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The mailman dropped off a little surprise today.... Lovely little red bottle full of creativity and passion. Thank you @FragranceView for the beautiful gift! I will definitely cherish it :)

I’m happy to announce the arrival of my good friend Josh aka @Smelly Vision (Instagram) amidst our ranks. Josh has had some interesting questions to ask me on the Morning Oud Show (YouTube) in case some of you have missed it, and I'm sure he'll have plenty to contribute here about oud and...

Being immersed in the arts hones your artistic eye, and as a result… your olfactory acumen. Sitting with masters of their craft and people with artistic vision has shaped my aesthetic and thus my approach to making oud oil. From the way it’s produced to the OCD it takes to capture a specific...

During one of our Singapore get-togethers, @Oud Learner asked me to evaluate various musk grains he'd sourced. Without disclosing the sources, he handed me batch after batch, and I gave my verdicts according to what I know about natural musk. After the testing was completed, I asked him where...

Oudheads who love detail know that there are two sides to this fragrant coin: agarwood’s essential, intrinsic—core—smell, and its ‘auxiliary’ (or secondary) notes. Those fruity, floral, honey-sweet, savory umami notes in your favorite ouds are all auxiliary notes—not the scent of the wood’s...

The incredible reception of the Sultan Leather Attar left me totally inspired. It showed me that people were hungry for what new-school perfumery rarely gives you anymore. And more than anything, it set the stage for a new kind of cuir… Leather and oud go together like king and crown, and...

For as long as I've known him, my teacher has called me names. Offensive, nasty names. Ethnic slurs that are widely considered taboo in the West, only in my case they pertained to white people in China. All I could do is bow my head down and not say anything. Had I objected, or not liked it...

There are three kinds of oud in the world, my friends. The Arab School On the one hand, you've got the thick leathery juices of the Arab houses, full of smoke effects, 'resin' and other heady confections. Designed to withstand the arid Arabian clime and conquer bodily odors in the parching sun...

Some oils like to play "hard to get." Once you get them, though, you're done and spoken for..... One thing that I find is that lovers of Malinau generally have a hard time appreciating Hindi or Chinese oud. The opposite is equally true as well. A Hindi man like @PEARL won't touch a Malinau with...

An old friend visited today, an esteemed customer from Jordan. He was in dismay and disarray over the “recent developments” he’d read somewhere on the net, and was keen to hear my take. I feel what I told him might be of interest to others, whether it be my ‘haters’ or my own children twenty...

The drive down to London for the yearly OudFest, and my first attendee...

You know how they make you take all these silly yearly tests even though you be the finest spinesmith that ever hammered anyone straight?... Distillation is no different. I've got my Guallam 'textbooks' with me on our journey to create the newest greatest oud anyone's ever smelled. I'm going to...

Don't talk about semolina epistemology; let us taste the pudding.

Swooning over a pot of High Mountain Taiwanese oolong (swipes of Kyara LTD taking the experience to a whole other level).

Uh oh! From what I understand, @kooolaid79 doesn't carry anything except great food with him. Is this a burger flippin' sheriff we just got??? :D Mubarak @kooolaid79! I pray your stellar decorum and impartiality will shine the way forward for all us oud loving juveniles and grey heads alike...

So it's been an agonizing time here at the office in Amman... I'm literally out of breath. Lungs full of fumes as I agonize over the new Sultan Rose Attar. I don't know what got the idea of making a frankincense heavy oud attar this time around in my head and I'm seeing the last of my precious...

Cantik kan.