A recap of my journey in oud. First 6 months

Rasoul S

Well-Known Member
#1
To all fellow Oud lovers

Below was penned by me in early January. Thought I share my journey with you all.

Kick back, swipe your favorite oil, light an incense or put a chunk of Gaharu on the burner and hopefully you enjoy below.

Background:
Growing up in Iran (fun fact: in Farsi all incense are simply called oud) but travelling to Dubai regularly, I knew oud since I was a young child but I mostly experienced it through incense, bakhoor and super thick sweet and animal Mukhalat, Hindi and Cambodi oils via the Arabic bazars and later through the bigger houses like Ajmal, Asaq, etc. It was a very aggressive and overpowering note for me missing subtlety, missing nuance and missing finesse. What ruined oud for me in my first 30 some years on earth is the scent of oud and rose (I have serious aversion to rose) mixed together, or oud and foot odor mixed together at school prayer room, etc.

During my synthetic scent days I would wear: issey miyake, acqua di gio, creed erolfa, Thierry mugler angel innocent (much lighter and fresher angel scent), aqua di parma bergamota, eccentric molecule 1 and 2, ck one. So as you can see: airier, citrusy (bergamot mostly), clean, fresh, slightly sweet scents. Nothing very woody, spicy, rose or musk. Ambergris I loved since day one.

Re-Introduction:
My interest in Oud got picked up again after watching “scent from heaven” and simultaneously at the time I was tinkering with the idea of starting a hobby of natural perfumery (as a result of developing migraines and nausea to many synthetics. E.g despite absolutely loving the scent, exposure to ambroxan each and every time would give me nasty head aches and make me nauseous.)

As I tend to do things, I cant be satisfied by scratching the surface, so I went both feet plunge on the deep end. Like a maniac, I went on an absolutely absurd and crazy rampage of oil and wood purchases (thank goodness for slowing down otherwise me and my oils needed to find a shed on the streets to sleep in). As if I was trying to catch up for years gone without oud. As if I have no other responsibilities. As if I am told Armageddon is hitting earth in a few years, so why do I need savings… Some 100+ oils (most are sample size) and about the same number of agarwood pieces and incense sticks from different origins, vendors and quality levels. I wasn't concerned with spending money on something I wont like, because my whole purpose was to objectively (as much as possible) study them now and watch their aging/evolution in future. If I didn't like one now, I would be ok with it as I may like it later or otherwise I can keep it for next generation or otherwise use it in blends, attars, etc.

I didn't give up on Hindi or Chinese oils (for now) after 1 or 2 or 3 or 5 oil purchases. I continued to go to 10+ samples from vastly different price points and vendors, as to not risk the chance of generalizing and dismissing an entire genre based on a small sample size.

Since late summer of 2017 I have spent at least 2-3 hours and on many instances 8-10 or more hours each and every day reading, researching, studying and one way or another spending time with oud in many of its forms: resin, wood, oil, spent matter, incense (pressed vs. stick), cone. Heat wood via Ceramic vs. charcoal vs. buried in ash vs. subitism heater. Burn, low heat, in between… as for the oils from $100 to many thousand dollar oils. From Ensar to Joe blow. From old to young; king of barn or mild barn to no barn. From wild and rare agarwood from places like malinau or various kinam/kyara pieces or Philippines to generic plantations…

Below is my in-depth journey, chronicling what I have learned to date. I will touch on oils I fell in love with at first encounter but ones that I don't care for now, to oils that I loved and still love, to ones that I didn't care for but they are growing on me… I will touch on my daily habits and how oud has carved an important place in my daily life and rituals.

Why I love Oud/Agarwood:

· First and foremost the journey itself. The foray into a very complex subject that requires years if not decades to master –if one can even ever actually get there.

· The psychoactive aspect. The fact that oud is not just a great scent. Some oud help with a serious energy boost and others help with meditation while some are terrific sleep aids.

· Its natural origins and appreciating the artisanal work going behind the scenes.

· The rich and diverse history of many different cultures and their interactions with it.

· The mind boggling horizontal and vertical complexity that oud can posses as one single substance as if it was a layered man made perfume. Nature always does it best, doesn't it?

· The ritual of preparing kodo and heating of agarwood.

Daily habits:
Oud for me remains mostly something I use in below contexts:

1) wearing before vigorous exercise

2) wearing before yoga/meditation practice

3) playing games by blind sampling and using deduction to derive at the origin and grade of the oud

4) sleep aid

5) socializing by gathering friends around the burner/heater and swiping along

I tend to wear 2-3 ouds almost daily: morning, afternoon/evening (before exercise) and bed time. Some days I skip morning, some days stick to same oil thru out the day, sometimes but rarely skip before bed. But I also have a 4th encounter on some days (more so in the first 4-5 months and lesser now): pulling some 10-15 samples or bottles blind and sniffing my way to its origin.

Where do I wear oil and how much?

I like the back of my left wrist where a watch would go (I don't wear any). Sometimes dots (from bigger applicators), sometimes a small swipe and other times I like laying it thick. Latter is for when I want to get some on my sleeve (which by the way I love for its longevity but also how the scent opens up and almost becomes more elegant. I have noticed difference in the scent of oud when it marries cotton vs wool. Both are unique and I encourage everyone to try it).

In some rare instances I wear under my chin or better yet on my upper lip. Only very subtle and quiet oils or very kinamic oils end up there. Think agar aura kenmei, special K batches, think ensar: kinam rouge, sultan ahmet, but not purple kinam as it's a powerful beast.

in other instances mostly with the filaria oils or chinese or super potent hindi, the back of my knee. So when I am seated and cross legs I get a gentle whiff. Or when seated and I get up I get a subtle hit.

OILS:
I came with an open mind. I tried to keep the open mind. Many of the oils I wish I wouldn't grow to love I have (b/c of their high price point) and others I wish I would learn to love I still haven’t (b/c they truly are complex and very layered or very well priced, but sadly oud is to satisfy both the heart and the mind and these latter groups of oils would only please the mind).

Stylistically while I still consider myself having a wide range of tastes and can find joy and appreciation in most oils, If forced to describe (generalize) my aesthetic in past 6 months (b/c tastes change. Perhaps less so and slower as we get older but still not definitive) I would say:

My taste in general (but refuse to be boxed in within it): I love the style of oud juiced by Agar Aura in his gen 3 and gen 4 oils. Not all but most. I love Ensar senkoh and sultan series oils. I very much like many of imperial oud offerings but mostly their malay kambodi and of course sri lankans. I like a few of al shareef oils like layth, bustan, rubai’e. While I have a bunch of oils from agarwood assam, house of misk, tony Bolton, etc. etc. I don't really find any of these oils grab my attention and talk to me the way the former oils do. At least not yet…

Oils I loved at first sight and still do:
· New guinea gyrinops: many of ensar co-distills for sultan oils but also the likes of green Papua and port moresbey

· Brunei: sultan ahmet, kekasihku

· Vietnamese oils like kenmei, kiyosumi, wanmei, special K, royal guallam, kinam rouge (not the animalic, assamese style ones)

· Borneo but specially malinau: borneo 50k, royal malinau but also oils like borneo diesel and kinamantan

· Cambodi ,like imperial oud royal koh kong, kanzen, (I almost don’t want to list cambodi here b/c I don't see such a thing as cambodi. Such massive difference in styles from different producers). I mean variations exists everywhere, but out of all the regions I see the most amount of variation in cambodia.

Oils I loved at first sight but no longer love (no hate, just less love):

· EO Hainan (too medicinal/animalic and root vegtable)

· Many sri Lankan (too varnishy or fishy)

· Yusuf and other thai oils (too fruity, too sweet/sour)

· Jing shen lu (too similar to yusuf in its fruity ways and the minty/patchouli green note is not working for me the way it used to)

· Lavanya/kalyani or pretty much any non barn hindi(hard to explain. No zing. No bitterness or what I see as spine. Plus The red cherry tobacco note is too prominent and not a scent I find intoxicating unlike many other)

· Zacharrya (too sweaty and horsey)


Oils I liked at first sight but now love even more:
· Green papua

· Kanzen

· Imperial oud konbaung –Burma



Oils I didn't care for at first but have come to appreciate now:

· Tigerwood 95 (initially too camphoric)

· Tigerwood royale (initially too old smelling and dusty)

· Bustan (initially too camphoric and leathery)



WOOD:
Favorite scent for me is the green oil kyara or otherwise Vietnam kinam as sold via Japanese houses and in the know Chinese sources. To my nose and to date it is the holy grail. Honorable mention to red fusen soil Vietnam wood for its coconut nectar and confectionary note. Hong Kong purple kinam. Hainan heartwood and Hong Kong sinesis.

· I have learned that some Brunei agarwood and both Hue but more so Nha Trang wood from Vietnam emits almost the same notes as kinam, having said that not as the same strength and mixed with other notes.

· I loved sri lanka gyrinops agarwood at first but now most pieces don't work for me due to the heavy varnish and more so a salted curd fish note. Beyond oceanic. Beyond saline.

· Despite loving the oils, I haven’t found much love in Indonesian, papua or new guniea agarwood

· Despite not caring for the oils, I enjoy the less animalic and more chocolate and molasses fudge hindi chips (on occasion)

· Kedah, northern malay, sarawak and Kalimantan remain strong to go agarwood for me outside of Vietnam


Incense:
I will keep this separate for a whole different entry. Stay tuned in. I am hugely into incense and some days I spend way more time with it than oil or the wood itself.

What I wish for in 2018 and beyond:
· More responsible wild harvests
· More responsible plantations
· More people possessing the knowledge and skills of understanding and differentiating between good, very good and excellent oud, not based on tradition but based on an open mind.

· More tolerance, patience and open mind outlook from forums members

· Last but not least: practice into mindfulness and carving out some quiet time to really get to know this magical substance.

Final remarks:
I want more people to find out about the joys of oud yet at the same time I want to warn them. Warn them of the addictive nature of oud and how it can take a toll on finances if not strictly kept in check. I want to warn them of continuing a path that is more obsessive than probably healthy and one that is not going to have many people from the mainstream participating (speaking of the west). No one around me (including frag heads, wine people, whiskey aficionados) likes oud the way I do or even half as much as I. Sure there are friends that appreciate a swipe when I see them or love the fact that I have 1-3 vials in my pocket at most times but it is not like they approach me and ask for some. They don't see what I see. Oud is a road less well traveled in the west.
 
Last edited:

JohnH

Moderator
Staff member
#2
To all fellow Oud lovers

Below was penned by me in early January. Thought I share my journey with you all.

Kick back, swipe your favorite oil, light an incense or put a chunk of Gaharu on the burner and hopefully you enjoy below.

Background:
Growing up in Iran (fun fact: in Farsi all incense are simply called oud) but travelling to Dubai regularly, I knew oud since I was a young child but I mostly experienced it through incense, bakhoor and super thick sweet and animal Mukhalat, Hindi and Cambodi oils via the Arabic bazars and later through the bigger houses like Ajmal, Asaq, etc. It was a very aggressive and overpowering note for me missing subtlety, missing nuance and missing finesse. What ruined oud for me in my first 30 some years on earth is the scent of oud and rose (I have serious aversion to rose) mixed together, or oud and foot odor mixed together at school prayer room, etc.

During my synthetic scent days I would wear: issey miyake, acqua di gio, creed erolfa, Thierry mugler angel innocent (much lighter and fresher angel scent), aqua di parma bergamota, eccentric molecule 1 and 2, ck one. So as you can see: airier, citrusy (bergamot mostly), clean, fresh, slightly sweet scents. Nothing very woody, spicy, rose or musk. Ambergris I loved since day one.

Re-Introduction:
My interest in Oud got picked up again after watching “scent from heaven” and simultaneously at the time I was tinkering with the idea of starting a hobby of natural perfumery (as a result of developing migraines and nausea to many synthetics. E.g despite absolutely loving the scent, exposure to ambroxan each and every time would give me nasty head aches and make me nauseous.)

As I tend to do things, I cant be satisfied by scratching the surface, so I went both feet plunge on the deep end. Like a maniac, I went on an absolutely absurd and crazy rampage of oil and wood purchases (thank goodness for slowing down otherwise me and my oils needed to find a shed on the streets to sleep in). As if I was trying to catch up for years gone without oud. As if I have no other responsibilities. As if I am told Armageddon is hitting earth in a few years, so why do I need savings… Some 100+ oils (most are sample size) and about the same number of agarwood pieces and incense sticks from different origins, vendors and quality levels. I wasn't concerned with spending money on something I wont like, because my whole purpose was to objectively (as much as possible) study them now and watch their aging/evolution in future. If I didn't like one now, I would be ok with it as I may like it later or otherwise I can keep it for next generation or otherwise use it in blends, attars, etc.

I didn't give up on Hindi or Chinese oils (for now) after 1 or 2 or 3 or 5 oil purchases. I continued to go to 10+ samples from vastly different price points and vendors, as to not risk the chance of generalizing and dismissing an entire genre based on a small sample size.

Since late summer of 2017 I have spent at least 2-3 hours and on many instances 8-10 or more hours each and every day reading, researching, studying and one way or another spending time with oud in many of its forms: resin, wood, oil, spent matter, incense (pressed vs. stick), cone. Heat wood via Ceramic vs. charcoal vs. buried in ash vs. subitism heater. Burn, low heat, in between… as for the oils from $100 to many thousand dollar oils. From Ensar to Joe blow. From old to young; king of barn or mild barn to no barn. From wild and rare agarwood from places like malinau or various kinam/kyara pieces or Philippines to generic plantations…

Below is my in-depth journey, chronicling what I have learned to date. I will touch on oils I fell in love with at first encounter but ones that I don't care for now, to oils that I loved and still love, to ones that I didn't care for but they are growing on me… I will touch on my daily habits and how oud has carved an important place in my daily life and rituals.

Why I love Oud/Agarwood:

· First and foremost the journey itself. The foray into a very complex subject that requires years if not decades to master –if one can even ever actually get there.

· The psychoactive aspect. The fact that oud is not just a great scent. Some oud help with a serious energy boost and others help with meditation while some are terrific sleep aids.

· Its natural origins and appreciating the artisanal work going behind the scenes.

· The rich and diverse history of many different cultures and their interactions with it.

· The mind boggling horizontal and vertical complexity that oud can posses as one single substance as if it was a layered man made perfume. Nature always does it best, doesn't it?

· The ritual of preparing kodo and heating of agarwood.

Daily habits:
Oud for me remains mostly something I use in below contexts:

1) wearing before vigorous exercise

2) wearing before yoga/meditation practice

3) playing games by blind sampling and using deduction to derive at the origin and grade of the oud

4) sleep aid

5) socializing by gathering friends around the burner/heater and swiping along

I tend to wear 2-3 ouds almost daily: morning, afternoon/evening (before exercise) and bed time. Some days I skip morning, some days stick to same oil thru out the day, sometimes but rarely skip before bed. But I also have a 4th encounter on some days (more so in the first 4-5 months and lesser now): pulling some 10-15 samples or bottles blind and sniffing my way to its origin.

Where do I wear oil and how much?

I like the back of my left wrist where a watch would go (I don't wear any). Sometimes dots (from bigger applicators), sometimes a small swipe and other times I like laying it thick. Latter is for when I want to get some on my sleeve (which by the way I love for its longevity but also how the scent opens up and almost becomes more elegant. I have noticed difference in the scent of oud when it marries cotton vs wool. Both are unique and I encourage everyone to try it).

In some rare instances I wear under my chin or better yet on my upper lip. Only very subtle and quiet oils or very kinamic oils end up there. Think agar aura kenmei, special K batches, think ensar: kinam rouge, sultan ahmet, but not purple kinam as it's a powerful beast.

in other instances mostly with the filaria oils or chinese or super potent hindi, the back of my knee. So when I am seated and cross legs I get a gentle whiff. Or when seated and I get up I get a subtle hit.

OILS:
I came with an open mind. I tried to keep the open mind. Many of the oils I wish I wouldn't grow to love I have (b/c of their high price point) and others I wish I would learn to love I still haven’t (b/c they truly are complex and very layered or very well priced, but sadly oud is to satisfy both the heart and the mind and these latter groups of oils would only please the mind).

Stylistically while I still consider myself having a wide range of tastes and can find joy and appreciation in most oils, If forced to describe (generalize) my aesthetic in past 6 months (b/c tastes change. Perhaps less so and slower as we get older but still not definitive) I would say:

My taste in general (but refuse to be boxed in within it): I love the style of oud juiced by Agar Aura in his gen 3 and gen 4 oils. Not all but most. I love Ensar senkoh and sultan series oils. I very much like many of imperial oud offerings but mostly their malay kambodi and of course sri lankans. I like a few of al shareef oils like layth, bustan, rubai’e. While I have a bunch of oils from agarwood assam, house of misk, tony Bolton, etc. etc. I don't really find any of these oils grab my attention and talk to me the way the former oils do. At least not yet…

Oils I loved at first sight and still do:
· New guinea gyrinops: many of ensar co-distills for sultan oils but also the likes of green Papua and port moresbey

· Brunei: sultan ahmet, kekasihku

· Vietnamese oils like kenmei, kiyosumi, wanmei, special K, royal guallam, kinam rouge (not the animalic, assamese style ones)

· Borneo but specially malinau: borneo 50k, royal malinau but also oils like borneo diesel and kinamantan

· Cambodi ,like imperial oud royal koh kong, kanzen, (I almost don’t want to list cambodi here b/c I don't see such a thing as cambodi. Such massive difference in styles from different producers). I mean variations exists everywhere, but out of all the regions I see the most amount of variation in cambodia.

Oils I loved at first sight but no longer love (no hate, just less love):

· EO Hainan (too medicinal/animalic and root vegtable)

· Many sri Lankan (too varnishy or fishy)

· Yusuf and other thai oils (too fruity, too sweet/sour)

· Jing shen lu (too similar to yusuf in its fruity ways and the minty/patchouli green note is not working for me the way it used to)

· Lavanya/kalyani or pretty much any non barn hindi(hard to explain. No zing. No bitterness or what I see as spine. Plus The red cherry tobacco note is too prominent and not a scent I find intoxicating unlike many other)

· Zacharrya (too sweaty and horsey)


Oils I liked at first sight but now love even more:
· Green papua

· Kanzen

· Imperial oud konbaung –Burma



Oils I didn't care for at first but have come to appreciate now:

· Tigerwood 95 (initially too camphoric)

· Tigerwood royale (initially too old smelling and dusty)

· Bustan (initially too camphoric and leathery)



WOOD:
Favorite scent for me is the green oil kyara or otherwise Vietnam kinam as sold via Japanese houses and in the know Chinese sources. To my nose and to date it is the holy grail. Honorable mention to red fusen soil Vietnam wood for its coconut nectar and confectionary note. Hong Kong purple kinam. Hainan heartwood and Hong Kong sinesis.

· I have learned that some Brunei agarwood and both Hue but more so Nha Trang wood from Vietnam emits almost the same notes as kinam, having said that not as the same strength and mixed with other notes.

· I loved sri lanka gyrinops agarwood at first but now most pieces don't work for me due to the heavy varnish and more so a salted curd fish note. Beyond oceanic. Beyond saline.

· Despite loving the oils, I haven’t found much love in Indonesian, papua or new guniea agarwood

· Despite not caring for the oils, I enjoy the less animalic and more chocolate and molasses fudge hindi chips (on occasion)

· Kedah, northern malay, sarawak and Kalimantan remain strong to go agarwood for me outside of Vietnam


Incense:
I will keep this separate for a whole different entry. Stay tuned in. I am hugely into incense and some days I spend way more time with it than oil or the wood itself.

What I wish for in 2018 and beyond:
· More responsible wild harvests
· More responsible plantations
· More people possessing the knowledge and skills of understanding and differentiating between good, very good and excellent oud, not based on tradition but based on an open mind.

· More tolerance, patience and open mind outlook from forums members

· Last but not least: practice into mindfulness and carving out some quiet time to really get to know this magical substance.

Final remarks:
I want more people to find out about the joys of oud yet at the same time I want to warn them. Warn them of the addictive nature of oud and how it can take a toll on finances if not strictly kept in check. I want to warn them of continuing a path that is more obsessive than probably healthy and one that is not going to have many people from the mainstream participating (speaking of the west). No one around me (including frag heads, wine people, whiskey aficionados) likes oud the way I do or even half as much as I. Sure there are friends that appreciate a swipe when I see them or love the fact that I have 1-3 vials in my pocket at most times but it is not like they approach me and ask for some. They don't see what I see. Oud is a road less well traveled in the west.
That's a great post @Rasoul S, thanks.