Echoing the word’s energy, Mona Kattan, the Dubai-based founding father of Kayali fragrances, says she feels assured and empowered each time she wears an oud perfume. Voelkl believes oud can add a stage of thriller to a scent.
How is oud integrated into fragrances?
Oud is often used as the bottom of a fragrance’s olfactive pyramid to “improve woody notes and add depth to the perfume,” says Christie. It’s largely integrated with different woody notes like sandalwood, patchouli, or vetiver (though it performs very well with musk and amber too).
For such an aggressive word, oud is surprisingly versatile and nice for layering with different scent profiles, says Kattan, whose model has mixed oud with vanilla, tobacco, rose, and a espresso accord. It pairs superbly with rose, particularly, making a seductive distinction with the flower’s delicate, dewy scent, says Jan. Dior Oud Ispahan, Hermès Oud Alezan, and Molton Brown Rose Dunes are all charming examples of that very combo.
Equally, oud’s darkish earthiness enhances lighter citrus and fragrant notes, serving to them scent extra “alive and effervescent,” says Christie. You’ll typically see bergamot and oud introduced collectively, as in Juliette Has a Gun One other Oud and Jo Malone Oud & Bergamot Cologne Intense, and area of interest manufacturers have began experimenting with oud and herbaceous components, comparable to DS & Durga Infamous Oud (which mixes the word with lavender absolute), Parfums de Marly Haltane (clary sage), and Chantecaille Oud Fumé (rosemary).
Ouds additionally go extremely properly with gourmand and fruity notes, taking the sweetness down a notch with darkish smokiness. The previous two years have seen a surge in these edible-inspired ouds, together with Kayali Oudgasm Café Oud (an oud with a cappuccino accord), Byredo Rouge Chaotique (an oud blended with bergamot, lemon, plum, and praline), and Edeniste’s Oud Ghazal (a dizzying, scrumptious eau de parfum that smells like oud has been drizzled with black cherry liqueur).
Can oud be present in different perfume codecs?
The oud frenzy within the West is fairly restricted to private perfume, however that doesn’t imply ancillary oud merchandise aren’t on the market—you simply need to know the place to look. Wooden chips scented with fragrance oil, known as “bakhoor” in Arabic, have been used within the Center East for hundreds of years, together with agarwood chips soaked in oud. Kattan created bakhoor variations of her Kayali Oudgasm assortment, in addition to a Rose Oud Hair Mist. “It is rather widespread within the United Arab Emirates to layer your oud oils together with your perfumes and end your perfume routine by burning oud as a method to scent your hair and garments,” she explains. “I take advantage of them as a method to complement my perfume layers, but additionally to assist prolong the longevity of my scent.”
Dior and Molton Brown each have hand cleaning soap and physique lotion variations of their widespread oud-based perfumes, whereas Tom Ford and Maison Francis Kurkdjian provide oud-scented bar cleaning soap. For wash-off merchandise and greater objects like lotions, Christie says, it’s primarily artificial variations of oud getting used due to the bigger sizing (extra on that under), though Mexican model Amoraria makes use of actual oud important oil in its Saffron Oud Room Spray, which you should buy should you occur to go to one of many firm’s boutiques in London, Mexico Metropolis, Cancún, Los Cabos, or the 4 Seasons Miami.
Why is oud so costly?
In contrast with notes like rose and vetiver, natural oud sources are fairly uncommon. In pure forests, roughly 10% of untamed aquilaria bushes produce agarwood (though some estimates put that quantity as little as 2%). Then it could actually take not less than 25 years for the tree to naturally produce harvestable oud, Voelkl says. Moreover, the quantity of oud an contaminated tree produces can range tremendously; simply because a tree is massive doesn’t suggest it would include loads of agarwood. Given these components and the perfume word’s world recognition, pure oud sourcing has grow to be fraught to maintain up with demand.