best oud = agarwood scents ???

The easiest to access will be YSL's M7.

Also:
Oud Wood - Tom Ford
Aoud Homme - M Micallef
Montale Ouds (haven't smelt those though)

Just about every niche house has come out with an oud-centric scent (or twenty) in the last few years. L'Artisan's recent release has been getting a fair amount of attention. Montale has a whole Oud line with Black Aoud (dark roses and oud) being among the most popular and well received.

YSL M7 may have been the first western designer scent to use oud and it's great, but can come off as both medicinal and sweet. Habit Rouge edp formulation has an additional oud note in the base that's woodier.

Then there's real agarwood oil which is extremely expensive and precious. Notes range from medicinal, to sweet wood, to barnyard fecal and everywhere in-between. Very strong and longlasting.

My favorite use of oud in a modern fragrance right now is Habit Rouge EDP. Pure Oud oil is quite wonderful too, if you want to pay the price for it.

I would highly recommend the following site to you,

www.agaraura.com

This is what PURE OUD OIL is suppossed to smell like! Buying Oud is never cheap to begin with so you must be willing to spend in order to gain an education as to what pure Oud oil is suppossed to smell like.

Be very careful though ... once you go Arabian, you can't ever go back.

That site also sells samples so I would advise you to buy as many samples as you can and see which Oud oil you like best. Every Oud oil smells different to one another. Every region's Oud is different to anothers.

Hope that helps!

You may also want to purchase a bit of aloeswood and burn it. That's the most ancient form of enjoying this scent, not the oil. It's an intensely beautiful incense (albeit an acquired taste).

While not unpleasant to many people, commercial Western spray fragrances from Tom Ford, Le Labo, By Killian and Montale have none or very little actual oud and don't come anywhere near the depth, complexity and sheer emotional effect real ouds possess. These scents can be interesting but they are just two-dimensional black-and-white low-resolution print outs of stunningly beautiful 3-dimensional object of dazzlying colours. Another comparison that comes to mind is that commercial "oud" spray fragrances to real oud are what Juicy Fruit chewing gum is to real tropical fruit

I would try and sample some of the real stuff from highly reputable sellers like Oriscent, Agar Aura, Abdul Samad Al Qurashi etc.

Contrary to the popular belief (usually shared by those who tried Montale's "aouds") agarwood doesn't smell "medicinal" or "bandaid-like", there is a lot different types of scent profiles in ouds from different regions and a lot of variations within each general type. The barnyard ouds are generally liked in the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf states and not so much by the typical "Westerners", i.e. the liking for the barnyardy ouds is an acquired taste. Other, more "universally appealing" for the lack of a better word, oud scent profiles do much better with the Western audiences - Indonesian/Borneo which are generally very woody and diffusive in an almost menthol/camphor way (Oriscent's Borneos), Cambodian non-barnyard sweet ouds which can be deep and intoxicating (Oudimentary's KSSS, Agaraura's Ateeq, ASAQ's Thaqeel) and some unconventional Indian of the highest quality that lack the barnyard but still have the depth and complexity of the genre (Agaraura's Indian Spice, ASAQ Kalakassi).

If the above sounds way too complicated (it is!) and you absolutely have to go with the Western "oud" fragrances, then By Killian's Pure Oud is probably the one that's arguably least off-the-mark, it might actually have a bit of the real stuff in there, but overall it's not even a pale shadow of what the real good-quality oud smells like.

I agree with you that the best way to understand oud is to smell it directly, however there ARE some varieties of pure oud oil that have the smell that many people associate with "medicinal" at least as part of their development. Within the ouds there is such a huge variety, much more variety IMO than rose oils and absolutes have. Also, it is not fair to compare pure oud with a composition that has an oud note in it. The best of those compositions are not trying to give the wearer the same experience as pure oud, they are trying to use oud within a larger fragrance profile. It is like comparing apples to flax seed as far as I'm concerned. There are several fragrances which use oud as a note that I think are quite brilliant, and very different than a pure oud oil.

In my opinion, all these perfume houses fail when they incorporate Oud in their fragrances. Every single one of them, By Killian, Le Lebo 27, Tom Ford Oud Wood, etc ...

Oud in my opinion is best left to the Middle Eastern perfume houses, if we are referring to blends, sprays, etc.

All the western/european houses just can't get it right. It's like I create something and then someone else comes along and trys to copy it. FAIL!

Well then you won't be buying any of those I guess. There are a few that I like from Montale and Guerlain. They are very "European" and for you they are failures. I enjoy them.

I do agree with you though that for the pure oud experience, you need to buy a Middle Easter scent, or better yet the pure oil.

Yup that's right.

AgarAura also sells the chips as well, (click on chips)

www.agaraura.com/

Montale would be the only exception. I consider Montale's perfumes to be more of a Middle Eastern scent profile. Considering the fact that Pierre Montale went over to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to create fragrances for kings and upon his arrival back to France, he opened the Montale perfume house.

Whooooa!!! I really look forward to your insights on scents you have used over the years.

Seems like we are on the same page with Montale then. Do you not like the oud note in Habit Rouge EDP?

Haven't tried it yet mate Have you tried the 1965? Is it nice?

Ohh and by the way, people referring to M7 as the ultimate Oud fragrance - I was like lol! You got to be kidding me!

M7 is obviously not the ultimate oud scent, but it is the most accessible one. Haven't tried the 1965.

The truth, and nice work on the chewing gum to real fruit analogy.

I do however enjoy Montale's Original Oud, which to me is a better and more butch version of Killian's Pure Oud (Original Oud came before Pure Oud). I like wearing original Oud when i'm in an easygoing mood and don't want to fish out my real oud oils.

I therefore recommend Montale's Original Oud to the topic creator.

The pure oud oils I've smelled so far had scent profiles that could be described as, for example, woody/smoky, woody/floral, woody/spicy, turpy, camphory, banyard-y, animalic, or the cheap/adulterated stuff can have chemical or leathery smell. I've yet to smell pure oud oil that I would characterize as medicinal and/or bandaid like which is the *oud* note I smell in Montales. I've nothing against these or any other western 'oud' perfumes, some of them I like a lot ( Black oud, Kilian's Pure Oud), although I don't perceive them as 'oud scents' any more. Imho, they mostly give a totally wrong impression of what real agarwood oil smells like. Hence could you please be more specific as to which variety of agarwood oil you're referring to? Thanks!

Luis - if you're looking for a good scent that features real oud note as part of the mixture I recommend getting samples of oil blends sold by companies like Agarscents bazaar (e.g. Prince Bandar), Agaraura (Areej Malaki), Arabian Oud (King Fahed, Ameera) or Ajmal (e.g. Mukhallat Dehn al Oud Moattaq). If you're after quality oud scents, that is.

Some of the indian varieties have a bit of that medicinal smell IMO.

I don't think I've smelt any Indian Oud oil which has a medicinal note in it? Perhaps that's just me ...

phibess-have you smelled Ajmals dehn al oudh shams special edition? it has a pretty good indian oudh note.....but its just a note that dosent evolve like a real oil...still smells pretty good when wearing an indian oud.

just like phibess and Acer and Igor all said....There really is no oudh note in a montale.....dont get me wrong montale makes some pretty good eastern style perfumes...that some give a feel of a real eastern mukhallat.....but I have no idea why they call them aouds. If there is any oud in them theres no trace by nose.

If you want to try an excellent oud oil....agaraura.com is the best place and quality for the price....and one of the only places you can buy single samples....i suggest the cambodhi ateeq and indian spice to start out with....they are both excellent quality ouds.

its starting to aggrivate me that people think theres oud in perfumes like L'artisan. ect ect

think about it....le labo montale l'artisan by kilian all of those western perfumes that say they are ouds...all smell different! like how do you know whats the oud note in them? real oud oils if you have a cambodi oil you know its cambodi not indian. montale has a medicine note...l'artisans smells like powder....le labo smells like merlot wine......royal oud montale smells like a band aid...which one is the oud note? and what region oud is it? bandaid land?

once you get to know real agarwood/oud then you will realize that Montale is an attempt...and a pretty successful attempt...of making western perfume with an eastern twist to it......then once you can accept that...you will realize that all the other companies are trying to copy montales fragrances and success. They arent even being really that creative...I think they all are trying to make some kind of version of black aoud...and all have the name oud in it! ....of course there are some exceptions....like le labo oud27 is some sort of royal oud rip off....but think of all the mediciny rose scents there are by so many different companies! m micallaf bond no 9! ect ect ect ect. all of them arent copying oud...they are all copying montales sucess....and lets face it...the east meets west in perfumes is hot right now! the eastern companies like Ajmal Abdul samad al quarishi and arabian oud are doing the opposite in the eastern part of the world....they are taking classic eastern oils with rose oud saffron amber and making sprays out of them and giving them a western feel! to understand this you have to get into eastern perfumes.....and do your self a favor try a real oud oil....you will love its many faces.

All oud oils are very complex, so what one person is interpreting as a particular note, you may be experiencing very differently.

We never used to call it "oud" it was always called "lignaloes" and the variety we always used in perfumes was from India. These days western perfumery has access to much more in terms of agarwood oils as well as synthetic aroma chemicals that have oud properties that weren't available to most perfumers (in America at least) a few decades ago.

xxxxxxx

you obviously never smelled indian oud. there is no medicine note in any indian oud period....i dont care how anyone percieves it. now if you said it smells like diarea....I would go along with that way before I accepted mediciny in an indian oil as a note. I would even accept throw up, shit, hay, camel dung, but not mediciny anywhere in its composition. unless it was some kind of distillation gone terribly wrong......I smelled a borneo oil where the distiller messed up and it has a gasoline note in it.

I lol'd when I read this,


Hehehe

Lol Dred, relax mate

The only medicinal note I've smelt would be with an Amber oil. It kinda smells like Dettol and I do like it Do you also relise how vague 'medicinal' is? What medicinal note are you referring to? Their are over hundreds of medicinal notes, please be a bit more specific.

That's like me saying, "Well you know it kinda smells like perfume, you know?"

You see how I'm playing it vague here? How many different perfumes exist? Do you see my point here?

what you dont know the perfumy note? after all this time? lol
I have an oud that smells perfumy! lol from ming
yeah I have Ajmal pure amber and it smells really mediciny! I wish I had an oud I could wear with it! but none are mediciny!

Mrcl, I think it's a vocabulary barrier that you are experiencing here. For lack of a better word, you referred to it as 'medicinal'. It isn't easy describing the many facets of Oud.

lol I've just been bombarded with 4 consecutive PM's ... I wonder who they are from *casts a suspicious eye at Dred* hehehe

Regarding the topic, we hereby declare that the bestest Oud in the whole entire world is M7. It is the bestest Oud in the world!

I have indeed smelled Indian Oud. And while I would not call it "medicinal" I can see how someone may perceive it as such.... there is no reason to get so uptight. It's just perfume, not nuclear arms.

LOOOOOOOOL, no wonder I don't like most of the Ajmal mukhallats and ouds, they use mostly indian ouds! LOL again!

hello evry one here

I am from kuwait, i was born there and OUD is part of ower daily lives.
there are different types of oud adn mukkalets.

Mukhallet means MIXTURE or mixed. So this can be oud based or safron or ambergris based.
normally we use allot of Mukkalets and not so mutch pure ouds.

Most montales smells like very traditional Mukkallets we use in Kuwait and the gulf reagon.
If you cant detect the " typical " oud note then that doesnt mean that there is no oud in the Mukkalet.
It all depends on how much of oud oil and the type of oud oil.

Some ouds smell very medicinal and some very rotten and fecal.
mostly the top note in mukkalets make u survive the hard start of the oud notes.

Ajmal shams is a good example.
it starts with some fruity, rosey notes and immediately you can smell the leathery animalic INDIAN oud.
i can understand why some people gets this MEDICINAL sensation about it. Mukkhalet SHAMS is a good example of
oud mukkalet. it is oud based and u get the oud note very quick.

there are also sandelwood and rose mukhallets where the oud note is not so pronounced but is ther to
give it a kick.


Montales:
they are a good and great copy of the traditional mukhalets.
My favorites are golden oud and original oud.
i do get the oud note in bothe but i must say that i understand why some doesnt.
In black oud... i dotn get any oud. Remember, montales makes mukhallets and not pure oud oils.

Original oud is somehow medicinal, gasoline like and sharp oud based perfume.
it is not indian oud but a softer type. this original oud is based on a oud oil that i used to use back then in kuwait.
it was the most common one to get .

i would suggest all to think less about the oud type, origins and how u and the other experience the oud note
and enjoy your senses more and more evry day.

I have a bag of ground Aloeswood powder from India right here that is used in temple incenses.... As soon as I open the bag I get a note that I can definitely see how someone might call "medicinal."

Lol who even uses Oud powder? You gotta use the Oud chips!

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Heres another weird thing I just thought of.....the mediciny note in black aoud and the other montales are in begining...oud is used as a basenote.....theres no way oud would be a top note and rose would be a basenote....it cant happen!

Suppose you create a blend Dred. In this blend you use only 3 ingredients. Oud, Rose and Black Musk. You start with 1 part Rose essence and then add 1 part Black Musk to the top of that and then finally add 1 part Oud oil. Wouldn't that make the rose essence as the basenote in this blend and the Oud oil as the Top note and the Black Musk as the heart note? I'm not sure myself ...

If you compose a fragrance out of base notes you're likely to smell them first, as both the "top", "heart", and "base". So, with the many patchouli and rose combinations, you notice both the patchouli and the rose. Now, add a lot of citrus on top of that and you're likely to smell them first, because they're more volatile, but all notes are on a spectrum, and designations like "top", "heart", and "base" are fairly inexact and relative designations. Vetiver is a base note if ever there was one, but put a drop of vetiver oil on, and you'll be consumed in waves of vetivery sillage in no time at all.

if you mixed them together I am pretty sure the rose naturally comes out first...then the musk would come through then finally the oud in the base.....btw that sounds like a great combo!!!!

back to the original question what oud is the best....i would say thaqeel....but since you probably dont want to spend $3500 for 12ml I would then go with agaraura.com cambodhi ateeq or indian spice....incredible quality for only a couple hundred bucks!

hey igor....you should just copy your post and save it somewhere to paste it again next time this comes up! lol you are the voice of reason.

Oud is such a complex scent that it is hard to say that it is always going to act as a base note. The musk will tend to be in the base, and the rose usually sit in the heart... but the oud can be in all three simultaneously, in my experience anyway. Any sharpness in any of the constituents will tend to be perceived as a top note. So if your oud has any rough edges it will definitely be perceived in the top. Like I was saying elsewhere, oud is such a foreign smell to most western noses, that they will use whatever term they can to wrap their heads around it, and I think the term "medicinal" sometimes gets used even though it's not very accurate.

Would it make a difference if you say put the black musk first, followed by the oud and then finally the rose?

Are you talking about layering a scent on your skin, or blending a scent in a bottle? If you are layering, then you may find a small bit of difference. When you are blending raw materials in a bottle and then diluting them, what you mix in first won't matter. As Galamb_Borong pointed out earlier, as a general rule, the more volatile the fragrance material is the higher the note it will ring in the composition. Citrus for example is more volatile than most floral type chemicals, essential oils and absolutes, which are in turn more volatile than most musk type notes, patchouli, woods, and resins.

I meant as in to blend the essential oils together and without diluting them. Let them be as pure as they are even when applying it to your skin.

Explain the concept of volatility please.

Finding the "best oud" will never be like finding your "best rose" or "best cedar" scent simply because genuine high quality agarwood (from which genuine oud oil is distilled) - or high quality agarwood chips - is getting scarcer as the pristine forests where these trees grow are being cut down to make way for 'progress'. Agarwood "poaching" is an ever increasing problem. Finding a "great oud" is more difficult than finding the "best mysore sandalwood" scent - and mysore sandalwood itself is simply too scarce for the mass markets. There are attempts, as I understand it, to produce agarwood plantations in the hope of developing a way to some day produce high quality agarwood in a sustainable way but so far it has only been with limited success.

Experiencing the "best oud", you have to go via essential oils rather than traditional western perfumery. And you have to be willing to spend $$ on very small amounts. Agar Aura is a good place to start for samples. Oriscent has some very good ones too but is pricier ($199 for a sample pack container 6 samples with 0.3 ml each!).

That said, if you want to stay in the world of traditional (alcohol based) perfumery, let your own nose tell you what you enjoy. Who's to tell you that you can't enjoy Tom Ford's "Oud Wood" or Montale's "Oudh Cuir d' Arabie" or "Black Oudh" etc. It won't be the same "experience" as with oud oils - but that might not be what you're looking for.

Hi
- Cruel Intentions by ByKilian
- M7 by Ysl
- Aoud by Martine Micallef (I love all Martine Micallef' scents with aoud) (Perfaddict I don't know Aoud Homme)
- Aoud Safran and Aoud Cuir D'Arabie by Montale Paris
- Pure Aoud by ByKilian
- Dark Rose by Czech and Speak (old version)
ecc ecc ecc :-)

I bought the Jacques Bogart's scent.....very nice fragrance!!
Thanks Dimitrios!

I like oud, but I've come to realize that when it comes to wearing scents with oud notes, I still prefer mine incorporated into the French style over the Eastern style. The Montales are interesting and fun to wear on occasion, but they are a bit loud and complicated until they dry out.

For me, the Habit Rouge Eau de Parfum has the best of everything. It's not an oud powerhouse, but the oud note is very well integrated and gives a fantastic depth and mysterious vibe to the composition. It takes the Habit Rouge signature and cranks it up to the next level. I like spraying this twice to my chest and then pulling my shirt collar over my nose to inhale it-- very rich, leathery, smooth and resinous. The oud isn't the star of the show, but it makes everything else sharper and more focused.

I'm going to have to get on to this one!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the CSP oud scents. I've tried all 4 of them and they aren't bad. Of course nothing beats pure oud oil.
Heres a link to the CSP scents

http://www.comptoir-sud-pacifique.co...he-orient.html

This is hard to find in the U.S. but try to sample Habit Rouge eau de parfum. The agarwood is a nice addition from the EDT.

My favorite agarwood scents are:

M7 - my first agarwood commercial, to me it smells sirupy, medicinal, woody at the same time.
Black Aoud - a dry, woody agarwood with a incense resinous aura matched with rose and saffron
Midnight Oud Juliette has a gun - a easier to wear version of black aoud
White Aoud - a creamy musk aoud that, while soft, stays all day on skin
Red Aoud - a spicy, dry fruity aoud. I find this one sexy.
Oud Vanille Micallef - this one is cozy gourmand fragrance. This isn`t vanillaish or agarwoodish, is a perfect blend from the creamy gourmand vanilla and the woody spicy oud.
Aoud Gourmet Micallef - a saffronish oud that gets gourmand creamy and incensy when it develops on skin. I detect something grapeish on it that i don`t know which note gives this impression

The best Oud fragance with alcohol
is NIPPON KODO KYARA EDP AND JINKOH EDP ,
KYARA EDP is almost Vietnamese Kyara smell
Jinkoh is between Indonesian and woody-patchouli-incense scent.

Oud is not noticiable smell in others fragances like Montale , LArtisan , LE LABO ...

If you're looking for something as easy to find as M7, Dirty English definitely has an "aoud" note--the same note I smell in M7. It's possible they're both synthetic, though.

For me, the straight Aoud is just way too intense. And yes, complex......

Also, regarding the comments about Aoud plantations or farming...Aoud is not merely a kind of tree. It's actually a specific kind of tree that has been "infected" by a certain type of fungus.

I've not smelled the Nippon Kodo scents--but would love to...the Japanese incense tradition is my favorite aoud (Aloeswood) smell, in all it's varieties.

Would like to know the best Oud based fragances on the market right now. Can you give us a list? Thank you!

Same here.

"Best" is highly subjective and will vary from individual to individual depending on their preferences, experiences and even the situations in which they've tried certain frags, so it's a given that you will get very different replies from different people. Also, you may want to clarify whether you're asking about the best pure ouds or best oud-based fragrances (most of which have nothing to do with oud but are marketed as such anyway).

For whatever it's worth - here's some of my "personal best" pure single-source ouds (only those that are still available today and in no particular order):

Borneo:

Oriscent's Borneo 3000
Oriscent's Borneo Kinam

Burma/China:

Oriscent's Kyara Koutan
Oriscent's Royal Kinam

Cambodia:

Abdul Samad Al Qurashi's Thaqeel (old stock, not the new one; also - buyer beware - Zahra's is the only web-based seller of this oil, some buyers had issues with their orders. I got mine directly from Saudi Arabia through a good friend.)
Oudimentary's KSSS (I have the original batch from a few years ago, the new one is reportedly different and inferior)

India:

Abdul Samad Al Qurashi's Kalakassi (same seller and same caveat as Thaqeel above)
AgarAura's Purana
Oriscent's Nuh

There are many others, some superior to the ones listed above but not available for purchase anymore.

If you were asking about so called "oud fragrances", my apologies, I probably won't be much help in recommending any since I don't smell any oud in them and can't recommend spending so much (hundreds of dollars in many cases) on weak, watered down synthetic fragrances when breathtakingly complex and beautiful oils like Kyara Koutan or Borneo 3000 can be had for just a hundred or a bit more for 0.5ML. Half a milliliter may not sound like much but it will last you many many many applications and will give you an experience that no pseudo-oud can ever even hope to approximate, no matter how evocative the name is and how luxurious a wooden box housing the bottle looks

Any more suggestions? =)

Are you already done with sampling everything recommended earlier?

I've come across a frag that is actually not a bad rendition of a certain aspect of the oud smoke - Agallocha Muthhela Man. This one is a very different rendition from the usual bandaid-like synthetic pseudo-oud we've know and love [hate], instead of trying to (and failing miserably, like all others) to imitate oud oil it's aiming at reproducing the smell of smoking oud wood and the result is not half-bad. The first 40 minutes or so are great, even if it does recede into the usual synthetic woody type of "oudiness" after that. If I had to wear one synthetic oud, I'd go with this one.