Hi guys. Sorry to intrude. I'm mostly a silent reader on lowyat. But I noticed mentions of Oud, and some are curious about it.

I'm into Oud (newbie too actually) I have some from Feel Oud..samples from Agar Aura..Imperial oud..etc.

I spoke with Taha of AA, he said, why not we organize a casual Oud meetup for oud lovers and those curious about it among Malaysians.
You'll get the chance to ask and learn everything about Oud from Taha himself.

Grades of wood..different origins..oil distillation..how to burn/heat wood..everything you need / want to know.

I suggested to him ..special discount for locals..and he said...why not..quite possible...

So guys keep updating about this and I'll check from time to time..

I'm a local btw. If any of you guys want to have a mini-oud meetup..sure why not..we can lepak and chit chat about oud...prelude to the official Agar aura event.

This post has been edited by wan81100: Nov 9 2016, 11:43 PM

Actually, it is quite difficult to properly heat/burn agarwood chips. A good example would be the Japanese incense tradition, or Monkoh/Kodo .

Arabs usually simply chuck a super high grade, highly resinous wood on hot coal , so no matter how skilled you are, it's going to smell good. But you won't be able to discern the subtle nuances of the aroma. Everything gets shot up in one go and it's like your olfactory senses just got an uppercut by Mike Tyson.

The Japanese way, takes a lot of skill. The right temperature, the right piece of wood, the right stage of heating. Even a small splinter of wood can last very long by this way. They call it "listening" to the aroma of the heated wood.

Oil, IMO, it's like taking the good stuff out already, for consumers to appreciate. "Listening" to the aroma, and the many facets it brings, also takes skill, and training (your nose).

If you take a low grade wood, or even an average quality wood available nowadays, you'll most likely inhale the smell of burnt wood (like when you burn wood for campfires), and maaaaaybe some of the agarwood goodness. Why? Because the bunk wood (unresinated) gets burnt simultaneously with the resinated parts. Do it like the Japs, you HEAT the wood, not burn it, so that the aroma gets released , while the wood stays unburnt. Use a charcoal, and things get more difficult. Use a good electric heater, then it's easier.

As of now, I'm more of an oil guy. I suck at heating wood, and I'm not rich enough to trial and error with high grade wood. But I do wish to learn it some day.

Now...about oils...from my noob experience, plus some fruitful discussions with Ensar, Adam (Feel Oud), Taha (AA), and some others..

"The real deal" is very subjective. Oil extracted from low quality wood, with poor distillation techniques, are also "The real deal", if one means purity, and really from gaharu, as long as it's not adulterated/diluted. You can get these for below RM200 to RM300+ tops.

If by "the REAL deal" , one means the no nonsense, high end, benchmark oud oils, well then it's a whole different story.

The smell of wood, and even more the oil, may vary due to the following factors :
- Species (malaccensis,crassna, sinensis,etc.)
- Region (Crassna in Pahang vs Crassna in Cambodia, may produce very different smells)
- Grade (obviously) . wild wood tend to give richer,and more complex smells. but take scrap wild wood, compare to high grade cultivation wood, wild will lose out.
- and currently among the biggest factors, Distillation techniques and practices.

So if someone is offering you some WILD oud oil, and put a high price tag,but it smells like longkang all the way through the dry down, the wood used was probably low grade, and the distillation techniques were probably poor as well.

Whether or not synthetics can do the job of real oud, personally I think not at the moment. Real oud is just too complex. Take two sibling trees side by side from the same jungle, make oil, you won't get 100% identical aroma.

BTW Tazio, Feel Oud has 3g oils that would cost around RM400 I think. Like Mai Bo Rai (among which I have extra of..but sold out on website .just checked while writing this). Champi intensa also within my collection. They're the classic cultivated thai oud , but high quality, and no inoculants (injections to trigger infection). Atleast 3 years of natural infection. I think less than 50% of cultivators in Malaysia would even wait as long as 2 years.




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@tazio

It is indeed potent. A tiny dab is definitely enough for personal appreciation. If you want others to get a whiff of it, then perhaps a swipe then dab on other areas (pulse points near the neck, behind ears etc). If you have bears, you can wipe your oily hands there too. Hair holds oils longer. Skin absorbs it quite fast.

But oud being overkill is quite subjective.. depends on the type also. Is it a "barnyard" smelling oud ? Is it the airy/minty kind? Is it the smokey incense type? Some have killer top notes but mellower mid and base. Some are very "cheerful" so to speak, while others are grounding, and earthy.

There's this one oil I passed on to my friend..I liked it but when I wore it, it wasnt projecting very well. When my friend wore it, just being near him I get to enjoy the oud aroma. It could either be due to his skin type is suitable with that oud, or I've got olfactory fatigue and need a break .haha

For me I usually put a drop on my wrist and then dab it till the colour is gone but the shine remains. Just for personal appreciation. Sometimes I wipe the remaining on my clothes, since it can last longer. But dont put a drop on your clothes! The stain is very stubborn. Shine without colour, yes safe to dab on cloth. Still at your own risk though.

All this info is still newbie compared to many other people. It's also thanks to friendly and open distillers/vendors and other consumers that such info were gotten.

Btw Tazio which Feel Oud oil have you tried?

@marver @t0n3 thanks guys.no expert here. Just conveying what was conveyed to me.

Ive had people around smelling some of my collection, first comment "busuk! Apa ni???" Haha. It was one of the oils with sort of pungent opening. In general, light thai/cambodian ouds are among the friendly types..fruity..sweet..no barnyard/fecal..usually. if you start with super intense hindi you might run away afterwards. Lol

No problem. Glad to be of help.

@tazio One thing about me, I have little to no experience with high end perfumes. Really amazed at the stuff you guys are discussing about! I can't keep up at all.haha.

Yes kandang lembu is very accurate.i've even smelled one that smells like TAIK lembu, sorry for the crude language. Tastefully done barn aroma eventually grows on a lot of people. Looks like you've experienced the 'pull' !

I'm really curious now about the scents you guys are discussing. Oud or non oud aromas..perfumes always fascinate my senses. A lot of reading material for many hours to come it seems. Heh.

If you guys know of any high end oil based perfumes/attars by reputable perfume houses do let me know.

Nice find ! The 6k bottles looks like a lot. Maybe 10 tolas? How's the scent breakdown like @maxtorxxx ? Care to share?

Awesome. Thanks for the review. Will definitely check them out when I go to penang. Im assuming those chunks are 100g above?

BTW agar aura is having their biggest sale ever..I received an email since I'm subscribed..whoever's interested I can forward the email to you and the coupon codes are in the email.

http://agarwoodindonesia.com/oud-oil-or-ag...al-differences/

Interesting write up by an Indonesian agarwood distiller.

For that price I doubt it is pure oud. Attar basically means perfume. If you smell an oil claimed to be oud but stink like hell, either it's from very poor quality wood and poor distillation practices, or ...well basically thats it.haha. it's just that other possibilities : already bad oil, added w adulterants/thickeners/colouring..or maybe it was microwaved lol

I have tried one so far. One of his Chinese oils, I think it was Hainan 2005, even then it was a sample that Taha from Agar Aura owns.

The memories of it are quite vague, but it had an animalic, barnyard opening. Don't know if it makes sense, but the "barn" or "fecal" note, also has different types. The kinds that are present in his Hainan oil, and I assume some other oils, are of the refined, or "good" type. It surprises you at first, but it draws one to like it more and more, atleast for thsoe who can accept this type and are adventurous to explore. Most old school, classic, vintage oils of old have this kind of note. It's definitely different from the "barn" that many cheaper ,mass produced oils emanate.

A good explanation on how this "barn"/ "fecal" note appears in oud, is this blog post from Agar Aura :

http://blog.agaraura.com/?p=1094

In short, MOST barn notes in oud is a result of soaking the wood dust prior to distillation. In most cases, it is prolonged soaking. Plus, in cheap low quality oils, it is due to unhygienic, prolonged soaking.

According to a number of feedbacks from Ensar Oud customers, quite a lot of Ensar's oils have this barnyard note, which is a signature of old school classic ouds in the past. And as I mentioned before, the customers enjoy the barn notes in Ensar's oils.

Back to the Hainan, it also has a bitter,green,medicinal kind of note lingering within, which is a signature trait in chinese agarwood (aquilaria sinensis).

However, this is not to say that ALL of Ensar's oils are barn yard type. I've read of some which are breezy, ethereal, floral, etc.

In general, Ensar's oils are definitely among the best of what's available today IMO. Only thing is, his style, and Agar Aura's style, and Feel Oud's style, etc, are different in the general theme, but may overlap in some aspects.

In terms of purity and guarantee of quality, the three vendors above I can vouch for, since I've tried their oils, and made some comparisons. Not saying other oud suppliers are sketchy, but it's just that I haven't had extensive exposure to them and their oils , not enough to give my word about them.

Another vendor worth trying would be Imperial Oud, based in the UK.

This post has been edited by wan81100: Dec 6 2016, 10:08 AM

@dr_farnz My pleasure! I'm on an oudventure searching for like minded people interested in oud anyway. When you're mostly alone it's hard to get the motivation up.

You know, what do you guys think if I start up a new thread about Oud? It seems that the discussion is wide enough to possibly clash with this thread.

Any comments?

This post has been edited by wan81100: Dec 14 2016, 09:49 AM

Aye. Will keep the discussions here. I'm an even bigger noob when it comes to fragrances in general. I'm never bored when reading around here

Looking forward to the reviews on Auphorie. They look promising. Is there an option to pay in Ringgit though?

Are they a naturel perfume house? Or a mix of natural and synthetics? It seems they even use tapai pulut and gula melaka in their Eau de nyonya! I'm very surprised.

I have. The Blackout & Justica variants, they last quite long and projection is above average for most of them I'm a reseller of their product actually, but due to certain constraints and also getting hooked with oud, I'm no longer able to commit to it. About being 100% natural, objectively speaking, a GCMS test with expert explanation of the results is the only way to be sure.

I'm not sure if this is against the rules, but I have some old stock of it to let go. Can pm me if interested. If it's against the rules do let me know I'll gladly delete this part

On an oud related note, ensaroud is having discounts for some of their oud oils and perfumes.

This post has been edited by wan81100: Dec 30 2016, 02:16 PM

Mula-mula nak tanya siapa ni kenai ka..skali tgk post lain kenai dah.. haha.

Nice collection. Very envious . Bila boleh saya berlaga lutut nak test collection tu..hehe. Kawan saya ada Creed Aventus..tak try bau lg. Auphorie try dah?

I have some Feel Oud and Agar Aura goodies up for grabs in the garage sales section. You guys can check it out.

Any other oud users around here? Maybe can share your collection? Experience layering it with your niche perfumes?

For those interested to try 100% concentration pure Oud oil, and custom distilled santalum album sandalwood oil, can check my recent thread in the market place section.

If anyone is more adventurous and wants to try out Agar Aura stuff, I have some in hand to let go as well.