OUD ESSENCE

100 mL Parfum Spray        Men

OUD ESSENCE is a perfume that is all about oud. This treasured material is arguably the most complex essential oil out there and the costliest. Oud comes from the resin of the agarwood tree that is found in jungles in many counties from India, all the way to Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Ouds from different areas have completely different smells and can be sweeter or more bitter, more or less animalic and so on. For example Cambodian oud is sweet whereas Laosian oud is powerful, animalic, and smokey. 

Many natural scents such as Jasmine or Rose can be approximated and replicated using naturals and aromachemicals. Sometimes a mix of only10 to 20 inredients carefully blended can give an illusion of a specific rose or jasmine. These 'bases' can never smell exactly like the original flower because they are approximations or simplified versions. The natural oil might have hundreds of different molecules, with most being present in trace amounts, but putting together the main constituents of a flower extract can get close the the real thing.

Oud, being the most complex of all perfume materials, can also be recreated. In this perfume we try to combine top quality, seemingly unrelated ingredients to give an illusion of Oud.  The notes in this perfume, as shown on the olofactory pyramid, are all there not as individual scents, but as building blocks to recreate 'oud' in its simplest form. So, what oils can do that? 'Oud' is a mix of powerful ambers, animalic musks, resins, spices, and woods, with many other oils in smaller amounts. After combining all the major constituents, we add a touch of hyraceum absolute for the animalic facet. Hyraceum is fossilized urine of the Hyrax animal from South Africa that has a powerful yet warm scent. To this 'Oud' base, we add a generous dose of my favorite aged Indian Kyara Oud, and the more pungent oud from the Philippines, to end up with a perfume that is oud from top to bottom but more wearable and more modern than a pure oud oil. 

Top Notes:

Elemi, Sandalwood, Woody Notes, Orange

Mid Notes:

Mysore Sandalwood, Amber, Cashmere Wood, Saffron, Iris, Labdanum

Base Notes:

Indian Kyara Oud, Philippine Oud, Cypriol, Patchouli, Oakmoss Absolute, Ambergris, Vetiver, Musk, Hyraceum Absolute