Highly prized, oud, the quintessence of olfactory travel. If the favorite note of the seventies is now omnipresent in bottles, oud is rather offered in a more confidential perfumery such as the exclusive lines of houses like Fragrances & lin, its woody-leathery-animal trail is appreciated only by connoisseurs.
Agarwood, aloeswood, wood of the gods, wood that flows in water... Known in various countries by different names, oud (its Arabic name) has been used for centuries for medicinal, spiritual, and aesthetic purposes.
In Buddhism, it is burned to aid meditation. In Muslim culture, it has been considered since the 9th century as one of the fundamental ingredients of perfumery.
The Middle East is immersed in oud. In the form of chips, burned on charcoal in bakhoor, it impregnates clothes and hair. In the form of essential oil.
This enthusiasm comes at a price. Three varieties of tropical trees of the genus Aquilaria produce oud. Only one out of a hundred specimens actually contains the precious resin, a defense mechanism secreted by the tree when infected by certain fungi.
To meet a growing demand, the essences are cultivated and inoculated with fungi. Oud essential oil is obtained by distilling the chips.
Most fragrances claiming it contain not a drop. To reproduce it, synthetic woody-amber molecules are combined with patchouli, vetiver, incense, and especially cypriol, whose woody, earthy, smoky, and somewhat "yak milk" scent is quite similar.
If perfumers revolve around oud in this way, this note could well transition from the French-Oriental register via the rose-oud accord, for example.
A classic in perfumery, but also an interesting variation on the no less classic rose-patchouli accord. Oud has replaced animal-origin raw materials, now banned for ethical reasons: ambergris, musk, civet, or castoreum. In its wild and incense trail, it resurrects the most ancient facets of the art of perfume: eroticism and sacredness. Parfums-de-grasse.com
An oriental raw material par excellence, oud wood on the site parfums-de-grasse.com
This resin thus created is very rich in fragrant and complex molecules. The scent is camphoraceous, woody, animalic. The wood perfume highly prized in the Middle East for various applications not only olfactory. We will obviously focus on parfums de grasse only in its application in perfumes.
This wood is becoming increasingly rare, one of the most expensive materials in modern perfumery. Nevertheless, given its great olfactory power. Long used in oriental perfumery, oud wood has only recently entered the European market.
An olfactory jewel of power, bestiality, richness,