How do you prepare your skin before applying your oil?

[now]

Hi!

So I just read through Taha’s latest blog post and it got me thinking about how to set up one’s skin for the best oud oil experience. I believe that I don’t normally need much moisturizing, but I’ve certainly noticed that oud oil (or perfume for that matter) doesn’t tend to project or last very long if my skin isn’t fresh-out-of-the-shower clean. Whenever I moisturize, I don’t do the area where I’ve applied any oud or perfume – in my experience, moisturizing before seems to suck the oud/perfume in and quench it and moisturizing after seems to lock it in and prevent it from doing its thing. What are your experiences on preparing your skin? As Taha mentioned in this blog post, it’s unfortunate to waste precious oud oil as a super-expensive moisturizer.

 

[Rasoul S]

I’ll experiment and reply back. As is I tend to wash my hand with scentless soap before I apply oil but not religiously.

 

[kesiro]

Sorry, the choices above are too limiting for me to answer. In general, I do not ever use moisturizer. On my skin, typical synthetic stuff just aggravates what ever condition I am trying to address, and I am fanatically religious about putting any chemicals on my body. If my hands are grossly dirty, i.e. working on the car or the back yard, obviously I will wash them with some kind of natural soap and fully dry them. If they are dirty in a way which only water is needed to rinse, that’s what I do.

Otherwise, I do not do anything special. Just try not to swipe in a spot where I applied an oil in the last 24 hours, if I can remember all those areas, lol!

If I had to cast a vote, it will be D.

 

[Ensar Oud]

Hey @now and welcome. Like @kesiro said, you don't want to mix oud with moisturizer, as that would be tantamount to cutting the oil with synthetics. The main reason oud is used pure is for its amazing medicinal properties. You want the oil to get absorbed by your skin, because oud is primarily medicine, and secondarily perfume.

 

[now]

Hey, no worries, thank you for your replies. I should have been more clear – I only use natural oils as a moisturizer. Previously, I mostly used Jojoba oil, but I recently switched to tea seed oil. Tea seed oil is great – it’s not viscuous, almost runny like water, (Jojoba oil is really viscuous) and it gets sucked in by the skin almost instantly. I usually wash off with a piece of 40% Aleppo soap. The first time I tried it I thought it was a bit crazy how much it smelled and never thought that I’d be able to use it, but now I look forward to my skin picking up a bit of the scent of the laurel oil, and given that it’s so gentle on the skin, I seldom even use tea seed oil after a shower.

I’m glad to hear that I’m not alone in avoiding moisturizers and the like. I guess I’m also naturally “blessed” with rather oily skin – it’s needed here in Sweden where it’s cold, cold and dry in the winter.

 

[PEARL]

@now Welcome aboard. How I use oil is dependent on what I'm using it for, but really more of a routine I guess. If I just crave the scent of oud oil I'll pick up a vial and swipe away, usually on my forearm. At that point I just want to smell oud or maybe assessing an oil. When I wear and putting on oud as a personal scent I typically do so after bathing and using unscented lotion. Bathe, dry, lotion, dress and the last thing I'll do is put the desired amount in my palm, put hand underneath top and dab on upper chest. Then I dab hands together and dab remainder on my clothing. The latter way is more out of habit as opposed to focusing on preparing my skin for oud though, but I have seen some say that moisturizing before application helps with longevity/projection.

 

[Youssef]

I was wondering about skin chemistry. In various ouds, not all ouds, but a good chunk for me to notice, the minty note that comes out is a bit like toothpaste, exactly like crest mint toothpaste. It's really odd because I haven't had this note before but It's getting more and more common to me. Is this my skin chemistry that is producing this scent? I have a Bengali oud on right now, and this oud before was all dark and barn, but now it has this not so bright but dark crest toothpaste note and it's bugging me a little because it doesn't work well with the other notes of this oud.

I think I might add that I started using a strong bar of soap from Zum bar, it's their Tea tree one, here's a link: https://www.iherb.com/pr/Indigo-Wil...UseI0tDUdyrUA8N9OnxoCZLYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds


Should I just stop using this soap and see if it makes a difference?

 

[JohnH]

I was wondering about skin chemistry. In various ouds, not all ouds, but a good chunk for me to notice, the minty note that comes out is a bit like toothpaste, exactly like crest mint toothpaste. It's really odd because I haven't had this note before but It's getting more and more common to me. Is this my skin chemistry that is producing this scent? I have a Bengali oud on right now, and this oud before was all dark and barn, but now it has this not so bright but dark crest toothpaste note and it's bugging me a little because it doesn't work well with the other notes of this oud.

I think I might add that I started using a strong bar of soap from Zum bar, it's their Tea tree one, here's a link: https://www.iherb.com/pr/Indigo-Wil...UseI0tDUdyrUA8N9OnxoCZLYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds


Should I just stop using this soap and see if it makes a difference?

I think stopping using that soap will make a difference, the description of it sounds like it's quite strong smelling. Try using a natural, unscented soap and see if that helps.

 

[Youssef]

I think stopping using that soap will make a difference, the description of it sounds like it's quite strong smelling. Try using a natural, unscented soap and see if that helps.

Will do! I'll tell you guys if it helps!