Oud of the Day

[User]

There are in fact maps whose purpose is to show dominant ecosystems and such as opposed to human made geographic data. Likewise there are maps that just show rock strata across large areas, etc. Might have to contact somebody at a university to figure out where to find maps like this. Would probably make your local librarian's day if you went down there and ask for help tracking them down.

The ecosystem/biome maps may not show you literally where a specific species of agarwood grows but if you know what type of trees or forests it is associated with, you can get a pretty good sense by looking at the ranges of associated vegetation.

this may not be exactly what you're looking for though

I’d like one that shows the different species with small color coded dots so that you can see where they overlap.

 

[The Scent Guru]

Been wearing this all week, review posted on my social. Kinamic Bormi from @Oudologie is rather unique.

 

[TheOudDood]

Altaaj - habz 😁

 

[Quintillus]

Malay Atiq - Al Hashimi.

Another vintage and more traditional oil. Has a very smooth Malay opening and scent profile. What struck me the most was the feeling and texture of age. Old forests, woods and earth. A very very beautiful offering from @Al Hashimi !

 

[Castingshadows]

Areej Le Dore - Indonesian Oud

I know this is a spray but it’s pure Oud oil. I feel like this doesn’t get talked about much but it’s seriously such a unique and underrated profile. It’s like pure cola with spicy cloves, a powdery floral component, and vanilla wrapped up in a woody jungle dna. I wish I could’ve smelled this oil neat. I don’t have a lot of experience with co2 oils but this one is a winner.

 

[Obada]

Areej Le Dore - Indonesian Oud

I know this is a spray but it’s pure Oud oil. I feel like this doesn’t get talked about much but it’s seriously such a unique and underrated profile. It’s like pure cola with spicy cloves, a powdery floral component, and vanilla wrapped up in a woody jungle dna. I wish I could’ve smelled this oil neat. I don’t have a lot of experience with co2 oils but this one is a winner.

Thats a very good one, especially for the price. Not cheap but manageable. I agree with your description, offers a lot for only being indonesian oud oil and co2

 

[Mr.P]

Areej Le Dore - Indonesian Oud

I know this is a spray but it’s pure Oud oil. I feel like this doesn’t get talked about much but it’s seriously such a unique and underrated profile. It’s like pure cola with spicy cloves, a powdery floral component, and vanilla wrapped up in a woody jungle dna. I wish I could’ve smelled this oil neat. I don’t have a lot of experience with co2 oils but this one is a winner.

Is this the "History of Indonesian Oud" spray? I posted some thoughts on that when I got it a while back. The clove note is particularly striking.

It is quite different from the other CO2 extracts that I've seen... I think it was extracted using a slightly different technique - there is one type of CO2 extraction that co-extracts with ethanol - fuzzy on the details - but there may never have been a distinct oil stage if I understand it right. Robertet for example offers orange flower and jasmine tea extracts made this way. I could be way off but something about the quality of this reminds me of those extractions, and I think I may have read something from Russian Adam about the alcohol co-extraction.

 

[dignitychicken]

The Philippines is a string of islands like Indonesia. When you get a Borneo or Sumatran or Papuan oud, they are usually not referred to as “Indonesian”. That’s because it’s a useless designation. That refers to a political border, and politics has very little effect on agarwood. Naming them by the island they come from is much more useful.

In my head, Leyte is a region of oud, and the other ones I’ve tried from random islands in the Philippines are from other ‘regions’. No connection to Leyte oils except that the Spanish also conquered the island they come from.

Honestly, I think about this all the time. Perhaps more around the socio-political aspects that impact the material conditions and cultural experience of it. I wondered whether there have been any direct discussions about it on ouddict over the years, but it's difficult knowing political discussions quickly become, well, political.

I'm a newcomer here, and I feel strongly feel that there are some questions that are just not my place, especially in an online space where I don't have relationships. But, the politics of oud is extremely interesting to me, particularly with the layered aspects of colonisation, land ownership, economic power and chains of production, trade, cultural histories, corporate interests, hunters and community control (or lacktereof). I also think about this a lot specifically in terms of Papua & West Papua, given my home state is right next to them.

If anybody knew of any sources where I could read more or watch more about the topic, I would really appreciate it. I know Al Jazeera did an interesting story on it a little while ago, but it felt like it only scratched the surface.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

I’d like one that shows the different species with small color coded dots so that you can see where they overlap.

Wow, imagine that! I think a lot of people would be interested in such a map.

 

[User]

Honestly, I think about this all the time. Perhaps more around the socio-political aspects that impact the material conditions and cultural experience of it. I wondered whether there have been any direct discussions about it on ouddict over the years, but it's difficult knowing political discussions quickly become, well, political.

I'm a newcomer here, and I feel strongly feel that there are some questions that are just not my place, especially in an online space where I don't have relationships. But, the politics of oud is extremely interesting to me, particularly with the layered aspects of colonisation, land ownership, economic power and chains of production, trade, cultural histories, corporate interests, hunters and community control (or lacktereof). I also think about this a lot specifically in terms of Papua & West Papua, given my home state is right next to them.

If anybody knew of any sources where I could read more or watch more about the topic, I would really appreciate it. I know Al Jazeera did an interesting story on it a little while ago, but it felt like it only scratched the surface.

Honestly I’m not thinking about it this way and this is not the conversation I was trying to start. I don’t know if there is any interesting conversation to be had on the intersection of oud and politics.

If you have something interesting to say, then I don’t think there’s any issue with saying it. Just maybe start that conversation in a different thread. Both to keep the OOTD thread clean, and also to include people who don’t participate in this thread.

I am only talking about political borders to make the point that they have little to do with geographical borders. Agarwood respects geographical borders, but does not usually have anything to do with political borders. Only some exceptions where it does.

In other words, I am trying to fix the way that the borders of states affect our perception of oud. I am not focusing on the effect that oud has on politics.

 

[User]

Wow, imagine that! I think a lot of people would be interested in such a map.

I think I will try to create a communal map that anyone can add to. It won’t be entirely accurate, but it will be better than nothing.

 

[dignitychicken]

Honestly I’m not thinking about it this way and this is not the conversation I was trying to start. I don’t know if there is any interesting conversation to be had on the intersection of oud and politics.

If you have something interesting to say, then I don’t think there’s any issue with saying it. Just maybe start that conversation in a different thread. Both to keep the OOTD thread clean, and also to include people who don’t participate in this thread.

I am only talking about political borders to make the point that they have little to do with geographical borders. Agarwood respects geographical borders, but does not usually have anything to do with political borders. Only some exceptions where it does.

In other words, I am trying to fix the way that the borders of states affect our perception of oud. I am not focusing on the effect that oud has on politics.

Yes, sorry - I didn't think this was the direction of your original post or the perspective you were coming from, it just prompted a lightbulb reaction for my own area of interest. This is something I'm passionate about with perfume and olfactory culture more broadly, not just with oud specifically.

However, as you say, I'm not sure if there's an interesting conversation to be had, and it's definitely not the purpose of this thread.

As a beginner in this space, I won't start a thread on this elsewhere on ouddict, but I would be interested to read the perspective of people with more knowledge and insight than me.



My OOTD is a swipe of Sulaym's Green Dragon on one wrist, and a swipe of an unbranded wild hong kong from an unknown distiller on the other. Green Dragon is a wonderful sweet floral CK, but it smells like it would be a perfect base for something, and often I reach for other sinensis oils I'm blessed to have access to.

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

I think I will try to create a communal map that anyone can add to. It won’t be entirely accurate, but it will be better than nothing.

This is an outstanding idea. Location of an Oud's beginnings is mentioned often and is quite important to to the members here I believe although geography is not everyone's strong point. An agarwood map as a point of reference I think would go a long way towards everyone's understanding.

 

[User]

Yes, sorry - I didn't think this was the direction of your original post or the perspective you were coming from, it just prompted a lightbulb reaction for my own area of interest. This is something I'm passionate about with perfume and olfactory culture more broadly, not just with oud specifically.

However, as you say, I'm not sure if there's an interesting conversation to be had, and it's definitely not the purpose of this thread.

As a beginner in this space, I won't start a thread on this elsewhere on ouddict, but I would be interested to read the perspective of people with more knowledge and insight than me.



My OOTD is a swipe of Sulaym's Green Dragon on one wrist, and a swipe of an unbranded wild hong kong from an unknown distiller on the other. Green Dragon is a wonderful sweet floral CK, but it smells like it would be a perfect base for something, and often I reach for other sinensis oils I'm blessed to have access to.

Nothing wrong with being a beginner. Post as you’d like. Even if you have nothing interesting to say or ask on this topic, feel free to post if there’s something else you want to start a conversation about.

I have never heard anything about green dragon so it’s nice to hear something about it. Sulaym is always pretty good at what they do, but CK has never been my thing

 

[Castingshadows]

I’m wearing one of Mr. Ali’s Silanis today. I’m curious is there a sub species in Sri Lanka that is responsible for the sweeter/more floral/more bright profiles?

I don’t know a lot about the region in terms of the specifics. I’ve sampled and own quite a few oils at this point and it’s interesting to me how sometimes they can smell bright and floral with a fruity quality and other times they’re dark and smell like gasoline with leather.

 

[dignitychicken]

Nothing wrong with being a beginner. Post as you’d like. Even if you have nothing interesting to say or ask on this topic, feel free to post if there’s something else you want to start a conversation about.

I have never heard anything about green dragon so it’s nice to hear something about it. Sulaym is always pretty good at what they do, but CK has never been my thing

It's honestly quite good - though I went too hard on Sinensis last year and picked up 6 different oils so now I'm quite spoiled for choice. I've never tried any CK so I can't speak to it, but as a cultivated hainan oil I really enjoy it. It only has a touch of the medicinal bitterness that I really enjoy in a sinensis, but the longevity is great and it functions well as a daily swiper, enough complexity to keep it interesting but ultimately quite relaxing and enjoyable!

 

[User]

This is an outstanding idea. Location of an Oud's beginnings is mentioned often and is quite important to to the members here I believe although geography is not everyone's strong point. An agarwood map as a point of reference I think would go a long way towards everyone's understanding.

I am going to try to find a way that I can create a communal map with some prerequisite checkboxes so that people agree to only post information that they are confident about after doing their due diligence. I think that will keep any shots in the dark from being posted. People here are generally respectful so hopefully it wouldn’t get out of hand.

 

[User]

I’m wearing one of Mr. Ali’s Silanis today. I’m curious is there a sub species in Sri Lanka that is responsible for the sweeter/more floral/more bright profiles?

I don’t know a lot about the region in terms of the specifics. I’ve sampled and own quite a few oils at this point and it’s interesting to me how sometimes they can smell bright and floral with a fruity quality and other times they’re dark and smell like gasoline with leather.

I’ve really wanted to try some of these. How are they?

 

[User]

And while I’m here, it was @Al Shareef Oudh Nusantara this morning and @Al Hind Oud Al Aqsa tonight

 

[Castingshadows]

I’ve really wanted to try some of these. How are they?

It’s hard to say. He sold me some oil from a micro batch that I split amongst friends. The oils that he ended up selling afterwards to the public weren’t the same oils that we got ahold of.

Personally I think the one I have is incredible. It’s taken a few years of aging to smell good. Ali had me do some basic techniques to help age these properly. At first the piercing oceanic/gasoline/diesel note was too intense to wear and the oil was constantly shifting and felt very volatile. It’s calmed down now and I’m getting a lot of purple florals, cream, and vanilla with the typical Silani dna that feels like a cross between a Borneo like Kinabalu 2’s drydown and Sri Lankans like Royal Sri Lanka from Jinkoh Store. The piercing top note was just insanely strong for about 4 years.

He told me the wood that this oil was juiced from was old stock sinking grade wood. I don’t necessarily believe it was an entirely sinking grade distillation but he told me that he’s sitting on a vast treasure trove of high quality woods that were collected before the forests dried up. I personally feel Mr. Ali is a stand up gentlemen so I feel he has no reason to outright lie however I do understand some showmanship is required in the Oud world so I take everything everyone tells me with a grain of salt now as a rule.

My biggest complaint is that it doesn’t long. I only get about 5 hours on the skin whereas most sinking grade last anywhere from 12-18 hours on my skin. Sometimes longer. So longevity just isn’t there. Performance is insane for the first two or 3 hours.

I purchased this oil right before he came out and started selling to the public so I can’t comment on anything he’s done since then.