Ajmal VS oriscent

Welcome boujasim.

Oriscent is a fabulous retailer. I would not be hesitant to purchase from them. IMO their ouds are the finest money can buy. You can e-mail the owner, Ensar if you have any worries and he will make you feel at ease.

While the oud discussion on the main board is fantastic and comprehensive, I invite you to join us in the oud "social group". There is even ore info there with some very experienced posters.

As far as Ajmal, they have fine products but from what I read, most of the ouds from the major manufacturers are blended ouds. That's not to say that they are inferior in any way, just that if you are looking for pure, high quality oud oils, usually from a singular wood and from a singular region, you need to go to a different source, for instance;
www.oriscent.com
www.unsfinecrafts.com
www.agarscentsbazaar.com

I hope you find what you are looking for and again, welcome to Basenotes.

Boujasim, I'm just curious. Have you tried the Montale line of Aouds? If so, how do they compare to the more traditional brands that you're used to.

I have tried Oriscent products and absolutely no reason to believe that his products are adulterated in any way. His stuff is as pure as can be, which is evident after you try his oils.

I think you might want to try one of his sample packs before ordering a full bottle of any given oil. The samples are relatively inexpensive and give you an opportunity to try a number of Oriscent oils at your own time to decide if they are worth buying for you. Personally, I think you won't be disappointed at all. Besides, all Oriscent products are on sale until February 1 (which made me spend quite a bit a few days ago).

Please let us know what you think of Oriscent oils if you decide to get any.

Hi Boujasim,

I know Oriscent is not well known in the Middle East because they are based in New York City, but they are a class operation 100% I would like to put a good word in for them as well. I also have Ajmal products as well as Al Haramain in the price range of 100-900 USD, and I can tell you that Oriscent quality beats them all. I however do enjoy mixed ouds as well so this is why I have the Al Haramain products, but for the pure ouds, Oriscent is top class.

There are also some other sellers such as QT which offer some decent ouds especially at the high prices, for instance AJMAL products which I purchased for over 100$ 3ml were inferior in quality to some of QT's products of around 50$ 3ml for instance QT's Cambodian which he offered to me for 50$ 3ml was very smooth! his Royal Borneo which is around 120 3ml is also very good! I have a full tola of it that I will let age with me. QT is well known in the online community as well, but his quality are not like that of Oriscent, Oriscent is the best.

Also, the last point I would like to address is that Ajmal and Al Haramain do sometimes dilute their ouds with DOP and other dilutants, this is because at a 10% dilution rate the customer can not see the difference, but 10% extra revenue on such an expensive product, well it is alot of money! There have been GC/MS tests done to prove this, maybe ask the owner of Oriscent if he can start to provide such test results to back up his claims ?

Also, with Ajmal and Al Haramain it is true that you pay a very high cost for the nice boxes and bottles, and presumably the markup cost assosciated with the size and fame of each company, its just common logic that if you go to the smaller company like Oriscent, they will have it much cheaper than the famous Middle Eastern Houses, and since Ensar is well known and has a good reputation in the online community you can trust his integrity of selling good products. Now, I won't disagree that he also uses alot of marketing tactics and over the top wording to sell alot of his products, but business is business, and his shop is the best place to find the highest quality ouds except maybe for renting a team and going straight into the jungle to find them yourself
- SL

This post reminds me very much of some from a year or two ago from a shortlived basenoter who was hounded off of the site for being sniffed out as actually having the agenda of promoting... Oriscent.

Are you sure it wasn't Passo_s692 who was thought to be Ham_Firl himself (an eBay seller of oud)? He made several posts berating other oud dealers and claimed that Ham_Firl's ouds were routinely supplied to Middle Eastern royal families. Oriscent hardly needs such shadowy marketing tactics, their products speak for themselves.

There was a comparison of Ajmal ouds vs Oriscent ones in the oud social group thread and Oriscent was said to be greatly superior, in A/B comparison Ajmal was said to be flat and lifeless compared to the depth and vibrancy of Oriscent. This kinda makes sense since Ajmal makes no claims to the purity of their ouds, while Oriscent (by controlling the entire distillation and distribution process) makes sure their oils are pure and unadalterated.

However, Ajmal's prices are far less prohibitive and I am sure they sell a lot more oils than Oriscent.

Hey,

I'm sorry to inform you, but most agarwood dealers are fakes and cheats. If you want real oud prices that aren't inflated and pure oud (not mixtures of oud) you can contact agarwoodindonesia.com I've worked closely with them and I'm a certified agarwood cultivator and inoculator. I know good oud and Oriscent is as you've stated "too good to be true" hes just merely a master at marketing in my opinion.

Another problem with most agarwood customers today is they do not understand agarwood at all. See, the same species of agarwood can be found in many countries. The same agarwood species in Indonesia will smell the same if you got it from vietnam. There are only very very subtle differences. People are speaking only about what country it came from and not what species the agarwood is which is more important.

I myself love both Ajmal and Oriscent. From what I have smelled Oriscent is in the top for quality. Ajmal though does have some gems that shouldnt be over looked. I have smelled one of Ajmals which the name isnt comming to me but it was said to be their #2 highest quality Oud. It was wonderful and with out a doubt could give Oriscent a run for their money. Also Ajmal is gonna be cheaper especially if you can buy it direct from one of their shops. If you like Mukhallats though Ajmal in my opinion is hands down the best house from over seas for that. They have masters who mix very well. Being that they origin is from India the have a very good source of ingrediants and recipies from India. I would think the company in the west to give Oriscent a dual is Agarscentsbazaar. All of them trully have very good quality each with their own specialties.