Oud of the Day

zahir said:
I've heard many accounts of how an oil which wasn't pleasant initially was better after aging. Is the opposite true as well? Where an oil was exceptionally beautiful straight out of the pot and then it turned into an unbearable oil?
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I think the word unbearable is a strong word. What is known is, if a person loves a fresh oil because of its volatile top notes, then over time those volatile top notes settle down.

Many here would have experienced this with the older sandalwood findings such as the fretcher brother oils, they hardly have any top notes left.
 
Al Shareef Oudh said:
I think the word unbearable is a strong word. What is known is, if a person loves a fresh oil because of its volatile top notes, then over time those volatile top notes settle down.

Many here would have experienced this with the older sandalwood findings such as the fretcher brother oils, they hardly have any top notes left.
Click to expand...
On a more general level, would you agree that with aging, top notes settle down and base notes become more prominent?
 
zahir said:
On a more general level, would you agree that with aging, top notes settle down and base notes become more prominent?
Click to expand...
I assume you are referring to shorter top notes, which can result as a result of age. The settlement of the volatile top notes usually results in you/individual reaching the heart notes sooner and therefore having a longer heart and base note experience. It doesn't necessarily increase the amplitude, rather the duration.

Without going too technical, age causes the compounds in the oil to form longer chains, similar to polymer type of structures. These structures then require more agitation for them to be excited, the agitation can be things like your body/skin heat to other ingredients if you speak in perfumery terms. A volatile on the other hand is bouncing around excited all the time.

That is why the one who loves an oil due to those excited volatiles may not like it as much later when aged. And the one who doesn't like it as much because of the volatile top notes my like it much more later after age.
 
That’s actually pretty exciting. And it’s just been growing on me because I’ve been smelling oils from different regions that all smell very similar in their top notes and I was realizing it’s a distillation issue, not a materials issue.

One thing I know is those fresh top notes have to go… Some of my most disgustingly cloying freshly distilled thai oils are starting to smell a little more dignified. The weird thing is that sour bitter almond weird fruit topnote is actually nauseating to me. It seems to take at least five or six years for that note to fade and transform in a sealed bottle.

Again I’m starting to see all those old practices that people used to talk about is making a little bit more sense now. It’s amazing how long it’s been since anyone has really talked about how to get some beauty out of those rough gems… a little lamping, sunning, aging or oxidizing oils seems merited in some cases.

I had one really obnoxious indonesian oil and I chose to keep it over the last 15 years in a bottle with a cork as opposed to a plastic lid. This has allowed a little bit of air exchange and the oil has transformed to have a thicker, more rounded and satisfying scent.

For those of you with Thai oil to spare that was recently distilled, You might want to try storing some of it in in a “questionable” manner with exposure to air and light. Then come back after a month or three and see how it compares to the one that was stored in the dark.
 
Mr.P said:
That’s actually pretty exciting. And it’s just been growing on me because I’ve been smelling oils from different regions that all smell very similar in their top notes and I was realizing it’s a distillation issue, not a materials issue.

One thing I know is those fresh top notes have to go… Some of my most disgustingly cloying freshly distilled thai oils are starting to smell a little more dignified. The weird thing is that sour bitter almond weird fruit topnote is actually nauseating to me. It seems to take at least five or six years for that note to fade and transform in a sealed bottle.

Again I’m starting to see all those old practices that people used to talk about is making a little bit more sense now. It’s amazing how long it’s been since anyone has really talked about how to get some beauty out of those rough gems… a little lamping, sunning, aging or oxidizing oils seems merited in some cases.

I had one really obnoxious indonesian oil and I chose to keep it over the last 15 years in a bottle with a cork as opposed to a plastic lid. This has allowed a little bit of air exchange and the oil has transformed to have a thicker, more rounded and satisfying scent.

For those of you with Thai oil to spare that was recently distilled, You might want to try storing some of it in in a “questionable” manner with exposure to air and light. Then come back after a month or three and see how it compares to the one that was stored in the dark.
Click to expand...
It is my understanding that distillation techniques can affect the aroma of an oil and has the most effect on the top notes. Storing in an air-tight container would help seal in the most volatile molecules with the heaviest ones effectively incorporating the top notes with the rest. Exposing the oil to air would allow those volatile molecules to evaporate but also settle with the other molecules, albeit to a lesser degree. On a practical level, if an oil had top notes that were unpleasant to me, I would leave the oil exposed to air for as long as possible until those unpleasant top notes have evaporated but if an oil has been aged to such an extent that top notes have become incorporated into the heart and base notes, no amount of air exposure at that point would remove those unpleasant notes. Think: aged/old Hindi oils that smell of leather, poop and barn. I do not think that exposing them to air would take away those notes.
 
RBO Wild Oud from Indonesia North Sumatra 2017. A dead ringer for a number of younger Merauke ouds I’ve smelled of late. Beautiful green oil. Sad that I only was able to secure about a 1/6 of a gram, but more happiness comes from learning to be content even with less than one would like. Thank you Ish!
 
Wild Brunei A.Hirta 2.0. Fresh distillation. Colour change from deep green into light green
 

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Habzoud- Dhahab

I recently noticed that I have some samples in my wardrobe that I havent smell yet (as far as I can remember), or only smelled once a long time ago. Dhahab is one of them. A clean and pleasant Cambodi oil. To my inexperienced nose it smells less complex than the more recent Cambodi oils released by Habzoud.
 
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