Oud (Oudh) oil review and oud scent profile discussion from a customer
Last week, a valuable customer bought our oud sample set, we have an interesting discussion
Customer:
Hi Trent,
Nice to hear from you. I thought the Scasa saat Cambodian Oud Oil was probably the lightest one on my skin out of the cultivated and wild oud sample packs.
Once I could put my nose right up to it, I could faintly get some whiffs otherwise it didn't seem to have that thick type of scent when taking in a breath like some of the other ones. For example Misty Oud OIl has this thick intoxicating aroma, it's very sweet (this thick smell can be sour, spicy or whatever) yet it still remains deep and transcendental despite being so sweet when you take a breath of it in. That is why I bought another bottle of Misty after sampling as it was able to give me that feeling. I kind of don't get that deep feeling with Scasa saat and it's a must before I usually pull the trigger on 3ml or above. +$300 is a lot of money for an oud in my opinion that you should really love before throwing down that sort of money. Of course, I'd buy all of your products if they were very cheap as they are all unique in their own way however I don't have that luxury of being a millionaire with that much money to burn on oud. I'm very selective usually. Tempted to buy another bottle of misty put it away and pull it out in 5-10 years to see how it develops. I wonder if it will still remain deep, go less deep or even deeper with ageing?
Agarwood (oud) oil sample packs
Grandawood
I saw many people asked this, although i am not a scientist, journal research is available for reference, I have written about it here
If you already know (I think you do), then please ignore me haha
Wood scent essential oil: such as Patchouli, Vetiver, Sandalwood, Cedarwood and of course Agarwood get better with age.
Wood essential oil with high concentrations of sesquiterpenes (or sesquiterpenoids, a terpene with the formula C15H24, or a simple derivative of such a compound.) develops high viscosity with age which ultimately improves the aroma of the oil.
If you have sandalwood or agarwood oil for years, you will notice that they have a thicker body compared to the time you purchased. The best part is the beautiful aroma it develops over the year.
Sesquiterpenes (available in wood scent essential oil ) are less volatile than monoterpenes (floral and citrus notes) , they are usually used as the base note in perfumery.
Yes, pure Oud is expensive because it takes so long to complete, the distillation itself could take weeks :))
Customer
That's what I love about aged oudhs. They get thicker (more viscous) in their texture too and they seem to last a bit longer on my skin when they are at least 3 years old and thicker, many other oils seem to be gobbled up by my skin fairly quickly.
I understand some distillations take weeks for lower yields sometimes hence the price.
I really like the oud's that pack a punch, project and last. Which of your oud's most closely resembles that in your opinion?
Maybe each person connects to a different oud on different levels. Misty really hit the sweet spot for me the most (maybe a bit sweet but it gives a different feeling when breathing it in compared to the others, some of your others give that feeling too in varying extents. I'm still sampling the wild ones further before I can make my mind up on them. What I can tell you is that when I accidentally put a drop of the crimson enlightenment 2 oud on a tissue and it dried it was one of the most amazingly perfectly balanced smells of an oud I smelt. It lasted for days and it only seemed to be that way on a tissue and it smelt very different on my skin. I much preferred the tissue. With some other ouds they are so much better on my skin than on a cloth/tissue, opposite effect!
Grandawood
Crimson 1 is the best, but the material is no longer available unfortunately, we try to get the same scent profile, but with wild agar wood, it is too difficult to obtain. Crimson 2 Wild Oud oil somewhat similar but it is different.
Please keep the tissue which you had the oud on, it will last and last. Put it near your desktop or somewhere you sit and work, occasionally, you will smell it and feel amazed ! Oud on skin smells differently on each individual. You are right, some people skin absorb them all and there is no scent after 3 minutes, I know that particular person so bad luck. Fortunately, shirt sleeves are alternative as it is quite close to your wrist. Better yet, you smell the oud every time your arm moved
Customer
It might have actually even been crimson 1 that I had the experience with, I was experimenting with as many as 4 different oud's per day at the time. I've been putting swipes on my wrists, behind ears and in my beard for ok results. I know it's there sometimes when I'm outside and the wind blows within a few hours of putting them on, people around are amazed at it's unique smell when there is a breeze. Cologne cannot project that soul like oud, there is something about the pheromones it releases in the air, and people know they are in the presence of something special and not synthetic.
All of your scents are wonderful and are of good quality. Last night I tried Aroma of Incense and got whiffs of raisins and smoke. This evening I'm getting animalic barnyard contrasted against that signature crassna scent, perfectly contradicting one another like yin and yang.
It's funny how that seems to work with different people therefore I can see how scasa saat could be one of your favourites. If only it was stronger on my skin, it has such a nice underlying scent that it would probably be one of my favourites. It just didn't seem to work at all on my skin. Maybe I've got so much used to oud that I crave much stronger smells, I don't know. I remember sweet herbal spice nearly knocked me out with that deep thickness the first time I smelt it and everyone around me. It definitely changed a lot in a month or so and seems much lighter to me and everyone around me. It was initially tranquilizing and trance like. People would virtually just stop and freeze (good and bad reactions) when they breathed it in and I'm not joking at all. No oud ever really gave me a reaction like that did for the first week apart from some deep hindi's and some sinensis. Then it seemed to change in the bottle. So many complicating factors as to how people perceive things aren't there?! Maybe it will change and go back that way someday, I'm not sure.
I do actually like the barnyard scent as your's don't seem to have the really off barnyard notes many of the cheap oils do. I'd say they'd soaked their wood for at least 2 months how bad some of them are. I find if I leave the cap off them for a couple of weeks the really bad ones settle down however I'm very suspicious of a lot of them. I've definitely smelt formaldehyde and other rubbish chemicals in so called oud's that I've bought from eBay. Most of them are crooks and maybe only selling stuff with 5-10% agarwood oil hence the lower price, some are selling Oudh perfume in Australia, and some even blogs about it.
Aquilaria Crassna has such an amazing unique smell I probably like the most but some other woods like malaccensis and sinensis are good too. Fruity Malaysian types are interesting but not my favourite.
Overall I probably like Vietnamese oud's the best over all the others, they can have lots of complexity without being offensive to people who don't like oud. It's the most versatile to wear every day but I put other interesting ones on at night at home after work too like a barnyardy hindi that I wouldn't be able to pull off at work without pissing off half of the people, I can only do a hindi at work with the smallest swipe of it and then with a cologne like kouros sprayed on top of it. Vietnamese and Thai ouds I can wear anywhere without mixing it all with cologne.
Grandawood
eBay is a market place, Anyone can sell. Although there are buyers and sellers protection, scent is such a subjective topic which it is tough to argue. There are many vendors selling oudh perfume, stating how wonder ful oud is. However, the percentage of oud in the blend is unknown, it could be as little as 0.5% or even none. Synthetic oud compound is available, and there is nothing wrong with that, as they have their own use too. We are not against that but misleading advertising.
Anyway back to the topic about oud oil projection.
I personally found that, unless the person is extremely close to you, The sillage of Oud is sometimes not strong (no alchohol), and it is very personal, people may get a sniff but surely they do not really notice I think haha. They will not overwhelm the public
One of the reason for high cost of Vietnamese Oud: The logistic. Funny enough, it is just expensive as Australia to ship. For example, 500g increment and minimum standard shipping is $25 USD, with agarwood, anything over 3ml required CITES.
Fortunately, we lived here and our family are growers for decades, we bulk shipped here for international fulfilment especially for retail. Our main office in Vietnam only deal with domestic or kg quantity because of the ridiculous cost in shipping
Customer
You see the problem is not the scents, they are amazing. The problem I have is I can’t stop smelling my wrists every few seconds any time I wear oud and I cannot do that at work in an open office environment without looking a bit strange so I can't get to enjoy it. I am experiencing most of your scents at home for the time being as I can constantly smell my wrist in the comfort of my own home as often as I like therefore getting to truly experience the oud. I feel bad wasting good oud when I can't smell it at work which is why I seek stronger or cheaper ones. I've read very often that 3mls is supposed to last a year if used frugally. I can't see how as I'd be going through that in 3 months or quicker if I used the same oud every day. Misty is in that reasonable price bracket for a decent oil. Most of the oils I've tried under $70 haven't been very impressive however I've picked up some winners between $70 and $150. I think $350 might have been the most I've spent on 3mls before and I don't see myself doing that very often for affordability reasons.
I have no idea how the oud business works as an end user/consumer of it however after trying many different samples of oud I think many sellers (i.e. Ensar Oud) don't always have super impressive stuff in comparison to the price. I mean a $600 bottle from Ensar is not twice as good as a $300 from you or other vendors in my opinion yet they cost twice as much if not more in some cases! That's why I'm careful what I buy around the $300 mark and prefer to stick with oud's up to $150 per 3mls. If I come across something that's $300 or less per 3mls that I tried and fell in love with from a sample then I'd go for it. I try not to blind buy anything above $150 as there are a lot of mediocre oud's out there at inflated prices I think. I'd still buy them all if I was loaded with cash, haha!
Do your square crystal bottles have a swipe stick inside them like the cylindrical bottles?
Grandawood
Yes, both contain sticks, but the square is hard to ship and fragile, we will ship them with extra extra extra care. They are all handmade
Since you mention the word cologne, have you tried our first perfume with our Evergreen Oil
Review here
Customer
I haven't tried that one yet however one of my favourite combinations at the moment is Evergreen mixed with Boucheron Pour Home EDP. I'm having a grand old time mixing oud's with different colognes. I like experimenting with mixing them too, it can open up amazing dimensions when you find a synergy in the combination.
Oh, I was talking about the 'middle easterner' oud when I said this: This evening I'm getting animalic barnyard contrasted against that signature Crassna scent, perfectly contradicting one another like yin and yang.
At this rate, I'll run out of the samples soon and have to make a decision on what to purchase next, more samples or larger bottles. Tough choice!
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