Oud Reviews

Imperial Oud Tinsukia - i wear this wonderfull oud oil 7 days in a row, such a beautifull conconction, hindi oil with hind ADN but i would say very different than traditional hindi oud. Start very strong,deep wood,deep leather with zero barn,very little smell from fermentation maybe. The oil perform great on skin 8 -10h with noticeble projection and sillage in first 3, but aroma will hit you all day long. Once is settled down, the beautifull oil show his face,is very but very close smell to one of traditional drink in Romania ,basically is wine but before become wine ,in traditonal style we smash the all the grape with our feet ( never do it but i see on grandfather), the first juice come out from red grapes name is "must" and is very very sweet with addictive aroma, in time they left that juice on fermentation and become wine,so this oil smell exactlly 90% like smashed grapes on fermentation with touch of leather. Fruity smell comes to my noose all day long when i move my arms
Lovely ,nice job again Imperial Oud team !!

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Imperial Oud Borneo Wild - start quite medicinal,sharp and pungent , this oud is change quite fast into great green spicy covered in a dark vanilla ,performance are not the best but the smell is satisfyng. When i wear it , my mind goes to bali indonesia [emoji173]

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agar aura mardelong:

mardelong is enchanting…
sweet and spicy oudy cherry vanilla cola, rhubarb sichuan pink peppercorn dynamic opening that morphs into a jammy floral spicy balsamic rose as the vapors clear… then dives back into cherry cola, prune, vanilla, marzipan…. with this ever present smoldering oudy spicy masala deep wood base… its an amazing ride and very unique…. i cant get over the ever changing dance of sweet and spicy..

Bio Kyara - FeelOud

I tried this as a blind sample a while ago. Great intensity, this one opens big and stays big, the first notes I get are of wax varnish, so my guess went immediately to Sri Lankan walla patta, which of course was dead wrong. As it progresses and opens up I get a very green aspect to the oil, a combination of eucalyptus, camphor and cooling green almost minty. This is the phase I like most, it has a freshness that tickles the nose, a pulsing vitality. Further along I get a fruity hint, what I guess some might call a guava note, for lack of a better descriptor, I'll use it too , there is also a sense of a jungle exotic floral note and an underlying sweet spicy hint of cardamom. All good here. But slowly a strong oudy resinous quality becomes stronger and stronger until it reaches a pungent phase. Very oudy really, nothing I've tried recently is as resinous as this aside from Sumatora Janguru, which also has an acrid inflection. I'm not keen on this kind of resinous feel, even though it is oudy, it reminds me of lesser ouds on a burner at high heat. I'd guess this is steam distilled as was Janguru.
I can appreciate the quality of the oil especially regarding complexity, depth and intensity, and I like the top notes, but when the resinous pungency mixes with the vapourous winter balm aroma, I get bilious. It feels like a complete mismatch, a bad pairing like fish and ice cream. I only start to enjoy it again in the dry down when the pungency fades a bit.
That being said the dry down is marvelous, I have a piece of tissue with a drop of this on it from weeks ago, and it still smells of the most comforting oudiness possible. Also, even though I like only about 70% of this oud, the fact that it is Vietnamese and cultivated completely fascinates me! I thought about that for days and days, I still wonder about it in fact; about how Adam managed to coax this result out of a Vietnamese cultivated wood. Kudos.

agar aura phurbkala: another one of those AA adventure ouds, the opening starts out in a Himalayan kitchen.... old lacquered wood cabinets, stove smoke, pu-erh and tsampa.... light rhododendron flowers wafting in the window.... levels out into an ancient monastery, comforting, serene, pure... next phase moves you on to a jungle trail... dried fruit, sweet decay, tree flowers, and an opalescent blue green wetness... the dry down is pure forest floor after a rain in an agarwood jungle...

Pencerahan - Agar Aura

This was another blind sample I tried a while ago. Big raw peanut shell and vegetable oil opening, at first sniff I thought it might be a Borneo oil, but I didn’t get the subsequent development I might expect. When the peanut shell settles I get a vaporous oily feel, part motor oil, part epoxy resin. Further on there is thin streak of green pine, then fresh sawdust. Mid scent it settles to the comforting aromas of sweet wood and a golden oudiness, very pleasant, my favourite part. In the dry down I get a hint of mustiness, some dry earth, and light smoke. On a couple of occasions I actually got a very earthy vibe which made me think of a Papuan touch, but I don't always get such a pronounced earthy note. It is a pretty light oil, lighter than I prefer except for the loudish first couple of minutes. I could enjoy this with heavier applications, it has a nice feel to it mid-phase when I feel like it puts me in the middle of a carpenter's workshop. The vaporous and skeletal oud form that I got reminded me of Ensaroud offerings.
I enjoyed this oud but for me it didn't quite match up to the hype I'd read about. Apparently this was a 2nd batch/fraction of Pencerahan and the original batch is a heftier oud. With a stronger presence, I'd find more appreciation for this oud.

powdernose said:

Pencerahan - Agar Aura

This was another blind sample I tried a while ago. Big raw peanut shell and vegetable oil opening, at first sniff I thought it might be a Borneo oil, but I didn’t get the subsequent development I might expect. When the peanut shell settles I get a vaporous oily feel, part motor oil, part epoxy resin. Further on there is thin streak of green pine, then fresh sawdust. Mid scent it settles to the comforting aromas of sweet wood and a golden oudiness, very pleasant, my favourite part. In the dry down I get a hint of mustiness, some dry earth, and light smoke. On a couple of occasions I actually got a very earthy vibe which made me think of a Papuan touch, but I don't always get such a pronounced earthy note. It is a pretty light oil, lighter than I prefer except for the loudish first couple of minutes. I could enjoy this with heavier applications, it has a nice feel to it mid-phase when I feel like it puts me in the middle of a carpenter's workshop. The vaporous and skeletal oud form that I got reminded me of Ensaroud offerings.
I enjoyed this oud but for me it didn't quite match up to the hype I'd read about. Apparently this was a 2nd batch/fraction of Pencerahan and the original batch is a heftier oud. With a stronger presence, I'd find more appreciation for this oud.

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For a while, I thought you got your hands on some counterfeit Pencerahan, but at the end of your post, you mention that it’s a fractioned 2nd batch.
..........carry on..................

agar aura- jerai.....



honeysuckle!

pollen, wax, and wood...



blue menthol acacia honey and flowers, slight vaporous musk...

the sweet honey note is amazing...



medicinal and astringent notes emerge and dissolve.....



thai herbal clinic, tropical flowers, tiger balm and palm sugar.



dry down is a slow boil of cane sugar, propolis, vanilla custard, and whispers of neroli....



final resting place is pure honey wood.... on a bed of ethereal pine needles..

Oudamberlove said:

For a while, I thought you got your hands on some counterfeit Pencerahan, but at the end of your post, you mention that it’s a fractioned 2nd batch.
..........carry on..................

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You're welcome to send me a taste of the original batch

Beware people, another extremely positive review incoming with nothing negative to say. Big words, poetic and embarassing imagery that makes you think:"What does all of this have to do with oud?!" Exaggerated perhaps...but not for me.

Yaqoot by Al Shareef Oudh

A warm day without any melancholy in the air. Almost like a gentle spring sun which warms but does not scorch the fruits growing in an orchard (if they would indeed grow in spring ). There are apples lying golden in the grass. Most are still fresh, with their skin cracked from the fall, you can smell their piercing sour sweetness in the air. Some are just barely starting to ferment, not an unpleasant scent, still retaining that cool freshness. And plums and dark cherries add to the fullness of the scent with their darker notes that leave you intoxicated. The beginning is dominated by that cool piercing scent, present in the few other malaysian ouds I tried, but here it jumps at you and continues for a while until it joins in harmony with the rest of the notes. The scents seem familiar, like something you could discover when walking across the meadows and orchards. But they are also really hard to figure out. It really is a whirlwind of a scent. Constantly surprising, stirring joyful memories, that silent satisfaction of a warm early spring day when you just want to walk around, slowly, and take it all in, the gentle sun, the new life beginning, the green fire running through the plants and through all living things and through you. Succulent is the word I am looking for, ripe, warm but fresh. Ruby red is exactly the right color for this.
I feel some similarity in texture to the Kyara Ltd2 sample I tried from EO but here the scent itself is just much much more to my liking.
To think that only two ingredients were used...
I know that Yaqoot is no longer available but smelling the sample vial of Kaashef I got along with it I would say that that one offers a similar experience.

My first impression of 3 IO oils.
Fresh from transport, jet lag and all,

Malindang
Stays true to Philippine agarwood. I get a hint of the spiciness of Cumingiana, faintly floral, scantly jungle, creamy, oudy, and resiny. Quality oil for sure!

Burma Citron
A fresher Aarai Ko Shway, with the yummy Skittles turned up. If AKS and Konbaung are your type, then Burma Citron is for you.

Super Hoi-An
Potent oil!!!
The description at IO, and Mr.P’s take, are spot on.....just add oudy.
To me it comes across as a
Vietnamese Komrad K

Mandalay Signature (2017, LMK) Review

Mandalay Signature begins with a subtle citric note, then quickly moves toward fruity & tart territory. The citrus note is a ‘weird’ one as it somehow does not smell like fresh citrus – yet pleasant. I can also smell something deeply resinous quality in the background. The tart and fruity facets somehow remind me of sweet tamarind from Thailand (– yummy, you definitely should taste this). There is medicinal bitterness just adjacent to the tartness and a very faint amount of menthol. There is a barnyard smell too, but not unpleasant - especially if you like good oils from Assam belt (Bangladesh & India), you’ll like this one’s.

After 5-10 minutes, s.t. temperature and humidity, the fruity ‘accord’ becomes very similar to a slightly spicy and sweet mango bar. Just imagine you unwrapped a packet and taking a big sniff of it! Hay, which was quiet faint at the start, becomes stronger every minute, which also has a touch of geosmine.

The bitterness and the dryness intensifies as time passes. The former has a lot of similarities with Viet Zephyr, a fantastic wild Vietnamese oil from Imperial Oud. Unlike oils from neighbouring countries (Malaysia, and Indonesia), a somewhat greenish mentholic/ camphorous smell appears late into this olfaction party. The heart of this oil is an ebullient undulation between light camphour/menthol, and medicinal bitter incense.

As the bitterness, hay, and camphorous facets subside, the leather comes alive. I should qualify this leather thing – I noticed with oils that has some hay and barnyard smells, tend to get leathery on me – i.e., temperature, leather, & barnyard notes have a positive correlation on my skin. I tested this hypothesis by wearing various oud oils in a wide temperatures range (10-35 deg. Celsius). It works best between 16-20 deg. C.

In dry down*, it is very similar to some wild Assam chips bubbling away - deep, slightly caramel like & resinous (with a bit of vanilla and mashroom in the back). The ‘warm’ leathery facets is now a distant past (see above)! Essentially, if you want an oil that works like Indian and Cambodian combined, you ought to give this wild Burmese a go.

*will update it later with some additional info – that is, if I can remember!

@Ashfaque love your review bro

This oud is incredible...its like swiping five oud (burma/thai/cambo/viet/hindi) in one...a true journey!

My fav burmese of all time

Lovely review,i need to try that oil now

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Great review! Really love the oil as well.
One of my favorites for sure!

RBO Smoky Hora Kele Sri Lankan
A mind twister......
The smoke is very dominant, suited for those who crave a real smoke-out.
The pretty stuff of Walla Pattas is very minimal.
No barn, no burnt rubber

Oudamberlove said:

RBO Smoky Hora Kele Sri Lankan
A mind twister......
The smoke is very dominant, suited for those who crave a real smoke-out.
The pretty stuff of Walla Pattas is very minimal.
No barn, no burnt rubber

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it comes off as weird to me, like burned plastic

IO Ceylon Royale 2

A volatile oil!
Quick Impression:
I am greeted by sweet apple,
then by refined ambergris,
a little later....Walla Patta Candy.
A touch Borneoesque.
All these yummy treats ride all the way to the dry down, then the camphor becomes more apparent.

Magic up top, but with Walla Patta, dry downs are very similar. Nothing wrong with that, it’s inherent with the region.

My samples of Suriranka Senkoh and Ceylon Royale 1 are long gone so I cannot recollect direct comparisons, but I don’t believe either had the refined ambergris note, and I do believe that all 3 belong to the same genre........
“Clean-Cut Walla Patta Perfume”

Adnan 2 (Mindanao, 2018)
Just a quick impression:
- It smells like Filipinos chips bubbling away at low temperature on a heater. I think Ibn Zamrak (my favourite from Al Hashimi) has a new competitor!
- It has a deep resinous, spicy and somewhat mentholic and oceaning quality to it.
- cinnamon, camphor, mint, clary sage (the tea bit), leather (labdanum and saffron type), resinous (honey, polen, beeswax, tolu, benzoin, labdanum & styrax), hint of vanilla (sweet) like hay, oakmoss, Merauke/Papuan like earthy smell, gentle murmur of smoke in the distance
- There is probably pine & H. cedar too
- wet air smell (post-rain) on a seashore providing an ambergris-like vibe - slightly salty, and zero animalic. This facet somehow reminds me of SL oud oils.
- There is SL sandal like aquatic smell too.
- Overall, it is mentholic/camphorous, dry, slightly sweet, medicinal, oceanic, resinous, incensy.
- All this within the 1st 2 hours - should have gotten more when I had the chance!

Ashfaque said:

Adnan 2 (Mindanao, 2018)
Just a quick impression:
- It smells like Filipinos chips bubbling away at low temperature on a heater. I think Ibn Zamrak (my favourite from Al Hashimi) has a new competitor!
- It has a deep resinous, spicy and somewhat mentholic and oceaning quality to it.
- cinnamon, camphor, mint, clary sage (the tea bit), leather (labdanum and saffron type), resinous (honey, polen, beeswax, tolu, benzoin, labdanum & styrax), hint of vanilla (sweet) like hay, oakmoss, Merauke/Papuan like earthy smell, gentle murmur of smoke in the distance
- There is probably pine & H. cedar too
- wet air smell (post-rain) on a seashore providing an ambergris-like vibe - slightly salty, and zero animalic. This facet somehow reminds me of SL oud oils.
- There is SL sandal like aquatic smell too.
- Overall, it is mentholic/camphorous, dry, slightly sweet, medicinal, oceanic, resinous, incensy.
- All this within the 1st 2 hours - should have gotten more when I had the chance!

Click to expand...

Sounds wonderful. Will have to get me some Al Hashimi samples in the future. Still haven't tried any of their oils