SOTD

[bhanny]

It is interesting to see how others experience, enjoy and wear oud. Oud for many, now and historically, is a very personal and spiritual thing, as well as being something to be shared. As far as sharing and as a Muslim, we follow the Hadith and Sunnah of our beloved prophet Muhammad(SAWS), in hadith it was reported:

~ Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) never used to refuse Taib (attar, perfume oils, oil fragrances, musk oils) and used to say that the Prophet (peace be upon him) never used to refuse (a gift of) scent.
[sahih al-Bukhari / V7 / H5929]~

~Whoever is given Taib (attar, perfume oil, oil fragrances, musk oil), he should not refuse it, because it has a good smell and it is light to carry.
[sunan Abu Dawud / V4 / H4172 / Hadeeth Sahh]~

There are many times when I just want to sit and listen to an oil, internalizing and focusing on its scent progression, dynamism and realizing any of the more psychoactive qualities of the oil that I may perceive. Although I do and enjoy that I typically wear oud more prominently heavy, dependent on setting and appropriateness of course as I live in the West. In Hadith it was reported:

~Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) states that when a companion would desire to visit the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and would not find him, they would track him by his fragrance in the streets.~

~Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) said that, 'When the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) went down the road, anyone who had followed him knew that he had passed that way because of his scent.~

Interesting and cool. Thanks for sharing that. I'm always grateful to learn of others culture, religious beliefs and practices. For many reasons, but I just don't want my world to feel so small.

In my world here, I really have nobody to share it with. The environment I work in wouldn't tolerate heavy applications nor aggressive or subjectively offensive scents. My wife is certainly very tolerant if not supportive of my love of oud, but she doesn't share the passion I have for it. That's part of the allure of forums like Gaharu. A community where I can talk about the spiritual connection I have with an oil, or better, how the oil enhances my psyche and spirituality overall.

 

[PEARL]

@bhanny, I certainly agree that the environment also dictates how one wears fragrance in general. I too work in an area that frowns upon the wearing of any heavy scent, as I understand you're an MD, I've been meaning to ask you what is your area of specialty. I'm a BSN trained RN, soon to be sitting for my boards to become an FNP. I've worked primarily in trauma Med/Surg and orthopedics. At work I usually wear what I'd consider my most friendly oils and then only in very small amounts. My wife does like oud but she can't differentiate one from another, to her all from the most fruity, flowery oil all the way to the most funky Hindis she calls, "that woodsy, piney stuff". Hence, her reason for wondering why I have so many. She does however wear Pink Papua, which really fits her, and an occasional sandalwood oil.

 

[bhanny]

Ha! "That woodsy, piney stuff"!!! You sure that wasn't my wife?!? Seriously, the thing she finds the most cool is that oud results from a trees natural defense mechanism against an insult. She's an RN as well, but has graciously agreed to stay home with our 2 boys. And awesome on the FNP, definitely a huge demand, any idea where you want to work when all is said and done? I'm a hospitalist, the director of our group, I do about 50% clinical and 50% administrative stuff. I had been doing this and addiction medicine, but the addiction piece didn't work out and I've subsequently stopped.

 

[kesiro]

PEARL and bhanny: I am 100% with you on the environmental forces of fragrance. As an MD, actually ortho spine, I am with you both on that.
The wife thing is funny as my wife's response is always, "oh, that's strong!" LOL. The interesting thing is that my 12 year old daughter looks to be a young oud addict in the making. She loves the scents, especially Oud Yusuf, Yoshi, Assam 3000 to name a few.

 

[bhanny]

PEARL and bhanny: I am 100% with you on the environmental forces of fragrance. As an MD, actually ortho spine, I am with you both on that.
The wife thing is funny as my wife's response is always, "oh, that's strong!" LOL. The interesting thing is that my 12 year old daughter looks to be a young oud addict in the making. She loves the scents, especially Oud Yusuf, Yoshi, Assam 3000 to name a few.

Ha! I get the "oh, thats strong" too! I'm not quite sure I want my boys to get into oud. After all, Ensar, can you guarantee the three of us enough Kynam No1? Just kidding, I would LOVE to share this with them.

 

[PEARL]

@bhanny the NP field, and I think it's dependent on locale, is becoming much more diversified and specialized. Classically trained FNP's in the Atlanta metropolitan area are typically only employed in primary care settings, here there is an over saturation of that type of NP. I envision continuing in two areas of specialty. The first would be in acute care, allowing me to work in a hospital alongside MD hospitalist. That would be my preference; and I also prefer a 12hr work day. The second would be in mental health. I'm in an emergency receiving facility and often float to the psych unit. We get mostly what turn out to be 1014's with addiction and drug seeking behavior issues. I find it to be less physically intensive, but as you can likely attest, much more mentally fatiguing. There is also a unusually high demand for mental health FNP's in this area. Oud, giggity.

@kesiro ortho-spine! When you guys send up 67 year old, 308lb Suzy who has just had a multi-level TLIF w/ICBG and I have 5 others just like her, I know it's going to be a rough and tumble day. But I must say, I truly love ortho. Certain people I salute, MD's, nurses and those dudes who squeeze and press these magical oils from wood are among some of them, salute.

Now if I can just get one of you guys to put in an order for this thing to stop double posting, we'd be golden.

 

[kesiro]

@kesiro ortho-spine! When you guys send up 67 year old, 308lb Suzy who has just had a multi-level TLIF w/ICBG and I have 5 others just like her, I know it's going to be a rough and tumble day. But I must say, I truly love ortho. Certain people I salute, MD's, nurses and those dudes who squeeze and press these magical oils from wood are among some of them, salute.

Now if I can just get one of you guys to put in an order for this thing to stop double posting, we'd be golden.

LOL! You describe the prototypical spine patient! By the way, I currently use a PA but the best help I had over the years was a NP who moved from the area. She was awesome! Best of luck in your endeavours!

Agree about the double posting. Frustrating.

 

[RobertOne]

5AM here, just swiped EO Santal Royale in the hopes that I get to the land of nod quickly.

I love how it's so gingerish and wild while at the same time retaining lashings of cream and butter. Damn, now I have a craving for a cornish cream tea.

@kesiro and @bhanny, I obviously cradle, hug and cuddle my monsters and often a tiny amount of fragrant Oud gets patched to them by skin contact. After that, they often improve in mood or in the case of baby girl she sleeps more happily. Not deeper but haappier.... hard to explain really, but less fussing, tossing and turning and more fluid sleep movements.

@PEARL , I would love to be able to afford to wear Oud daily like it was a normal perfume, I agree with sharing the love all around, but I have three college educations to save for and I don't print money at home!

Also glad it's not just me with the duplicate posting! Just this evening I managed triplets!

 

[bhanny]

5AM here, just swiped EO Santal Royale in the hopes that I get to the land of nod quickly.

I love how it's so gingerish and wild while at the same time retaining lashings of cream and butter. Damn, now I have a craving for a cornish cream tea.

@kesiro and @bhanny, I obviously cradle, hug and cuddle my monsters and often a tiny amount of fragrant Oud gets patched to them by skin contact. After that, they often improve in mood or in the case of baby girl she sleeps more happily. Not deeper but haappier.... hard to explain really, but less fussing, tossing and turning and more fluid sleep movements.

@PEARL , I would love to be able to afford to wear Oud daily like it was a normal perfume, I agree with sharing the love all around, but I have three college educations to save for and I don't print money at home!

Also glad it's not just me with the duplicate posting! Just this evening I managed triplets!

I don't doubt that at all. My boys are constantly hanging on me, jumping on me, mangling me as boys do (I love every minute of it), they are constantly getting tiny amounts of oud on them. They usually love it!

Santal Royale is probably my favorite sandalwood, unfortunately it and the rest of the gang have gotten ignored a lot as of late with the various ouds I've acquired.

 

[kesiro]

Good morning gentlemen! Santal Royale is a benchmark for me and I apply it very often. That said, the Laosan 1999 is the one I actually bought 2 bottles of. It is epic.

Today I am going with Kinam Rouge. We have discussed it before and I really don't know what to add. Beautiful stuff.

 

[kesiro]

Good morning gentlemen! Santal Royale is a benchmark for me and I apply it very often. That said, the Laosan 1999 is the one I actually bought 2 bottles of. It is epic.

Today I am going with Kinam Rouge. We have discussed it before and I really don't know what to add. Beautiful stuff.

 

[bhanny]

Nice. Kinam Rouge is flawless. Seriously. Today I went will FO Koon Mai Wan, an amazingly beautiful but soft oil with delicate top notes as Adam puts it. It's very pretty. That's on my left hand. All the sandalwood talk made me go with Ensar's Santal 1984. Talk about white, clean and pristine Mysore. That's on my right hand.

 

[kesiro]

Nice. Kinam Rouge is flawless. Seriously. Today I went will FO Koon Mai Wan, an amazingly beautiful but soft oil with delicate top notes as Adam puts it. It's very pretty. That's on my left hand. All the sandalwood talk made me go with Ensar's Santal 1984. Talk about white, clean and pristine Mysore. That's on my right hand.

I have never tried the Santal 1984 but it's reputation is certainly legendary. Well done!

 

[RobertOne]

Doused with EO Oud Yusuf after a particularly three mile island diaper this morning.

I love sandalwood to a degree, but not nearly as much as Oud as the latter leaps and bounds around your mind, while sandalwood is all about calm reflection and just being. I also used sandalwood decades ago when I used to visit a herbalist so perhaps it's a case of the familiar not being as special.

Polar opposites.

 

[bhanny]

@kesiro - It is very very nice, but I'm definitely as fond of Santal Royale.

@Robert - My situation exactly. I started with sandalwood. And I now vastly prefer oud. Occasionally I like to revisit some of the beautiful sandalwoods I have.

 

[kesiro]

Assam 3000 today. Top to bottom a beautiful creating. Uplifting for me when I need a little extra oomph to get the day going.

 

[5MeO]

Kinamantan (EO) - Initially I wasn't crazy about this oil - I mean, I liked it a lot, but it also reminded me of a lighter version of Kyara Sayang (which is one of my favorite oils). Anyhow, not sure what happened but I totally love this oil now - I have noticed that, having many dozens of ouds, that when I get a new oud, sometimes a prominent note reminds me of another oud, and I don't fully appreciate its uniqueness - however, once I spend more time listening to the oud I realize that it is quite different and that note which caught my attention was just one of many notes.. Ah, the perils of inveterate ouddiction - ouds are bound to remind you of other ouds..

Anyhow, Kinamantan has the most incredible sour/lemon twist to it to go along with the green and resinous kinamic qualities.. Sour isn't quite the right word - maybe I mean "acidic", like the way fine coffee and fine wine can be described as having an acidic flavor? Anyhow, the combination with the sweet, green, resinous qualities is just incredible together - bravo Ensar!

 

[5MeO]

Double post forum glitch thing - may as well rant:

N,N, Dematerialize...

Long live the queen!

Oud for all!

 

[bhanny]

@5MeO - Hear you on the ouddiction..ouds remind you of ouds which remind you of ouds. I also find, in general, my feelings toward an oud after first couple wearings are rarely the same after I have time to really listen to it. And this goes both ways, some I thought were going to be at the top of my list turned out to be "so-so" or even quite disappointing as I really got to know them. And others I thought were quite mediocre turned out to be be jewels.

I also personally love that sour/acidic note in oils. Especially with citrus/hesperidic fruits. One of my favorite examples is Hainan 2005, though I can't comment on Kinamantan.

Lastly. I went with Kambodi 1976 tonight. Ancient, deep and wonderful.

 

[kesiro]

The last day of the workweek for me today so in order to celebrate, the big guns are out. Oud Ahmad. Man, I love this stuff. It is like ultra fine cognac.