hawk_757

Barn Bro
I received Musk Rose, Pomme Du Soleil, and Phoenix Al Cambodi from JK. All were exceptional, and a breath of fresh air in today's world of fragrance regulation. I must say, Musk Rose is just incredible...I keep coming back to it over and over again.
 

RisingPhoenix

Resident Artisan
I received Musk Rose, Pomme Du Soleil, and Phoenix Al Cambodi from JK. All were exceptional, and a breath of fresh air in today's world of fragrance regulation. I must say, Musk Rose is just incredible...I keep coming back to it over and over again.

I appreciate the quick vote of confidence - glad to hear you loved them!!
 

RisingPhoenix

Resident Artisan
Happy Eid to all of our friends and customers!

Please enjoy a 15% discount exclusive to our Etsy shop now through Monday, September 4th!

www.etsy.com/shop/RisingPhoenixPerfume

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RisingPhoenix

Resident Artisan
I'm headed to Dubai on Wednesday. I arrive on the 8th, and will fly out on the 20th.

If anyone is in town and would like to meet up, please let me know - would be a pleasure to connect in person!

Conversely - if there's anyone you think I should connect with, or things / places to see / do / eat - would love a heads up!

Some Oud porn, as I prep for the trip. I'll need some clean air with all this traveling!

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RisingPhoenix

Resident Artisan
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RisingPhoenix

Resident Artisan
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RISING PHOENIX IN DUBAI!
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For those that didn't know...I'm currently in Dubai!
I've been out here a week, and have another week to go.
It's been an interesting time out here, meeting with clients, doing some networking, evaluating the market - and most importantly...

Buying some great stuff for all of you!

The market in general out here is interesting...most of the oils and fragrances are really creations of perfumery.
Rarely are there genuine oils to be found, and many of the
woods are a little questionable.
With that being said - if you know where to look and who to connect with, there are indeed some real gems to be found.

Fortunately for you - you have me :)

There are several things I'll likely be offering over the next few months, and I wanted to start out with some things that I've had people asking me about. These are items that have been acquired and are in hand as we speak - so no waiting for these items.

There are also some oils that we are going to do a quick pre-order on, as I am here and will pick them up specifically for this pre-order. I only have a few days to get this done...so think quick and act decisively. I'll be offering these oils at a special rate since I'm picking them up rather than buying them up front - so I'm passing that savings on to you.

I'll try to be succinct - so enjoy the show and tell...
I'll be taking pre-orders until SUNDAY September 17th.

My internet is a little shoddy here, so get your orders in and
I'll get invoices sent over ASAP.

I fly back to the US on the 21st.
Orders will commence shipping your way shortly thereafter.

First up...The Wood!
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Premium Wild
Hindi Assam

There is an interesting local practice out here - one that turns many customers off. Many of the lower grade woods out here are sanded down and polished with oil. Higher grade woods are sanded with a high grit sandpaper to bring out the shine.

This particular batch I picked up from a friend who supplies the top shops - but this batch is neither
polished nor waxed.

This same wood in your top shops runs about $45-$54,000 per kilo. You read that right.

I am able to offer the same quality of wood at a much friendlier price. I picked up a kilo of it, so there is plenty available.
The best thing next to the
price I got this at...
this stuff bubbles like a tar pit!

The pieces are rather large, so I'd recommend getting a minimum of 20g, but I can handle whatever sizes you'd like to pick up.

As you can see in the photos above, these pieces are really beautiful. I bought a kilo, but since I'm here, I can pick up more if people go nuts on the ordering.


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Continued...
The chips are rather Large, Double Faced, Resin Dense, and Aromatic at Room Temperature.

As I mentioned, I'm here and I got a great price on these, and I'm passing that savings on to you :)


Prices are as follows...
1 Kilo: $12,000 (@$12/g)
250g: $3250 (@$13/g)
100g: $1500 (@$15/g)
50g: $825 (@$16.50/g)
By the gram: $18

Keep in mind - this same wood retails for $45-54/g here in this market. The next grade up goes for closer to $100/g. For serious.

I'll be taking pre-orders until SUNDAY September 17th.

My internet is a little shoddy here, so get your orders in and I'll get invoices sent over ASAP.

I fly back to the US on the 21st. Orders will commence shipping your way shortly thereafter.

Next Up...The Resin!
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DARK Green Omani Frankincense

For those familiar with Omani Frankincense (Boswellia sacra), you know that it doesn't get much finer than this. In the circles of Frankincense lovers the world over, Omani Frank is generally considered to be as good as it gets.

As hard as it can be to believe - there is a specific type of Omani that is considered the Sultan's Choice...GREEN Omani Frankincense.
And it is the DARK GREEN that is the creme de la creme of
the already premium material.

Frankincense is what the Egyptians built their wealth upon, and the later Arabian trade of the substance was the source of wealth long before "black gold" was being drilled in the area.

There has been a lot of myth and marketing hype with Arabian Frankincense. They have been marketing it to the entire world for at least 2 thousand years - at least twice that length of time if you consider the Egyptians, and longer still if you consider the various Kingdoms pre-dating the Egyptians.

After all - the oldest written language has been found in the region of the Horn of Africa, dating back almost 10,000 years. And what was the oldest writing? Inventory tablets. That's right...writing was literally invented for the Incense and Spice trade. Even more interesting - nearly half the recorded herbs and substances were not indigenous to the area, meaning that global trade of herbs and spices goes back at least 10 millennia. Guess what else was found among them...copious references to precious resins, among them - Frankincense!

Hard to tell the difference sometimes what is romanticised and what is fact.
Green Frank is a perfect example...

It is said that Green Frank comes specifically from MALE trees.
As if trees had genders...haha

The Frankincense trees do not have gender of male and female from a botanical perspective. Flower and fruit are born in the same tree.
There is Dakar Frankincense which is called "male" because it resembles testicles. The female version is shaped more like chickpeas.
But there are no male and female trees to the best of my knowledge.
Dakar, btw, means "male" in Arabic.​

The Green Omani Frank is found within only 3 regions of Oman, and is usually much lighter in color. These super dark pieces have to be hand selected out of the larger harvests in which the various grades and colors are sorted,
and I have been told from several reliable sources that​
roughly 10kg of GREEN is found and collected for every 1 ton of resin harvested.​
For every 10kg of LIGHT GREEN sorted, only 1kg is DARK GREEN.
That means that 10kg of DARK Green would require 10 tons of resin to sift through.
That's a LOT of digging around!

I've been privately wholesaling Green Frank to some select vendors that I supply to. But this Dark Green find was just too good of a find to not share with you. For the record...I bought everything I found, and only a single vendor I've seen had any at all.
The good news, there, is that I have quite a bit of resin to go around.
Prices:

1 Kilo: $850
500g: $450
250g: $250
100g: $105
1 Ounce: $35

One last thing I'll mention about this resin.

Green Frank is best known as INTERNAL medicine. It doesn't just smell damn fine - it also is considered to be very medically potent.

The most basic way to make use of it as medicine is to place a piece in a dedicated cup of water (dedicated, because you don't want to ruin your nice cups with sticky resin) and leave it over night. Drink the glass of water upon waking the next morning.

The more sophisticated way to make use of it is to tincture 1 Kilo in 1 Gallon of Sake, or maybe just use 100g in a Liter of Sake.

Frankincense, after all, is like the Blood of a tree.
When the tree bark is damaged - out comes the resin.

As such - Frankincense in Chinese Medicine is known to Regenerate Flesh - and is great for the Skin, the Stomach, and the Intestinal lining (which if we are all really just doughnuts - our intestinal lining is just "inner" skin lining).
Last Up...The Oil!
I don't have photos or names for these, nor have I had enough time to evaluate these oils to give complete olfactory profiles of them.

The backstory on these is that I met up with a legit perfumer that I know here in the area. We spent most of the day together out here, exchanging stories and tea, and eventually got around to smelling some oils.

I showed him some of my work - to which he was quite impressed that an Amercian made Attars and Ouds worth any mention. haha He's heard about my work, but never had the chance to smell it. I guess it wasn't all marketing. haha

Knowing that I'm only interested in naturals, he pulled out a few oils for me to try.
He had nearly 30 Ouds on hand, but only 5 of which he had curated to be distilled for him. As you can imagine...they were quite nice.

I also do believe him when he says that these are all natural - but I do want to preface that I can't verify that. They do, however, smell entirely natural to my nose.

These 5 Oils will be by pre-order, only, and I am offering them at a very small markup over the cost. The smallest quantity I am offering is 0.5g (roughly 1/2 an mL), and up to a full Tola (12mL).
You absolutely must get your orders in for these by SUNDAY September 17th.

Now...for the oils...

Two separate oils, a Laos and a Cambodi, both from 2002

Two additional oils, a Burmese and another Cambodi from 2007

These oils above are all "Arab distillations". The only oil I'd say had some funk to it was the Burmese. The others were so refined that I'd almost say they were non-Hindi distillations, but I wouldn't say they are Zero Barnyard. They were just so tight and refined - quite beautiful. Nicer than anything I found in the Gulf shops.

The crown jewel: a very interesting Hindi from 1989.

It opens smelling like a gorgeous Tobacco and dark fruit (almost like pomegranate molasses) with a hint of very nice incense smoke, and those notes develop for hours. I mentioned smelling like pomegranate molasses - this oil also flowed a bit like it. Very thick. Maybe we will call this one Raman Thaqueel (Arabic for "Thick Pomegranate"

Prices...

A note about prices...these are practically at cost. Since I'm picking these up for folks and not buying on my own dime, there is only a 5% markup. Not often you can find oils like this for prices like this.

This price I was given was the wholesale price to a friend (me), keep in mind. These oils retail for quite a bit more than this.
Laos and a Cambodi, both from 2002

$1890 usd per Tola
$472.50 / 3g
$157.50 / 1g
$78.75 / 0.5g

Burmese and another Cambodi from 2007

$1470 usd per Tola
$367.50 / 3g
$122.50 / 1g
$61.25 / 0.5g

The crown jewel: a very interesting Hindi from 1989.
(Tentative name "Raman Thaqueel")

$2310 usd per Tola
$577.50 / 3g
$192.50 / 1g
$96.75 / 0.5g
Remember - The deadline for the orders is SUNDAY September 17th. It's not as long as I'm usually able to give, given the time constraints of my trip.

The wood and resin are both already in hand.
The oil I will be picking up specifically for
the orders being placed.

I get back on the 21st, and will be having orders headed out shortly after returning home.

Many thanks - and here's to fragrant memories from Dubai!
Just for fun...a few photos from the trip so far!
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Picking up all the stock worth having...

DARK GREEN Omani Frank
Top Grade Premium Mysore Sandalwood (upcoming)
The Best Onycha I've ever seen (upcoming)

As you can imagine...I picked up everything there was to buy :)
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First time this guy has sold to an Amercian...he was thrilled!
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Doesn't every woman need a solid gold dress??

How about a chest piece? Like we don't look there enough already...
"eyes up, mister!"
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Ya know...just the local Walmart-sized mall grocery store.
Smelled as good as it looks!
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Presentation out here is really something else!
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Impeccable Indian food...finger licking good!
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Took some time to meet with a few private clients to smell through a few things.

Like kids in a candy store...
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Some of the finest sinking Sri Lankan Walla Patta...coming soon :)
 

jalil

Oud bully
Thanks for sharing your trip JK :thumbsup:
 

RisingPhoenix

Resident Artisan
Jk does your near silence over the last few days tell of a whole new array of discoveries? Looking forward to the next instalment

Haha - I would say in partiality.

The internet connection here has been terrible. I am only getting it in the hotel room, and even then, only sometimes. It's made communicating a bit difficult.

I'm also over here on more complex business, which I hope I can share about sometime in the near future. This trip was not intended as a buying trip...just so happened to turn into a little bit of one. haha

Many toys to come, of that we are certain :)
 

RisingPhoenix

Resident Artisan
Jk does your near silence over the last few days tell of a whole new array of discoveries? Looking forward to the next instalment

Sharing this here, as well :)

Funny story to share...
So I was in a shop today, and there was a rep from a French company trying to sell the owner on buying a bunch of "Oud" oils that his company has developed.

I got in on the conversation and asked a few questions...which got me that famous French blow off because I'm not the customer...and not French. Haha...I digress

The oils were what we call "mixed media" in the industry - a mix of naturals and synthetics - which he was open about. A kilo ran about $85 bucks, USD. Can't be too natural, I'd imagine... The store owner and staff could tell - the price itself made it sound uber cheap, not to mention that they didn't smell nice at all. $85 dollar a kilo Oud...riiiiiight

So after the French rep left, I pulled out a few of my Attar oils I had on hand, and a few of my Ouds. We pulled out some scent strips and everyone in this shop is sniffing around.

The manager, this nice Bangladeshi guy, looks me straight in the eye and says so seriously with his beautifully thick accent, "Sir, your oils are 100 TIMES more beautiful than his. Not ONE Time. ONE HUNDRED TIMES!" And with that the entire store was cracking up.

Take that, Frenchie.
 

RisingPhoenix

Resident Artisan
From Dubai to Atlanta...

Dubai to Istanbul, 5 hours
Istanbul, 3 hour layover
Istanbul to Atlanta, 14 hours
Customs and Airport, 1.5 hours
Train ride, 1 hour
30 minute drive home

Long day!!
Son of a freaking you know what....

Flight delayed. Credit card down. Crazy long trip home...

Time for more breakfast of champions...

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OK, I'm not gonna lie...it was worth it.
 
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