Oud Oil Reviews - MAIN THREAD

A

Alkhadra

Guest
Tonight I am writing about an oil I have had for about a week and wanted to spend some time with before putting my 2 cents worth in.
Kumathra V from Alkhadra. A recently steam distilled Brunei oil. This was one that I liked a lot straight out of the gate and wanted to make sure I gave it some time to see if the honeymoon period would wear off. Thankfully, that is not happening. This oil is an unmistakeable Brunei profile but has its own thing going. I first read the description of this being kind of a gourmand smelling oil. A vanilla pear. Well, while I do detect that to some degree, this mostly smells like a smoldering, medicinally bittersweet, brunei incense. Dries down to beautiful oudy wood notes. Very dry, fumy, and rich. Has that nose tingling effect which I have not experienced in oils of this price point. The oil has absolutely no off-putting characteristics. It is inherently extremely enjoyable, manly, and a totally guilt free wear on a daily basis.
The dusty, dry, medicinal style is one that really appeals to me. Summing up, a very good oil for a great price. A very solid performer which IMO both the novice and more experience oud lovers can enjoy.

So I put my money where my mouth is and got 2 bottles.
Thanks for the stellar review Doc! I'm really grateful for the thought and time you put into this.
 
-Nhek 1976 from Ensar-
Grabbed this during the Black Friday sale for an irresistible price. Opening get a Chinese vibe, animalic but not barny or fermented. Tingling and medicinal. Tobacco leaves and and a gentle sun worn horse saddle sits faintly in the background. Fleeting whiffs of fennel or anise seed and black currant, dark red citrus with a resinous core. Powerful and long lasting on my skin. Highly recommended!
 

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
-Nhek 1976 from Ensar-
Grabbed this during the Black Friday sale for an irresistible price. Opening get a Chinese vibe, animalic but not barny or fermented. Tingling and medicinal. Tobacco leaves and and a gentle sun worn horse saddle sits faintly in the background. Fleeting whiffs of fennel or anise seed and black currant, dark red citrus with a resinous core. Powerful and long lasting on my skin. Highly recommended!
all of those yes but the blue cheese funk and some fermented notes distract me and dont let me enjoy all else that is going on. i made a pact to take a few month break from this entire genre of funky/animal oils and come back to them later and see how i re-act to them then.
 
all of those yes but the blue cheese funk and some fermented notes distract me and dont let me enjoy all else that is going on. i made a pact to take a few month break from this entire genre of funky/animal oils and come back to them later and see how i re-act to them then.
That’s odd, I definitely didn’t get any fermented or cheesy notes. I suppose that I will have to revisit.
 
I get a bit of funk when I smell it straight from my sample vial but when I put it on my skin it immediately mellows out. While I am new to Oud and can not describe notes like others I can say that this is one of my favorites from EO.
 

Oudamberlove

Well-Known Member
Kanzen
I put a cotton swab into the sample vial of Kanzen to extract the remaining oil clinging to the inner vial walls. It's been a couple of weeks now, and when I pull the swab out for a sniff, I get HIT with some powerful Cambodi.

Kanzen is a must-have for new-age Cambodi oud lovers.
 

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
Kanzen
I put a cotton swab into the sample vial of Kanzen to extract the remaining oil clinging to the inner vial walls. It's been a couple of weeks now, and when I pull the swab out for a sniff, I get HIT with some powerful Cambodi.

Kanzen is a must-have for new-age Cambodi oud lovers.
totally under priced oil. brand builder/cash flow oil i guess. seriously people, buy this oil blind and trust me you can't go wrong. i have. got me 2 bottles.
 

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
EO Oud Royale Sri Lanka baby.

I have had lota exposure to lota different walla patta oils tinctures and agarwood chunks and chips from various suppliers. This oil somehow comes across as an embodiment of all those scents in one.

I get the ethereal green blue oceanic subtle beauty of surirankah and imperial oud Ceylon royale. But I get that supe frosty minty very green hirta from agar aura in the mix too that is quite clear. Mango skin papaya and dried mango of imperial oud sri pada but in a more integrated and less overt style. I get the cinnamon and orange peel vanilla ice cream notes of malinau oils as well as Sri Lankan oil like adhII again by imperial oud. There is a toffee caramel sweetness and super high resinated walla chip on burner at medium plus note that becomes more front Center after 30-45 min post application. Best walla patta chips I have come across so far we’re via shareef. Thick resinous tiny crystallized nuggets. This oudd heart has those chuncks on medium plus heat note. That classic bitter green gently medicinal mind buzzin ensar signature in oils like kinamantan, port moresbey and sultan abdus selam is also present here. Like a gin and tonic kind of bitter medicinal note but one that actually tickles the mind.

This is as much of a medicine and mild to medium strength pschyactive oil as is a great scent. I am experiencing out of body like experience. Seeing myself and my surrounding from a birds eye point of view. Ie in a complete present moment meditative state.

Sad news: wife doesn’t like the scent. Found it to terpene heavy and bug spray and chemical. Her words :( Neighbor stopped by and was obviously asked to smell my wrist and he too found it overbearing. Not me though. While I agree the silage is enormous and oil highly powerful I love it. Not in my top3 oils but close to it.

A littl lightheaded from countless deep sniffs. Gonna go nap a little. Lol.

Bravo ensar team for a strong quality price ratio oil.
 

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
How do you think this oil will show in 1, 3, 5, or 10 years? Lose some top. Less top notes and more of the heart and base drydown take Center stage?
 

kesiro

Well-Known Member
How do you think this oil will show in 1, 3, 5, or 10 years? Lose some top. Less top notes and more of the heart and base drydown take Center stage?
Good question. I guess I really do not know what happens that far down the road with Sri Lankan oud. I assume it also depends on the storage, i.e. bottle full so minimal oxidation vs. more air in. So far, some aging for sinharaja x has not resulted in any loss of top, only a richer, headier scent. Ensar?????
 

Ensar Oud

Well-Known Member
How do you think this oil will show in 1, 3, 5, or 10 years? Lose some top. Less top notes and more of the heart and base drydown take Center stage?
The answer to that question varies greatly, depending on how the oil was distilled. Some top-heavy oils are bound to lose their 'charm' as they grow older if the heart and base segments are not solid and complex enough. Let me explain.

In reality, oud doesn't have anything to do with 'top notes.' At least not in the same way bitter orange, rosewood, lavender, and black pepper do; these are proper 'top notes' so far as perfumery is concerned. From the point of view of a perfumer, the word 'oud' never comes up when talking about 'top notes' going into a blend. Oud is a base note. Just like sandalwood. And vetiver. And musk. – So, what are we really talking about when we talk about 'top notes' in a pure oud?

In reality, the top notes are the crux and apex of the so-called 'auxiliary' notes. You know how they say about traditional Indian oud that you need to 'give it 10-15 minutes' for it to 'open up' and the funk to 'go away?' Well, that applies not just to Indian oud, but to ALL oud, traditional & modern, conventional & unconventional. The 'top notes' are a byproduct of distillation: that particular set-up's chemical interactions with the feedstock as it cooks. Distillation is very much like alchemy, where you can take a piece of wood that smells nothing like fruits or vanilla or 'algae' and coax these notes out of that wood by subjecting it to a series of chemical interactions.

As a general rule: Unless the 'top notes' smell like the piece of wood itself did prior to getting distilled, without any heat being applied, the top notes are a fraud. The only top notes that are not 100% auxiliary are the ones that reflect the smell of the unheated wood prior to distillation. Period.

An oil that doesn't have these kind of top notes that are palpably reminiscent of, say, walla patta chips you've personally experienced, either raw or under extremely low heat, is an auxiliary note-heavy oil and it will likely not mature into anything worth writing home about. Top notes are lost with age, and all you have left once the oil fully matures is the quality of the agarwood that went into the pot – that which you smelled after giving the oil 10 minutes for its 'true' character to come out.

Another way of looking at it: If the top notes do not get prolonged and keep humming well into the 'heart' phase while retaining their character intact, they're not from the wood. The wood only shows itself fully and without fail during the heart phase. Here's a crude illustration: The top notes smell like horse manure. Ten minutes in, you start to get an interesting sweet woodiness come out. The woodiness is what the wood smelled like. It (the wood) had nothing to do with horse manure. The manure is there because of the way the wood was processed. It is a chemical reaction and a byproduct of, in this case, fermentation. There are many other scenarios, such as if the wood is chemically altered in some way prior to distillation. The type of condenser that is used. The type of soaking barrel. The mineral content of the water used to soak. The mineral content of the water used to cook. Etc.

I predict that Oud Royale SL will not lose any top notes as it ages because the only top note I detect in it myself is a still note due to the relatively young age of the oil (August 2017). This still note will eventually disappear and the 'top chord' that hits you within a minute of application will become more dominant and extend deeper and deeper into the 'heart' phase, which will display characteristics of traditionally heated (medium heat) well-resinated walla chips.

As I discussed in another thread, 'green,' 'oceanic,' 'salty,' and 'algae' have nothing to do with the wood going into the pot. These are imaginary semblances unique to the psyche of the wearer (especially if that wearer is you, Rasoul! =P). They are NOT in the wood. Agarwood does NOT smell like algae. And it does NOT smell like vanilla. And it does NOT smell like any other thing that comes to your mind when examining an oil. These are fictive 'metaphors' your mind supplies in order to 'explain' a new experience to itself. If you're not a distiller, you cannot properly dissect an oil's profile in order to comprehend the wood that went into its production. Saying you can do this is as realistic as me saying I can probably hammer someone's spinal deformity straight if given a hammer and the right tools. Without the experience of a spine surgeon, I wouldn't be able to do squat.

THE most deceiving thing to consider when evaluating an oil is its price tag. The assumption that something is superior because it is priced higher can lead to a kind of prejudice few noses are able to sniff through. I've smelled oils that cost thousands that I know cost hundreds to produce. And vice versa: Oils that cost hundreds which it would take thousands to reproduce. There is nothing more misleading than smelling an oil that goes for, say $350, and then another oil that sells for double that price, and assuming the more expensive oil is superior. Nothing can be more prejudicial than price.

Food for thought? Consider the price of Chugoku Senkoh. What exactly does it tell you about Chugoku Senkoh?
 
Last edited:

Nikhil S

Well-Known Member
The answer to that question varies greatly, depending on how the oil was distilled. Some top-heavy oils are bound to lose their 'charm' as they grow older if the heart and base segments are not solid and complex enough. Let me explain.

In reality, oud doesn't have anything to do with 'top notes.' At least not in the same way bitter orange, rosewood, lavender, and black pepper do; these are proper 'top notes' so far as perfumery is concerned. From the point of view of a perfumer, the word 'oud' never comes up when talking about 'top notes' going into a blend. Oud is a base note. Just like sandalwood. And vetiver. And musk. – So, what are we really talking about when we talk about 'top notes' in a pure oud?

In reality, the top notes are the crux and apex of the so-called 'auxiliary' notes. You know how they say about traditional Indian oud that you need to 'give it 10-15 minutes' for it to 'open up' and the funk to 'go away?' Well, that applies not just to Indian oud, but to ALL oud, traditional & modern, conventional & unconventional. The 'top notes' are a byproduct of distillation: that particular set-up's chemical interactions with the feedstock as it cooks. Distillation is very much like alchemy, where you can take a piece of wood that smells nothing like fruits or vanilla or 'algae' and coax these notes out of that wood by subjecting it to a series of chemical interactions.

As a general rule: Unless the 'top notes' smell like the piece of wood itself did prior to getting distilled, without any heat being applied, the top notes are a fraud. The only top notes that are not 100% auxiliary are the ones that reflect the smell of the unheated wood prior to distillation. Period.

An oil that doesn't have these kind of top notes that are palpably reminiscent of, say, walla patta chips you've personally experienced, either raw or under extremely low heat, is an auxiliary note-heavy oil and it will likely not mature into anything worth writing home about. Top notes are lost with age, and all you have left once the oil fully matures is the quality of the agarwood that went into the pot – that which you smelled after giving the oil 10 minutes for its 'true' character to come out.

Another way of looking at it: If the top notes do not get prolonged and keep humming well into the 'heart' phase while retaining their character intact, they're not from the wood. The wood only shows itself fully and without fail during the heart phase. Here's a crude illustration: The top notes smell like horse manure. Ten minutes in, you start to get an interesting sweet woodiness come out. The woodiness is what the wood smelled like. It (the wood) had nothing to do with horse manure. The manure is there because of the way the wood was processed. It is a chemical reaction and a byproduct of, in this case, fermentation. There are many other scenarios, such as if the wood is chemically altered in some way prior to distillation. The type of condenser that is used. The type of soaking barrel. The mineral content of the water used to soak. The mineral content of the water used to cook. Etc.

I predict that Oud Royale SL will not lose any top notes as it ages because the only top note I detect in it myself is a still note due to the relatively young age of the oil (August 2017). This still note will eventually disappear and the 'top chord' that hits you within a minute of application will become more dominant and extend deeper and deeper into the 'heart' phase, which will display characteristics of traditionally heated (medium heat) well-resinated walla chips.

As I discussed in another thread, 'green,' 'oceanic,' 'salty,' and 'algae' have nothing to do with the wood going into the pot. These are imaginary semblances unique to the psyche of the wearer (especially if that wearer is you, Rasoul! =P). They are NOT in the wood. Agarwood does NOT smell like algae. And it does NOT smell like vanilla. And it does NOT smell like any other thing that comes to your mind when examining an oil. These are fictive 'metaphors' your mind supplies in order to 'explain' a new experience to itself. If you're not a distiller, you cannot properly dissect an oil's profile in order to comprehend the wood that went into its production. Saying you can do this is as realistic as me saying I can probably hammer someone's spinal chord straight if given a hammer and the right tools. Without the experience of a spine surgeon, I wouldn't be able to do squat.

THE most deceiving thing to consider when evaluating an oil is its price tag. The assumption that something is superior because it is priced higher can lead to a kind of prejudice few noses are able to sniff through. I've smelled oils that cost thousands that I know cost hundreds to produce. And vice versa: Oils that cost hundreds which it would take thousands to reproduce. There is nothing more misleading than smelling an oil that goes for, say $350, and then another oil that sells for double that price, and assuming the more expensive oil is superior. Nothing can be more prejudicial than price.

Food for thought? Consider the price of Chugoku Senkoh. What exactly does it tell you about Chugoku Senkoh?
Absolutely brilliant article. Thumbs up !