced by that Honk Kong green-tart bitterness. Love the scent on this one.

 

[Arabiad07]

HM Badashi Halflong 1981 from Sulaym

Applied a swipe of this yesterday afternoon and again today. In the top notes yesterday I was struck by something that brought oakmoss to mind, and also sweet candied violets / orris. I am less tuned into those notes today though the violetish note is clearly playing its part in tuning the rich oud resin and light leatheriness of the profile. Has some heavy gulf aspects but without the dull wet wood that sometimes gets in. I did not notice anything particularly fecal or barnyard or lactic in the top notes of this even though I would guess it had a good soaking. Perhaps that's the magic of time.

It's a bit chilly in the house today and as you can see in the photo something crystallizating on the top layer, which i think is not unusual with base-heavy oud from Assam.

Smell is rich resinous bittersweet, with some rich oily notes that I associate with old oud.

View attachment 38707View attachment 38708

This is the sweetest Hindi with this purple candy top note. Zero zero barn. Lasts quite a while.

 

[Jazzoid]

Fili Densho from The Oud Lab

A beam of milky, prismatic blue light. An icy nose punch. Terrain-like, helical texture patterns which shoot out and vanish playfully. Like looking at a tapestry then it's gone. Every time a new tapestry appears it's different.

Even the base is undulating, lots of stone fruit; but it's as if a peach pit is bobbing in water under the sun, the gentle undulation of the liquid causing different refractions around it.

This is insanely bright in the top notes for a 'traditional' oil. In fact it only shows its old school side well into the drydown, but it's very grippy and persistent throughout, bending the air to its will.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

Arakan Classic @An Najwa Got myself a full 3g of this stunningly rich and resinous oil, the majority of which I will be using to macerate some Siberian musk grains. Very slight barnyard opening but only really out of the bottle,once it's on the skin that disappears quickly. Man does this smell good. Pretty much exactly like a well heated chip. Pure incense lushness.

 

[Mr.P]

Arakan Classic @An Najwa Got myself a full 3g of this stunningly rich and resinous oil, the majority of which I will be using to macerate some Siberian musk grains. Very slight barnyard opening but only really out of the bottle,once it's on the skin that disappears quickly. Man does this smell good. Pretty much exactly like a well heated chip. Pure incense lushness.

I think this is a really nice one.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

I think this is a really nice one.

Me too!

 

[AbuTominaga]

Fili Densho from The Oud Lab

A beam of milky, prismatic blue light. An icy nose punch. Terrain-like, helical texture patterns which shoot out and vanish playfully. Like looking at a tapestry then it's gone. Every time a new tapestry appears it's different.

Even the base is undulating, lots of stone fruit; but it's as if a peach pit is bobbing in water under the sun, the gentle undulation of the liquid causing different refractions around it.

This is insanely bright in the top notes for a 'traditional' oil. In fact it only shows its old school side well into the drydown, but it's very grippy and persistent throughout, bending the air to its will.

"Signed by:
Albert Hoffman"

😂

I do consider this a psychedelic oil for sure.

 

[Sproaty]

Hindkora by Al Hashimi. Smells barny from the applicator but not from skin. You get that Hindi-esque scent (but it's from Bangladesh). Long lasting and powerful. In work, I got told that I smell like a floorboard 😂 - pretty sure this is the culprit
Along the lines of a Mizoram oil from Royal Bengal Ouds - which though is in India is only around ~30 miles away at its closest border-to-border.
Good stuff!

 

[Escentually]

@mesOUD - Golden Triangle
Jinkoh Store - Grand Emperor Hue

I was inspired by brother Mehmet to apply the Golden Triangle again yesterday. What a wild ride. Open with deeply red Berry like syrupy sweetness. Jammier then Vietnamese oils, a little closer to Thai maybe. A kind of dried apricot stone fruit smell to the syrup. There’s a lemon-lime cola aspect to the syrup smell occurring as it dries. Backed up by light wafts of incense smoke. This part reminds me a bit of a Malaysian style cola. Later it transitions again to more of a custard creaminess, the syrups becoming more solidified as an apricot preserve like fruit. Honey and fuzzy pollen like warm ness added to the smell gives me hints of Burmese here too. A pleasant sweet and slightly spicy woody base notes ends this expedition to different regions. A shapeshifting oil that has a little bit of many different regions coming together to create a harmonious scent.

Grand Emperor Hue is one of my easy reach oils. A 34-year old Vietnamese oud, and a treasure in my collection. When I don’t want to think too hard, and just want to be swallowed up by an oud oil. Ancient red smelling barrel-aged wine, sharply pungent wood lacquer fumes. There’s a bit of a metallic note I’m getting in the beginning of this wearing. Maybe some muskiness too. I’ll figure it out one day. Not much to do when smelling this one except to close your eyes, lean back, and succumb to its aroma.