OUD during day(wake up) and Night(relax)

Waqas

New Member
#1
Well i have observed on myslef that different oud have offcourse differnt effect on me. some i can use during the meditation, relaxation, revatilize. waht is your prefrence.
whaich oud to use at day and which to use to get a good night sleep?
 
#2
Hmm during the day I prefer light ouds maybe cambodi or Thai. Especially working in a western environment many aren't familiar with the scent of Oud. In the evening a swipe of hindi is usually relaxing after work and to top off the night before bed I'm not fussed I usually swipe anything before bed :)
 

RobertOne

Well-Known Member
#3
I never really thought of Oud as a day/night thing.

Interesting.

Upon reflection the only Ouds I would specifically wear to bed are the ones approved of by the female nose.

Other than that I only wear what my mood strikes me as appropriate for the moment.
 

kesiro

Well-Known Member
#4
I also never thought of day or night but definitely based on occasion, event, or circumstance. Work time, gym, parties, celebrations, meditation, etc. But I definitely understand where Waqas and Omar are coming from.
 

Simla House

Well-Known Member
#6
I find if I become familiar enough with the oudhs or attars I have, the answer seems obvious, as to which one I should wear for that day.
The scents work our way into our subconscious and nervous systems.
Perhaps our olfactory senses have a deep dialogue with our emotional body.
This is similar to listening to one's body when you need nourishment, or are lacking certain vitamins, your body craves the food that will which will help replenish the deficiency. Thinking about this a little deeper, I may have just convinced myself that "oudh is food", and therefore I can now justify an expanded oudh budget for 2017.
(Gavel hits the sounding block)
 
#8
This may be slightly horrible of me... but I couldn't care less what people think when I wear oud, even something as intense as Dhul Q. I find the Western palate to be insipid in a lot of things, not merely scent, and oud is so important to my psychological well-being that I'm willing to have someone stand a little further away. Those closest to me know what it is, anyway.
 

5MeO

Well-Known Member
#9
I don't wear oud as perfume for those around me (would need too big of swipes) - but I prefer the Hindi ouds in the evenings in terms of relaxation.. The Borneo ouds are more mentally stimulating for me - I don't like those as much later in the day..
 

kooolaid79

Well-Known Member
#12
Dawn - Morning _ Borneo
Noon - Afternoon _ Malaysian/Hindi/Bengali
Evening _ Papua or Brunei
Night _ Vietnam

* Midnight _ Purple Kinam / Sultan Afnan / Sultan Sufiyan / Kynam No 1

Usually ...
LOL I don't think you left anything out! Maybe slip the beautiful china ones in between also :)
 
#13
Its only at work that I wear light oud's especially working in an office. Wearing funky hindi oud's when working around many people in a close nit environment, I have to consider other people too. Somebody may absolutely hate the scent of funky oud, so don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable.

When I'm not working anything will do really.
 

saint458

Well-Known Member
#14
LOL I don't think you left anything out! Maybe slip the beautiful china ones in between also :)
I LOVE chinese oud. But I don't actually have much of it.
After spending $33000+ I'm running too low now.
Desperately trying to raise a fund to buy full bottles of China Sayang/Hainan 2005/Xiang Liao Ling/Sultan Ahmet & Pursat 2005 ...
I hope a 'Friend' of mine keep those discreetly to a secret closet for me ...
 

kooolaid79

Well-Known Member
#15
I LOVE chinese oud. But I don't actually have much of it.
After spending $33000+ I'm running too low now.
Desperately trying to raise a fund to buy full bottles of China Sayang/Hainan 2005/Xiang Liao Ling/Sultan Ahmet & Pursat 2005 ...
I hope a 'Friend' of mine keep those discreetly to a secret closet for me ...
$33k on oud? That's what I am talking about! Heck ya! Mashallah! Mabrook and congratulations! May you be blessed to spend another $33k on Oudh :)
 

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
#18
I am on a mission to find out with terpenes are in which Aquilara species and what methods the artisan uses intensifies or brings them out. Each terpene is known to have a direct effect on the motion we feel. Bc it goes past blood brain barrier and stimulates different parts of the brain. These are well proven facts with actual research behind it. E.g limonene (zest of citrus fruits) is an uplifting energizing scent. Linalool (lavender) is a relaxant. Myrcene or humelene are sleep inducing. Pinene is energizing. For now I do not know which oud has what chemical make up but I can tell you from closely examining it in myself that there is indeed 100% a correlation as OP stated.

For me energizing day time giddy up scents are borneo, walla patta (harita, sri panda, surirenka senkoh) and Thai (or maybe just yusuf or jing Shen lu) also papua and Jerome. I find if and when I wear these in the evening I get an uplifting buzz that makes it hard for me to relax.

Vietnamese and chinese and overall any bitter medicinal oud I find mellows me and sometimes downright forces a nap regardless of time of day. I like to think WS @kyarazen @Taha @Ensar @Kruger... have some more knowledge on this. If no actual research done (I find it hard to believe) it Would be great to at least hear their experiences with dif oud resulting mood
 

Kruger

Well-Known Member
#19
Great question @Rasoul. I’m afraid I can’t give you any hard facts, but thought I’d share my view on the matter because it can be quite a contentious issue - to science or not to science?

I’m of the old ‘small-leaf-big-leaf’ school. I don’t know much about linalool, mycrene or pinene, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know lavender relieves my headache, citrus uplifts, white bread gives me brain fog. And that’s how we approach distillation as well. Maroke + yield = nightmare, despite doing what current publications have offered to change the equation.

We once had a colleague draft a compilation of scientific findings on things like which species dominate where, which compounds dominate in which species, etc. We intended to publish it as an article, but ended not doing so because, well, it just looked like bad science for the most part.

For example, it’s even been posted on another forum with great authority how fermentation has been scientifically proven to increase the yield. Many distillers continue to soak their wood primarily based on this belief, not because they especially enjoy the barn. We’ve done side-by-side runs to check such claims (using different species and different setups) and found no difference, or even contradictory results. (That doesn’t mean fermentation doesn’t increase the yield, but as the saying goes: it depends…)

One guy I know, who often wonders about the way we do things, always says: '…but professor so-and-so from the university of such-and-such says you should do it this way.' Except, professor so-and-so clearly never had any hands-on experience.

A respected scientist used to write me with details debunking a great deal of the scientific details published by a respected member in the community, annoyed at how people could take it serious.

I’ve seen two people look at the same GCMS report and derive completely different interpretations from it.

For decades the Heart Foundation heavily endorsed trans fat while the US government blacklisted anything saturated.

I think we all remember the recent incident where they retested 100 scientific studies whose results have become accepted in the mainstream. Only 39 could be replicated. I’m pretty sure many if not most studies into agarwood will suffer a similar fate. It’s such a niche field of study, there’s hardly any incentive for throughly peer-reviewed, repeated studies. Not to mention, most of agarwood distillation has remained unchanged, so even existing studies about distillation have only looked at one or two kinds of traditional methods. I’m sure none of them have accounted for all the cold, hot, hybrid soaking going on these days.

A molecular analysis will no doubt be useful. If you find which terpenes acts how in which concentration will give you an indication of what to expect… given you also know how those interact with other factors. My mood’s been affected differently using oud from the same region. Some Indian ouds soothes my sleep, or at least relaxes the nerves. Others don’t. I’ve found some Hindi distillations as uplifting as the most playful Thai oils.

If you fry an orange, grind and dry lavender, crush cannabis, eat turmeric with garlic or black pepper, it all influences the way these substances get absorbed and processed… and how they make you feel. I guess it's the way with oud oils, where there are different temperatures involved, different interactions with different types of minerals at different intervals.

There’s no doubt that doing lab reports for each and every oil would be illuminating, but practically/financially it’s a challenge. And I’m not sure if it’ll really be worth it – I don’t foresee people looking to these reports for certain terpenes to help them decide which oils to get. Experience does the job well enough. Or, if distillers will choose to invest a lot of money to chase after certain compounds, only to discover that factor X flushed your expectations down the drain.

That doesn’t mean we haven’t pursued distillation scientifically. Of course, the blue-green aquatic notes in our New Guinea distills reflect a certain organic composition. We might not know what those opponents are called in biology class, but we know that gyrinops distilled in a unique way will get you that smell.

I know caffeine will usually mess with my sleep and make me grumpy soon after it made me feel great. But when you drink coffee infused with certain mushroom extracts, the comedown hardly ever hits; prepared a certain way with certain beans, I can pass out just like that. Some Thai oils are super playful and uplifting, but then you also get an oddball like Adikuto X which is all serious and mellow. The artist might not know the molecular makeup of the paint he loves to work with most - all he/she knows is that the viscosity is perfect, the hue just right. The greatest leather tanners don’t know exactly how hibiscus interacts with the hide, but they know which conditions affect the look and feel and if it’ll be suitable for bookbinding or not.

Taha has mentioned how some compounds are found more in certain species and I think he has based some of his distillations on that model, so here’s an instance of it being used towards a specific end - say, to capture more vanilla. And that’s great.

So, I’m not making a case against scientific research into agarwood here, but wanted to mention why we don’t rely much on what's currently available, even though some people seem to attach a greater degree of trust to a distillers who quote scientific literature to back up their claims.

The upshot: By the time scientific literature catches up, there probably won’t be enough of wood left to double test the findings with.
 

kesiro

Well-Known Member
#20
Very interesting, and I believe well reasoned comments. Scientific studies are something I have to analyze on a constant basis. There are very few without some obvious flaws. Especially those which are funded by an interested entity.
With Oud, the number of variables to control are immense and clearly there is no one ‘right way’ to creating the oils we cherish. The specific chemistry of a specific oil might be interesting to analyze, but it’s effects on different people would likely vary.
So from my perspective, I am happy to trust the experienced vendors to do what they do and let each oil stand on its own. And what’s to say that ‘the way things have been done traditionally (soak, ferment, etc), are the ‘right’ way. A horse drawn carriage was the right way for a very long time.
Generalities about different wood species is fine but there are too many exceptions to rely on them.
So, as a parting thought, while chemical and scientific analysis would be interesting, the individual response to an oud is really an unmeasurable quantity.
And it is likely that any studies made about the production of Oud would have so many problems, bias and uncontrolled variables, as to be pointless.
I have followed food studies for decades. Absolutely insane the damage they have reaped over the years. Eggs, fats, grains. Entire societies changing intimately heathy things based on fraudulent scientific work.