Welcome

[Alamande]

There is no simple general way to identify purity in oud. There may be ways to detect very obvious / clumsy adulteration if you have lots if experience with oud, but even if you know oud like the back of your hand, you will never pick up on a sophisticated dilution without a chemical test analyzed by an expert.

And speaking of very obvious and clumsy adulteration…the ASAQ oils I’ve tried are in hindsight some of the most egregious examples 😞. But hey, I lived and learned.

 

[7akimz]

And speaking of very obvious and clumsy adulteration…the ASAQ oils I’ve tried are in hindsight some of the most egregious examples 😞. But hey, I lived and learned.

If you don’t mind me asking, why do you say so? I tried their Sasura, and unlike the Cambodian its smell doesn’t change when it comes in contact with water

 

[Alamande]

If you don’t mind me asking, why do you say so? I tried their Sasura, and unlike the Cambodian its smell doesn’t change when it comes in contact with water

No, I don’t mind!

I have two ASAQ oud products. “Kyara oud oil”, in addition to having a ludicrously misleading name, smells like it has virtually no distilled agarwood oil in it. “80 year Kalakassi oud” is better, more oudy, but still smells adulterated to my nose, having gotten used to what pure distilled oils from various regions should smell like. Without GCMS/analysis I can’t prove any of that, but it stands to reason, IMO, when you consider the size of their operation and the fact that these products are always available.

 

[7akimz]

@Alamande
I tried something and wanted to share it. Based on my previous assumption about the water affecting the smell, I decided to actually try the Water Test. It turns out my initial thoughts might have been wrong.
I used the Cambodian from ASQ and the one from Arabian Oud. The ASQ one floated cleanly, while the one from Arabian Oud had a translucent substance floating all over the water's surface, which completely reverted my initial thought.

 

[Alamande]

@Alamande
I tried something and wanted to share it. Based on my previous assumption about the water affecting the smell, I decided to actually try the Water Test. It turns out my initial thoughts might have been wrong.
I used the Cambodian from ASQ and the one from Arabian Oud. The ASQ one floated cleanly, while the one from Arabian Oud had a translucent substance floating all over the water's surface, which completely reverted my initial thought.

Thanks for sharing that - it would be good to send some ASAQ Kalakassi for GCMS testing, but I don’t think I’d be able to interpret the results 😅

 

[crigg]

Hi all!

My name is Claire, and I'm from Australia. I'm still very new to oud. Mostly interested in heating wood chips but I'm sure oils will get their hooks in me soon enough! Looking forward to learning more through this forum 🙂

Cheers!

 

[Olfactory Nomad]

Hi all!

My name is Claire, and I'm from Australia. I'm still very new to oud. Mostly interested in heating wood chips but I'm sure oils will get their hooks in me soon enough! Looking forward to learning more through this forum 🙂

Cheers!

Whoo hoo! Another Aussie. Welcome Claire 🤙

 

[coren]

Hey everyone!

I'm another fragrance obsessed person from Belgium, nice to meet you 😁

I've been digging really deep into fragrances for the past two years (I can't stop thinking about it), and in recent months I've been pulled towards artisanal perfumes focused around oud. I think there's no escaping oud's gravity, and I can't wait to learn and discover more.

To be honest, it's all @Faizal_p 's fault, and he doesn't even know it. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a bunch of tiny samples of his perfumes, and some of them absolutely blew my mind and made me rethink everything I thought I knew about oud and artisanal perfumery. Verdigris, Golconda, and Kinam Absolut are now firmly on my wishlist.

If ScentExpo happens in Frankfurt, I definitely want to be there!

 

[SevenHills]

Hello All!

Very nice to meet you, I am a small-time perfumer here in the west coast of the United States. I have been a fragrance lover since I received my first complement in high school. I became introduced to Oud when I visited a mosque a long time ago and fell in love with while I traveled to multiple portions of the world including Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Bahrain.

Also a huge fan of musk! Tonkin, Siberian, Himalayan, you name it. 🙂

I found this forum when I went down the youtube wormhole.

السلام عليكم، سعيد بمقابلتكم جميعًا. أنا أتعلم العربية، فإذا رغبتم في التحدث بالعربية فلنتحدث. شكرًا لصبركم معي.

Takodjer znam Bosanski ako iko ovdje prica ili Bosanski/Hervatski. 🙂

 

[nascent molecule]

Hello , New enthusiast here trying to learn and understand Artisanal side of things hopefully things go wonderful and i learn a lot . Thanks for the Platform and guidance in advance .

 

[thefragranceatlas]

Hey everyone!

I’m from the USA and have been getting into oud for the past couple of months. I’ve been lurking around OudDict for quite a while, reading threads and slowly falling deeper down the oud rabbit hole 😂. Started with fragrances and now I’m getting more interested in oils and the artisanal side of things.

Figured it was finally time to stop lurking and say hello. Looking forward to learning from you all!

 

[Rose & Mantle]

Hi all!

I'm Khaled, Syrian-American, based in LA, and a lover of ouds. I own a perfume brand, Rose & Mantle (reseller) but looking to learn to make my own natural perfumes. Started to take some courses, but also figured this would be a great place to learn about the field and meet some cool people!