My First OUD Experience
To be honest, for the last two weeks knowing that my first oud oil is probably coming to me, I’ve been reading like crazy about it, here on Ouddict and BN. I’ve watched everything that is there to be watched about it on YT. I can say I learned a lot. I had quite a good idea about many of its aspects but the most important one, the scent. All those descriptions only made me more confused.
I think one can’t fully describe “the heart of oud”. You need to try it to know, there is no other way!
Now I get it.
You are not addicts, you are collectors! Well, maybe you are addicts too.
I am amazed with the depth(!) those scents have, and the complexity they can deliver, yet this whole mystical mixture blends together so perfectly into one unified very unique aroma.
I’m actually thinking that when I save some money I will choose one in some distant future to blend it in my own perfect perfume. Not sure yet which one. I can definitely imagine oud being part of it. It creates something that is not like a regular scent, it’s more like an aura of a scent, clinging to the surface, creating second skin, like a wind... Is it noticeable? Yes, very. But it’s not producing the same sensation as regular perfumes and so on.
Thanks to the generosity of Habzoud I could try 4 oud oils.
Now, I will put in words bellow descriptions of my experience. Most of it I wrote “as I go”. Sniffing and adding new lines.
Disclaimer: I’m a newbie to oud, European, and my personal feelings are based right now on only just one tinny swiper dot. I can’t be sure of the strength of each oud, more tests need to be done to tell. The amount I applied was not measurable. Another factor that might have an impact on the judgment is the surface of application, skin, paper...
Also, I don’t really think any descriptions can be accurate, those scents are quite different from everything I ever smelled before in my life.
Alsukar
(Note: I made the 4 pics below as a bit of visualization in color of how I feel about each scent profile.)
View attachment 4920
Beautiful scent, not sure if I would say it’s masculine, I can imagine men wearing it, but in my personal feeling I would prescribe it to a female. Dear lord, it’s beautiful. I just took 3rd sniff. Smokey, honey like sweet, but not oversweet at all. I imagined something way more sweeter after seeing the pic and reading descriptions on Habzoud website. I think it’s floral, tuberose like.
I’m starting to doubt myself if it’s deep air sniffs or this scent making me feel relaxed?
Waxy, lilies, tuberose, a hint of honey and some smooth velvety wood smoke (a bit like the one they use in catholic churches, I got no idea what’s their mix.) But yes, the most prominent note for me are tuberose and lilies. I don’t smell any wood or “barn”.
There is something more to the scent, that is hard to describe, something calming.
Ok, and now I read again the habz description of it, somewhat they seem accurate, when I think about it now, taking another sniffs. Well, one can probably smell a lot of nice things inside of this.
We all seek comparisons based on what we have already experienced in our lives.
Ps, I could already smell a bit of them before opening vial, but the scent was very subtle, I was almost worrying about being disappointed about the strength of it. Till I opened it, and then it blasted on me with the scent, so strong!
A quote excerpt from a convo with my friend:
Dukhan
View attachment 4921
Cedar wood coals? Ashes? Smoke? Yes, Yes, Yes. + This warm little sweet oudisness. Definitely smell for a hot witch, or a witcher.
Or maybe the devil himself?
I’m not sure if this would do as full body perfume scent for a common person. While one can appreciate it, it seems a bit rough and untamed to me... I mean hmm.... It could be nice addition to some “dark kind of” perfume mixture, if one would mix it a bit of it with violet flower scent and something strongly green. I find it pleasant too, but I liked Alsukar more. Well, well, we all have our personal likings.
Don’t get me wrong, this might be still very pleasant scent for someone, especially if one burns wood chips to perfume himself with a smoke this way. I’m European, not used to such ways.
By the way, this one seems to last much longer on my skin.
Oh and some note. This is really potent! All I used was like one tiny dot of the vial swiper diameter. I can imagine that one drop can have dozens of such dots, maybe even 100. I imagine that if I put a whole drop of this on myself I would make not only myself smell with it but the whole room as well... woohoo. Well, but you know it. I’m just telling this as legacy for newbies who might come here one day.
3rd one - unlabelled .
View attachment 4922
Mystery One. No label, X, might be not even from Habz range.
Vendor and the product unknown.
Opening... pooooo! Strong fecal notes, sweat started to pour off my forehead. I was
thinking about going to the bathroom and washing my arm immediately. (If it’s something I don’t like, then it’s not a waste, and I still have plenty of it for the future tests) But for the sake of knowledge I let it be for a few moments more. Second sniff was a bit better though, still strongly animalic, something indeed like a barn and sheep skins. Another sniff.... it reminded me of some sweet cherry tree resins I used to eat sometimes as kid, hmm... I mean this texture....well, I sniffed a bit more for a few minutes, it mostly smelled to me with a sheepskin like scent and sweat. hmmm.... I did not kept it for much longer, cause I was about to go to sleep. This scent is of course more complex than that, but those are main notes I noted within first 20 min. The most pleasant notes there are cured and processed leather, and resinousness that are buried somewhere deeper there. But they are dominated by other, less pleasant ones to me.
PS Quite clever move of not labeling it. ;P
Edit: After strong washing of my arm I can still smell it a lot, but now it’s not as bad, it reminds of sheepskin after washing, with some amber stone tincture or maybe someone’s hair + herbal shampoo.
Edit2: Still smelling it 2 hours later, unbelievable, it was just a tinny dot, just a touch with like micro layer residue, nothing to rub around really and I can still smell it strongly from my arm, after triple washing... This is so concentrated. 3ml bottle of this would last a millennium I guess.
This one is not for me, but thank you Habz for it as well. Each scent is adding to my internal scale and palette allowing me for the better perception of everything.
Edit3: 3 hours later, I opened the window, cold air came through. (It had to be like below 15C outside while 27 inside of my room) Things have changed again! When sniffing it from a distance I’m smelling now a few day old hay, and it’s not as animalic as before any more. It’s way more pleasant. Like some countryside indeed. Somewhat comforting scent when mixed with this cooling breeze. Like something warm inside of cooling wind. Do my explanations make any sense? XD
I would still not choose this one as a perfume for myself but it was strangely relaxing...
And I’m really shocked about the strength of this one.
Damn, very interesting. And I fallen asleep.
I’m not giving up on it yet. No, I will try it again when the weather here changes and the colder days will come.
Zamarad
View attachment 4923
Opening: Mentholic, green, just like it’s name and the color. It’s more delicate scent, far from overwhelming.
A few minutes later it gets significantly stronger, more sweet... and maybe a bit woody in a cedar way. After a few moments more refreshing, zesty and again a bit more sweeter, but all in gentle way.
Edit: After 1 hour it started to smell with a hint of florals, still sweet and still quite mellow compared to the other three samples. And hmm, like a subtle perfume I guess.
I put a small dot of Zamarad on a piece of paper, the scent was more clean and pristine from paper, more chilled too.
To sum it up...
I liked all of them, but my personal winner is Alsukar. Truly magnificent scent.
The unknown animalic one had terrifying opening, ended up with something comforting and relaxing.
Thank you Habzoud for giving me the opportunity to smell this precious beautiful gift of nature! I’m very happy with this experience!
Edit of Edit: I think oud is best perceived by me while smelled from a distance, not close to the skin or to an opened bottle, but at least 50 cm away. Also temperature makes a difference.
And now the all 4 vials are in a cabinet with my clothes.
So, now when I open my clothing cabinet I can still smell those four ouds, even though the vials are closed. Their scent mixes together in a most amazing way, and it’s marvelous, intoxicating, narcotic, indeed addictive. I think someone with a good sense of smell would be amazed too while opening my cabinet, smelling this enigmatic scent. And he or she not knowing what oud is would go crazy wondering what it is. Because I’ll bet that no one here has ever smelled something like this. It’s like a blooming meadow in some different world.
View attachment 4924
By the way. As you can see on the picture above there is quite a lot of oil stuck on vial heads. Does anyone know hot to make it drip down? I was thinking that perhaps some gentle warming in hot water bath could do the trick and make the oil inside thinner so it goes down. Any ideas if this would help and not hurt the precious oud?
Note: I almost forgot, thank you for velvety pouch Habz. I will surely find some good use for it!
That’s all for now. It was two days of testing. I will keep you informed about my oud adventure.
Stay tuned for more info. I surelly need to experiment with it, especially with diluting it in ethanol and spraying.
I was also promised some samples by Nadeem.
Excuse me misspells, typos, it's been long text...