Next project, Oud perfume

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Hi AbdesSalaam,

I'm glad to hear that you are working on your next great project. I've smelled a few samples of Oud from Enfleurage but not from Oriscent as I was unsure how pure or authentic these actually were (I'm very skeptical about sources that claim to have authentic product until someone with real experience tells me otherwise).

From an Oud perfume I would expect just that... OUD. Give me all the sweet, woody, musky, and dense wet forest aspects of it and I'm happy. Much luck on your journey to make the ultimate Oud fragrance. I have no doubt you'll succeed.

Hi Dominique,
I have now tried a handful of Oud perfumes and what I find is a huge range. My favourite is one called Borneo. It is (to me) the most complex, changing all day long as you wear it, and lasting for a long long time. Next, I like one that someone sent me called "Oud Al Qasr Mukhallet" which is also very complex and delightful. Then comes one from Cambodia that is also pretty good. Finally, the ones called Assam or Hindi I find to be very "barnyard" and this barnyard smell stays for the whole time. You wish it would dissipate and yield something nicer but it does not. I find when I use a very tiny amount of the better ouds in my perfume mixes it really gives them a terrific boost, and also makes them last a lot longer. In the end, the only thing left is the oud and it's a nice ending.

I'm very excited to see what you do with Oud Dominique, and also what can we do to help?

BTW: recently I wore a bit of your Grezzo d Eleganza and REALLY enjoyed it. It was for a business meeting and made me feel great and perform great all day.

Oud is definitely a most fascinating topic. There seem to be so very many variations and preferences. In as far as my very limited experience with Oud will let me comment, I would like to see an ultimate Oud perfume that incorporated the forceful and rich aspects of Oud with a gentle aspect, a feminine side to balance the man part. Like the balance of nature. That may be why rose is a classic partner. Maybe with the air of the place it comes from incorporated, so that the perfume evokes not just the Oud, but it's own environment and the people too, all in one smell. Now that would be a tall order.

I had an attempt at an Oud-ish oil last year using various naturals. I arrived at a 'sort of' version, but it is difficult to know how it compares, as the only real agarwood I have is extremely barnyardy, and yes, it is Indian. I have two of the montale oud perfumes.

There are many on this forum who specialise in Ouds, and there would be the place to ask this question if you haven't already. There will be no shortage of opinions I'm sure.

I'm going to get my very stinky Oud and smell it with my rather beautiful tuberose abs and see what that smells like.

I didn't realise the Oud was worn by the women as well. That is a revelation to me. I only have Amouage Gold which I suppose is meant for that league, the ingredients of that are very opulent and rich but surprisingly subtle, like a veil of scent. The idea of the dance of the seven veils may be nice. Seven layers of mystery.

Hiya Dominique

One of my favourite oud perfumes from the past few years has been Mona di Orio's "OUD". It's quite gentle and unexpected for an "oud", yet utterly gorgeous, I found. I especially loved the fact that she DIDN'T go the more traditional route of pairing the Oud with a heavy rose, as is most usually done. (Which though probably the traditional pairing, I just find far too overdone already, and totally unoriginal, to say the least !) ... Mona went with the inspired direction of pairing the Oud with Osmanthus instead, and it worked beautifully. ~ Which leads me to believe that yes, I totally agree with you, I too think that pairing it with Tuberose is a good choice. (I think it would indeed sweeten and enrich the Oud beautifully !)
Regardless of what I'd personally want from an Oud fragrance, (which would be a scent which would smell like one's standing amidst an ancient Aquillaria forest ;o) I think the most important direction to take with your own Oud, due to the fact that the market has quickly become saturated with them and the public are starting to also become jaded with oud frags. I think therefore an element of surprise is really important. So I think something unusual and even quirky or odd, something unexpected, might be the best way forward. ~ (Personally, I'd try find some unusual plant/flower that has either been forgotten or not often (if ever !?) worked with and try incorporate that element too. With so many unusual and never before seen natural extractions entering the market these past years, I'm pretty sure you could find something that is not often (if ever) been used in perfumery before. To help add some added intrigue & interest to the composition. ...
Apart from that, just to highlight the Oud you already have to it's best/most-beautiful degree, would be quite enough. With these elements I'm sure you will have a winner ! ... (I mean just the fact that you will be working with genuine authentic Oud, is already miles ahead of the competition ! ;o)
~ But overall, I think it should smell rich, deep and "ancient".

Dear Salaam, I agree with Sybarite. Add something unusial. I prefer a flower (sorry, but oud suits perfect for women). What do You think about black violet ore orchide? It can be some smell of arabic misterium named something like Black Cristal ore Abyss.
BTW I remembered that I met in exhibition 1 year ago some interesting company www.asiaforestry.biz. I lot of arabian customers visited their stand. They had Cambogian and Tailandian plantation of oud.

Light smoke notes will be nice accord.

I love the idea of exhalting the 'ancient'. It could evoke the mysterious aspects and the spiritual aspects of some deity wearing oud. Maybe to capture a mere breath beside it and within it.... of the persons wearing it, their warm body and skin, the hot and humid air that they breath, the rustle of silk or damask, the leather of their shoes, the spice in their food, the incense burning on the table, the rare fruits in the bowl, the wafting of the forest through the window, the flowers in the beautiful garden, not any one, but the sum of them on the air..... somehow capturing the voluptuousness of luxury....

I also agree with the others. "Ancient" is an excellent word to describe what an ultimate Oud should smell like. After all, if I'm not mistaken, the best Oud is found in the wild where the trees have been saturated with the resin for 60 or more years.

"Ancient" sounds to me like entering a temple in Arabia or India where Oud, among other woods and resins, are burned on a daily bases and the walls are saturated with the scent. Sounds enticing and holy.

Well, what I am imagining is that you will make the oud more "alive", probably with some subliminal doses of your animal essences. Ambergris comes to mind for me. And I know from dipping in and out of the huge oud thread on here that a lot of oud lovers also love ambergris.

Oud alone by itself is already far supreme to be contested by any other fragrances.
I wonder why should dehnal oud which is so pure and very delicate to produce need to undergo a inferior process to downgrade the Oud to a perfume class

Oud...that magical elixir. I have been a Oud enthusiast for a while now and I am glad that you have decided to take it on. I have recently tried a Bengali Oud oil from Agaraura and it is fantastic. It has all the Indian hearty notes and non of the fecal/barnyard notes associated with Indian Ouds. I have a few of Oriscent oils (currently named Ensar ouds) from Borneo Kinam to Oud Nuh. They are all fantastic that it is quite difficult to think of anything to add to them. I think it is a difficult challenge to come up with something new that has not been tried before. What with all the big Arabian Oud houses that have mixed oud with everything on this planet from Roses, Frankincense, saffron, mus and amber to name a few. Personally, I have been toying with layering where I would put on first say patchouli EO and when it dries down I would add a drop of Oud. I have also tried it with Grapfruit E.O. and it was fantastic (it made the oil like a Borneo Oil with fruity notes).
The thing that I have been searching for and have not found is a oud mix that smells like a fine Japanese Aloeswood or Kyara incense sticks. (mix of cloves, cinnamon and star anise to name a few ingredients). The main aim should be for the additional ingredients to showcase the oud oil , to envelop it in a lush kuftan (Arabic garment) as opposed to conquering it. I am looking forward to your next step.

Just to add my 2 cent worth as I am not that familiar with oud perfumes. I got this agarwood from Mandy's store and I combine it in 1:1 ration with bulgarian rose eo. The scent profile is astonishing as it resemble fresh woody berries. But then the agarwood that mandy have is very unique as it is quite light, smoky and woody whereas the oud that i got from malaysia is dark smoke with intense woodiness. To be honest as a chinese, we tend to prefer lighter scent profile. Maybe a lighter flying floral combining oud and musk maybe an idea.

Sandi

I'm afraid I'm someone who has never found an oud that I enjoyed. It seems to be an acquired taste (like any scent, I suppose). l"Artisan has one call Al Oudh which is the closest to something I would find wearable. I once spent an hour in the Arabian Oud store on the Champs-Elysee, sampling almost everything oud oil they had (the most expensive ones were astoundingly pricey -- $1000 for 25ml or something like that) and found all of them disagreeable -- bitter, tarry, with notes of car exhaust and unwashed feet. I am perfectly willing -- indeed eager -- to believe that this is just my own experience, though. If anyone can make an oud that I will appreciate, it is you. Looking forward to it.

To all: so sorry for the (6? 7?) repeat posts. Basenotes' board is acting funky today. It should be fixed by now.

Cheers,

Jim

@Jim: I would have to say up to date I have not found any western perfume that purport to be Oud to come anything close to the real thing. Everyone from Montal, tom Ford, Creed to Mona di Orio's tries but in my opinion misses the mark. Amouage is a bit more successful with certain offerings more than others. As a matter of fact most of them do NOT have any REAL oud but rather the Synthetic version of it or the cheaper version (Boya). Oud Oils from Arabian Oud is not highly regarded among Oud experts as opposed to say ASAQ (Abed Al Samad Al Quraishi) higher oils or Oriscent, Agaraura or Oudimentary. If you are turned off by the fecal/barnyard notes found in the Hindi ouds or the burned rubber scents in the Irian variety you should try Borneo ouds which usually appeals more to western pallet with it's light fruity notes. The other thing to note about Oud is that unlike the western perfumes Ouds morphs and transforms with time and as it dries down the off notes disappear and you are left with other notes that were not obvious earlier on. and finally if only my sweaty feet can smell like oud I'll be a king :-)
you should look into this site. It provides helpful information for beginners about oud oils: http://modelnews.com/models/1765
@Profumo: is people's predisposition towards lighter or heavier scents is dictated genetically or is it merely environmental like the location and traditions where one grew up?

Great summary by Masstika. Just to add my two cents: Cambodian Ouds are also quite friendly to the Western palette, and I find their scent profile to be a nice balance between the heavy barnyard of Indian Oud and the light sweetness of Borneo. Cambodi Oud is right in the middle!

The Bengali Oud from AgarAura is quite nice. It would be a nice Oud in any Mukhallat, and it works nicely in AgarAura's Al-Arabiya Mukhallat. Looking forward to seeing what comes of this perfume. I personally have been curious about combining a heavier Oud with floral oils.

I tried an oud-based perfume this summer and it ended up pretty nice for an amateur. Here's what I did for my friend Quentin. Numbers are drops, and most of the raw material is from profumo.it from his didactical kit. The frankincense I made myself from pure Somalian frankincense resin nuggets sent to me by KORI on basenotes, which I steam distilled in my own kitchen laboratory. It is gorgeous. The Cambodian oud was sent to me from "Organic1" on basenotes. The thing about this perfume, is that even with one very tiny drop of oud (which unlike the rest was undiluted) this perfume, after a few hours is almost all oud. Much of the other stuff evaporates, and in the end you are left simply with the complexity of the oud which continues to evolve for hours and hours, and can even still be there the next day. This will be the interesting challenge for profumo, since to me, oud is much longer lasting than almost anything else I have encountered, and if it is good quality, it keeps on giving and giving. I'm curious to see how Profumo handles this.

Quentin #1 aka Quoud
---------------
Bergamot6
Lime2
Grapefruit3
Fire Tree5
Geranium2
Patchouli3
Cambodian Oud1 tiny drop from vial
Frankincense (hm)8 drops
Himalayan Cedar5

@Masstika: Many thanks for the information, and for the reference. It sounds like oud is an entire body of knowledge unto itself; and some of my favorite scents -- costus, for example -- were disagreeable to me at first. Looking forward to investigating oud (if I can afford it...).

I agree with masstika:Creed and Mona di Orio are two "near misses" on Oudh department.I find Oud from Mona a beautiful parfum,but it's too light weight on Oudh and more a floral composition.Both Creed and Mona perfumes,are too much civilized for my taste.
I have smelled only one real Oudh,the Hindi type who is IMHO really gorgeous.I have also a small knowledge about synthetics Agrwoods,and they are the stars (and bars) in many oriental fragrances like "Saif al Hind" by Ajmal (a very "bold" perfume and the more expensive in the line) or Al Haramain,or the French brand Montale:I have smelled and tried those syntetics on U.A.E and some of them are really interestings,but no one is complex or interesting or good as the single real thing I've smelled.
The first thing that comes to mind is the smell of valerian (the smell of dirty feet) or the smell of a very expensive cheese, mixed with camphor and tobacco ;later I also seems to feel leather. I'm sorry but I can not describe it any better than that.
Real Oudh smell dirty,rich and in the same time brings out several notes:it is definitvely a hate or love smell.
There are enough Oudh fragrances on the market, but none of them makes the peculiarity of the original:I do not agree with those who say that the perfect Oudh fragrance should include floral notes; I dnt want another "mona",I would like to have something new and different.
I want to hear the roar of the beast.

I think you are right Profumo.I believe that in theory, for what I paid for it, it might be the real thing (190 x 6ml. oil) , but what you've written leaves little room for doubt.

Saif Al Hind by Ajmal was another interesting fragrance,but in that case the seller assured me it was a synthetic:the smell was that of a very old leather shoe full of balsamic vinegar.
However, I regretted not taking even that scent.

Unfortunately I do not know the third version of Oud Caravan, I'm at the second version of TPC. I have high expectations for it. I wanted to be present in recent days to follow the good news, it was not possible for me but I'm only here now... I was away but my heart was with you.
Oud Caravan Triumphs, and this is : Thumbsup: Nice.

Quick impression...

Sampling La Via del Profumo Oud Caravan #1, the heaviest Oud of the set. Fabulously fecal turning to smoked vegetal not unlike vetiver!

Will write more later...

Peace to you and thank you for your kind and wise words. You are better than me; I refrained myself from replying until I saw that the same comment have been posted on the Oud thread as well.
Thank you for keeping this space peaceful, welcoming and informative to all of us who love natural perfumes and Essential oils.