first off:
A class website, communication with Adam, shipment experience, etc. really fantastic.
part 1 cause i have more samples from EO than other suppliers and putting all of them in 1 thread would be too long but also some of the notes i have are just very casual ones that i like to go back.
surirankah senkoh:
my first full vial purchase and boy am i glad i pulled the trigger. Deep hole left in the wallet but frankly of all the oil samples i have, SS is right there on the top 2-3. Port Moresby would have been another one had it been available or if the price would have made it work for this mere mortal. AA's Kalyani is 3rd tied with ASO ruba'ie.
TN: Jesus. This has got to be the most ethereal, lithe (not light), finessed, airy oud i have ever smelled. is like the bluest of blue skies with summer sunshine radiating thru it. sooooo elegant, so finessed. leaves one speechless. the best part? is not all the high notes that makes one smile ear to ear but the depth and that marvelous dry down. i wish i had a liter of this oil. i wana ingest it, rub it all over, take baths with it or otherwise just excessively and hedonistically wear it all over. it literally makes me salivate when i smell this oil. bravo maestro. bravo.
final thoughts: fellow newbie friends with ZERO oudh experience didn't even find SS as an oud. they just didn't know what it is. out of the vial of course. on dry down there is no mistaking the oud origin. i personally feel the result is not only superb wood material but radically different technique at work. experience will tell me more. for now i very much love what i see.
oud duhl Q:
TN: Ensar's notes himself really capture my own experience. This is ultra high quality heavy resinated agarwood dominant note, japanese incense bruning captured in liquid form. smoky but not burnt. woody but not raw. savoury/umami with no funk. just lovely lovely stuff.
as awesome as it is, this is not a scent i like to wear. only one that i like to meditate with and smell from the vial.
final thoughts: i think based on just how unique this oil is (out of my 60 some samples across 7-8 distillers), there is definitely a unique technique involved. i dont know any better for now but i like to think the wood chips were somehow somehwat treated. heated first? torched briefly? or perhaps is just the temp curves of the distilation... eitherway, if the challenge was to capture the essence of japanese incense or soradaki in an oil, Ensar has done just that. bravo.
Hainan 2005:
TN: Chinese oil with not only the most finesse i have seen to date but one that is perhaps the most well-rounded. bitter notes without going ginseng or otherwise leave one stuck in a Chinese herbal dispensary. animal but not funky, more like musk and ambergris. sweet notes but not in way of kambodi, borneo, thai. zesty but not citrusy. speaking of zest, is more like orange or Seville orange zest not lime or lemon. lastly i get the same mind bending hard to put in words bitter note i found in both port moresby and kinam rouge. i guess without really knowing what i am saying: is this flashes of kinam itself? it sure reminds me of the scent of kinam/kyara in incense (like kyara koh ko, translucent path, tenchi, seiran...) or mon-koh (yamadamatsu's kyara from their rikkoku set and a tiny sample i got from Tony Bolton).
final thoughts: i was pretty sure in my head that there must have been few species of aquilaria grow in Hainan and that this oil contains chips across different species. but as per Adam at EO, nope. is just Sinesis. boy i love to find out more on how EO managed this oil with sinesis. is similar yet so different than the other sinesis oils by either EO or other artisans.
oud yusuf:
TN: i admit, my first try of this oil had me perplexed and confused. is this even oud? fruit leather juice? I didnt know what to make of it. it was a very foreign scent for a guy only experienced with bakhoors, cambodi chips and hindi oil and chips.
But wow what a difference couple of weeks make. Yusuf is now my to go daily oud. it is my summer scent. fresh, crisp, hints of green but not vetiver or camphor green, but more like green mango, frosted mint candy kinda green. it is fruity (across the spectrum of fresh, dried and cooked). it is a touch citrus rind (buddha's hand, key lime), fresh and barely ripe papaya, mango again and passionfruit (i am in Hawaii if someone needs to get hold of me). Beautiful terpenes at work here. Then comes the hoppy almost west coast IPA beer notes thnx to those cascade and centennial hops. This is an outward oud. a finessed and elegant oud compared to many rustic ones out there. it is respectfully complex in a given moment (horizontal complexity) but less so in terms of evolution complexity (vertical complexity). the evolution on the skin is nowhere as complex as some of the wild harvests and aged oils, but so what. not every scent has to be intellectual. this one is hedonistic. so what if it doesn't grab you by the collar and grab you in deep to a vortex ending in a black hole. i love yusuf for its straightforward and deliciousness and purchased a full vial shortly after my sample.
final thoughts: i strongly recommend to those new to oud or those who like me were only really ever experienced in "mid east" oud scents. sweet, animal, over the top powerful...
oud zachariyya:
TN: if you want to wow someone new or newish to the world of artisanal oud oils, look no further. one whiff of zachariyya and you know this is no entry or even intermediate level oil. this stuff is intellectual and demands sitting with it and giving it your full attention. it begs you to watch its evolution as it changes forms and new notes come to the foreground and existing ones go to the back burner to poke their head out here and there. zachariyya stops one in their tracks and grabs their full attention. old worn out horse saddle (aged leather and horse sweat notes) -no livestock, goat, sheep notes here. none. no hint of hindi or laos.- then comes notes of top soil, aged mellowed balsam notes and deep dark subdued mix spices, aged tobacco (not hookah or pipe tobacco but cigar). at the moment (end of summer as i am writing this note) i don't like to wear this oil on me during the day or even before bed time, but i do like to meditate with it in the evening. i think when i go to our cabin or when winter comes this will be the scent i will be drawn to more and more...
update: a month or so has gone by since my note written above and fall has shown itself here on the pacific NW, but i am yet not ready for this oil. somehow the horse sweat like notes are a bit more than i recalled. i love thsi like duhl Q for meditating and smelling from vial or put on skin but then wash after an hour or so (i feel guilty and dont mean any disrespect. the quality is evident. the compleixty is there. is just not what i like to have on me for long periods of time).
i am gravitating more toward oils like AA harita/kalyani, ASO: ceen, bustan, IO: SP, and EO: SS, hainan and JSL...
stay tuned in for more EO notes of oils i have had for over a month and a whack more AA oils, IO, Tony Bolton,... are coming next month.
peace and love to all. so much beauty and such depth of complexities in this passion hobby of ours. here is to more civil conversations, more tolerance, more love and less of the insincere that lives in all of us.
A class website, communication with Adam, shipment experience, etc. really fantastic.
part 1 cause i have more samples from EO than other suppliers and putting all of them in 1 thread would be too long but also some of the notes i have are just very casual ones that i like to go back.
surirankah senkoh:
my first full vial purchase and boy am i glad i pulled the trigger. Deep hole left in the wallet but frankly of all the oil samples i have, SS is right there on the top 2-3. Port Moresby would have been another one had it been available or if the price would have made it work for this mere mortal. AA's Kalyani is 3rd tied with ASO ruba'ie.
TN: Jesus. This has got to be the most ethereal, lithe (not light), finessed, airy oud i have ever smelled. is like the bluest of blue skies with summer sunshine radiating thru it. sooooo elegant, so finessed. leaves one speechless. the best part? is not all the high notes that makes one smile ear to ear but the depth and that marvelous dry down. i wish i had a liter of this oil. i wana ingest it, rub it all over, take baths with it or otherwise just excessively and hedonistically wear it all over. it literally makes me salivate when i smell this oil. bravo maestro. bravo.
final thoughts: fellow newbie friends with ZERO oudh experience didn't even find SS as an oud. they just didn't know what it is. out of the vial of course. on dry down there is no mistaking the oud origin. i personally feel the result is not only superb wood material but radically different technique at work. experience will tell me more. for now i very much love what i see.
oud duhl Q:
TN: Ensar's notes himself really capture my own experience. This is ultra high quality heavy resinated agarwood dominant note, japanese incense bruning captured in liquid form. smoky but not burnt. woody but not raw. savoury/umami with no funk. just lovely lovely stuff.
as awesome as it is, this is not a scent i like to wear. only one that i like to meditate with and smell from the vial.
final thoughts: i think based on just how unique this oil is (out of my 60 some samples across 7-8 distillers), there is definitely a unique technique involved. i dont know any better for now but i like to think the wood chips were somehow somehwat treated. heated first? torched briefly? or perhaps is just the temp curves of the distilation... eitherway, if the challenge was to capture the essence of japanese incense or soradaki in an oil, Ensar has done just that. bravo.
Hainan 2005:
TN: Chinese oil with not only the most finesse i have seen to date but one that is perhaps the most well-rounded. bitter notes without going ginseng or otherwise leave one stuck in a Chinese herbal dispensary. animal but not funky, more like musk and ambergris. sweet notes but not in way of kambodi, borneo, thai. zesty but not citrusy. speaking of zest, is more like orange or Seville orange zest not lime or lemon. lastly i get the same mind bending hard to put in words bitter note i found in both port moresby and kinam rouge. i guess without really knowing what i am saying: is this flashes of kinam itself? it sure reminds me of the scent of kinam/kyara in incense (like kyara koh ko, translucent path, tenchi, seiran...) or mon-koh (yamadamatsu's kyara from their rikkoku set and a tiny sample i got from Tony Bolton).
final thoughts: i was pretty sure in my head that there must have been few species of aquilaria grow in Hainan and that this oil contains chips across different species. but as per Adam at EO, nope. is just Sinesis. boy i love to find out more on how EO managed this oil with sinesis. is similar yet so different than the other sinesis oils by either EO or other artisans.
oud yusuf:
TN: i admit, my first try of this oil had me perplexed and confused. is this even oud? fruit leather juice? I didnt know what to make of it. it was a very foreign scent for a guy only experienced with bakhoors, cambodi chips and hindi oil and chips.
But wow what a difference couple of weeks make. Yusuf is now my to go daily oud. it is my summer scent. fresh, crisp, hints of green but not vetiver or camphor green, but more like green mango, frosted mint candy kinda green. it is fruity (across the spectrum of fresh, dried and cooked). it is a touch citrus rind (buddha's hand, key lime), fresh and barely ripe papaya, mango again and passionfruit (i am in Hawaii if someone needs to get hold of me). Beautiful terpenes at work here. Then comes the hoppy almost west coast IPA beer notes thnx to those cascade and centennial hops. This is an outward oud. a finessed and elegant oud compared to many rustic ones out there. it is respectfully complex in a given moment (horizontal complexity) but less so in terms of evolution complexity (vertical complexity). the evolution on the skin is nowhere as complex as some of the wild harvests and aged oils, but so what. not every scent has to be intellectual. this one is hedonistic. so what if it doesn't grab you by the collar and grab you in deep to a vortex ending in a black hole. i love yusuf for its straightforward and deliciousness and purchased a full vial shortly after my sample.
final thoughts: i strongly recommend to those new to oud or those who like me were only really ever experienced in "mid east" oud scents. sweet, animal, over the top powerful...
oud zachariyya:
TN: if you want to wow someone new or newish to the world of artisanal oud oils, look no further. one whiff of zachariyya and you know this is no entry or even intermediate level oil. this stuff is intellectual and demands sitting with it and giving it your full attention. it begs you to watch its evolution as it changes forms and new notes come to the foreground and existing ones go to the back burner to poke their head out here and there. zachariyya stops one in their tracks and grabs their full attention. old worn out horse saddle (aged leather and horse sweat notes) -no livestock, goat, sheep notes here. none. no hint of hindi or laos.- then comes notes of top soil, aged mellowed balsam notes and deep dark subdued mix spices, aged tobacco (not hookah or pipe tobacco but cigar). at the moment (end of summer as i am writing this note) i don't like to wear this oil on me during the day or even before bed time, but i do like to meditate with it in the evening. i think when i go to our cabin or when winter comes this will be the scent i will be drawn to more and more...
update: a month or so has gone by since my note written above and fall has shown itself here on the pacific NW, but i am yet not ready for this oil. somehow the horse sweat like notes are a bit more than i recalled. i love thsi like duhl Q for meditating and smelling from vial or put on skin but then wash after an hour or so (i feel guilty and dont mean any disrespect. the quality is evident. the compleixty is there. is just not what i like to have on me for long periods of time).
i am gravitating more toward oils like AA harita/kalyani, ASO: ceen, bustan, IO: SP, and EO: SS, hainan and JSL...
stay tuned in for more EO notes of oils i have had for over a month and a whack more AA oils, IO, Tony Bolton,... are coming next month.
peace and love to all. so much beauty and such depth of complexities in this passion hobby of ours. here is to more civil conversations, more tolerance, more love and less of the insincere that lives in all of us.
