SOTD

Oud-Dan

Well-Known Member
Malaya and purple kinam today. Two lovely oils. PK is otherworldly and forever belongs in a class of its own and a rightful legend.

Malaya has lots to say though. Not there to dethrone the elder but be a star protege. Lovely oils. Both are must for any passionate oud lover and I can’t strongly recommend them enough.
Malaya is growing on me .... haven't got the privilege to yet try PK.



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Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
EO Oud Extraordinaire

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funny how this oud was very "ordinaire" at first but upon a second, third, and fourth wear i see it as truly extraordinaire in the context of the price and for how closely it mimics the scent of oils from much higher grade wood. to find beauty in everything... a life long practice.
 

Oud-Dan

Well-Known Member
funny how this oud was very "ordinaire" at first but upon a second, third, and fourth wear i see it as truly extraordinaire in the context of the price and for how closely it mimics the scent of oils from much higher grade wood. to find beauty in everything... a life long practice.
Couldn't have agreed more ... my initial few swipes I found the viscosity of the oil too much and the profile pretty ordinary... now it's been 2 months plus and it slowly is turning into an Extraordinaire :)

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Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
Went to the recently opened le labo store in vancouver today. Many hours has gone by and I am still nauseous and have a nasty headache. All that ambreine (Ambroxan) and aldehyde. To to charge $1100+ on 500ml or $300~ for 100ml!!!

When asked you used to be all natural but what about now? I am told we are vegan and aside from aroma chemicals used for leather, musk, ambergris, etc. etc. etc. everything else we do is natural. Yet on display they have a sample of all the ingredients they use. Their orris concrete was at best 3% ironed on strength. Their indole, aroma chemical. Why not use jasmine? And their oud? Well it was a disaster. Even the simplest trat oil would shame it.

The iris and tonka scent from them was nice before the vertigo and the pain that followed but the rest including once upon a time santal 33 and noir were just meh and showed little to no note of santal as I have come to know it.

Bless all artisans. I thank you for your uphill battles, keeping with it with your smaller margins compared to what the mass production bastards churn out. May you stay sincere honest and continue to produce all natural scents.

To celebrate having found a different world of aromas and to offset all the chemicals I reached for Ensar’s kupang sandal. One of the least sweet, 100% devoid of anything green or bright or citrus santals out there. medium lactic/butter notes and plenty of raw sandal wood, mineral, cast iron, red, mildly medicinal in this one. Quite different than most sandals I have tried. I love it.
 

Martin

Active Member
Russian Musk Attar - ALD


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The ALD attars and the perfumes corresponding to the attars are outstanding with a capital O. Although I like all 3 a good deal, Walimah, a gorgeous floral, is my favorite. I'm wondering if we will see more attars down the road from ALD? I'd love to have the attar version of Mailk Al Taif.
 

Martin

Active Member
Went to the recently opened le labo store in vancouver today. Many hours has gone by and I am still nauseous and have a nasty headache. All that ambreine (Ambroxan) and aldehyde. To to charge $1100+ on 500ml or $300~ for 100ml!!!

When asked you used to be all natural but what about now? I am told we are vegan and aside from aroma chemicals used for leather, musk, ambergris, etc. etc. etc. everything else we do is natural. Yet on display they have a sample of all the ingredients they use. Their orris concrete was at best 3% ironed on strength. Their indole, aroma chemical. Why not use jasmine? And their oud? Well it was a disaster. Even the simplest trat oil would shame it.

The iris and tonka scent from them was nice before the vertigo and the pain that followed but the rest including once upon a time santal 33 and noir were just meh and showed little to no note of santal as I have come to know it.

Bless all artisans. I thank you for your uphill battles, keeping with it with your smaller margins compared to what the mass production bastards churn out. May you stay sincere honest and continue to produce all natural scents.

To celebrate having found a different world of aromas and to offset all the chemicals I reached for Ensar’s kupang sandal. One of the least sweet, 100% devoid of anything green or bright or citrus santals out there. medium lactic/butter notes and plenty of raw sandal wood, mineral, cast iron, red, mildly medicinal in this one. Quite different than most sandals I have tried. I love it.
Hey Rasoul, You have no business in a place like that other than for entertainment! :D There are a few Le Labo fragrances I enjoy but there's nothing natural about them. Whatever Le Labo was, they have been swallowed by Estee Lauder, like Frederic Malle.
 

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
Hey Rasoul, You have no business in a place like that other than for entertainment! :D There are a few Le Labo fragrances I enjoy but there's nothing natural about them. Whatever Le Labo was, they have been swallowed by Estee Lauder, like Frederic Malle.
Didn’t know I would end up with such a strong reaction. But you are right. I should have known better.
 

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
tea instead of coffee this morning and baklava instead of brioche or croissant. so the oud to go with it was the equivalant of honey baklava honey bush tea oil: naga3k. instantly i melt and the world fades away. comforting and pretty. sits neatly somewhere between manipur/imphal oil and bhutan oils. is not a fireworks kinda oil, but i dont think it was really ever meant to, nor do i want it to be like that. i want pure comfort and a meeting with the "known" when i wear this oil.
 

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
Morning swipe - Jing Shen Lu

Evening Burn - Nha Trang Incense Agar Aura

Night Swipe - Royal Maluku (Rasoul you were right the loud loud opening has toned a bit already)

Night Burn - Baieido Koh En

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well done sir. i love to read your take on jin shen lu.
as for royal maluku i still detect ample still note in the first 15 minutes or so. the stainless steel and a fish skin note. i have seen it before. it goes away with time. perhaps 2-3-4 months. i wonder if uncapping for a few minutes and palming the vial to gently warm it up will have any effect or not expediting the maturity. not taking any chances. gonna leave it be. dreaming of orris butter and wearing 15% irones orris butter on its own while i semi patiently await the go ahead call of royal maluku.
 

Oud-Dan

Well-Known Member
Please dont call me Sir buddy we all one Oud Family :)
For me i cant Express notes in words but I'll try

Jing Shen Lu - for me opens bit smokey with a very balanced sweetness to go with.. but the best part of JSL is the dry down I think without exaggerating I prefer JSL dry down to Kinam Rouge (I'm sure Ensar and others may laugh) .. what I get is pretty close experience of burning Shokaku (Shoyeido top of line Kyara stick) I assume it has a Kinamic Dry Down.

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Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
Please dont call me Sir buddy we all one Oud Family :)
For me i cant Express notes in words but I'll try

Jing Shen Lu - for me opens bit smokey with a very balanced sweetness to go with.. but the best part of JSL is the dry down I think without exaggerating I prefer JSL dry down to Kinam Rouge (I'm sure Ensar and others may laugh) .. what I get in dry down pretty close experience of burning Shokaku (Shoyeido top of line Kyara stick) I assume it has a Kinamic Dry Down.

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coolio ;)
shokaku whispers you say. wow. i need to wear the oil and burn some shokaku and see this. it would be wicked to make the connection.

JSL was pretty much my first real love. yusuf + many more layers of cooling balsam notes, green tea nuances and an overall more lift, more heights and more depth. lately the sweetness and the sticky factor of the scent hasnt agreed with me. i am hoping i find more love for this oil like i once did.

as for kinam rouge, i honestly cant say i fully know it. even after a dozen wears i still see different facets to this oil. when is swiped on me blind some days i am pretty confident that it is a cambodi oil and nothing but. other times i am sure it is vietnamese but uncertain if its kinam rouge or not. other times its looking straight into my eyes and is evident what it is. mustapha 7 is another such shape shifter oil in my experience.
 

Oud-Dan

Well-Known Member
coolio ;)
shokaku whispers you say. wow. i need to wear the oil and burn some shokaku and see this. it would be wicked to make the connection.

JSL was pretty much my first real love. yusuf + many more layers of cooling balsam notes, green tea nuances and an overall more lift, more heights and more depth. lately the sweetness and the sticky factor of the scent hasnt agreed with me. i am hoping i find more love for this oil like i once did.

as for kinam rouge, i honestly cant say i fully know it. even after a dozen wears i still see different facets to this oil. when is swiped on me blind some days i am pretty confident that it is a cambodi oil and nothing but. other times i am sure it is vietnamese but uncertain if its kinam rouge or not. other times its looking straight into my eyes and is evident what it is. mustapha 7 is another such shape shifter oil in my experience.
I so agree with you I'm so confused with Kinam Rouge ... somedays I find it like a decent Organic oil (cambodi style) and somedays you will be like Woah!!! What happened here!!! But till date I haven't got any subtle Kinamic notes which I get with Hainan 2005 and JSL ...

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Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
I so agree with you I'm so confused with Kinam Rouge ... somedays I find it like a decent Organic oil (cambodi style) and somedays you will be like Woah!!! What happened here!!! But till date I haven't got any subtle Kinamic notes which I get with Hainan 2005 and JSL ...

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kinam in hainan always. in purple kinam, hell yeah. in JSL, i have never gotten it and but other respected members in past have picked up something along those lines. re kinam rouge, is a most subtle one and least sensed of all oils bearing the name kinam in them. personally, the chase of all things kinam is yesterday's news for me. so many other notes and facets that are equally as impressive and awesome as kinam.
 

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
@Martin technically they would ALL be technique, minus granted for some possible kinam formation in some of the pieces that went into such oils as nha trang ltd, hailam ltd, etc.

but i think i know what you mean. i find vietnam crassna, some truly rare old school cambodi reds (rare rare rare) and chinese sinesis (yunan, hainan, hk...also super rare and rarely come by) to be really the only wood species and geo areas that have that kinamic note in the wood. i also have to include some brunei. not sure if they would be micro carpa or malaccensis, or... but i have had so many different wood from so many different vendors with the name brunei attached to it and they have been for the most part of 3 very different camps:

1) the bitter to the core, green, root vegtable, medicinal ones like kekahsihku oil, martabat from IO, brunei hues from house of misk and even part of kencana v3 from taha (technically a malinau oil but to my nose is not pure malinau as i know it in the liks of borneo diesel, white kinam, b50k, royal malinau... mostof the brunei wood i have tried also carry the same profile.
2) perfume, zest and hard to beleive its wood kind. assuming is maleccensis: brunei kinam wood from ensar (spectacular and has the quality of kinam in the scent projectiona nd texture but completely different aroma), borneo kinam oil from ensar, brunei chip a while back via imperial, agaroots
3) brunei heartwood super old super saturated piece of wood i aquired via KZ which quite frankly smells just like green oil kinam. a tad more floral.

the few hard core chinese kinam heads i have come to know really only have respect, time and attention for vietnam, cambodia, chinese and only tarakan and brunei in borneo. the rest of the agarwood world is dead to them. old malaysia too but now they dont seem to bother anymore. the real old timers may also recall pusong laos but that too has fallen off.