Oudh: Notes on Notes | Australian Perfume Junkies

Hello APJ, Welcome to our small scale collaboration project. Old Herbaceous (OH) of Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities and I will be doing a monthly post on different perfume notes. We are not perfumers but aficionados of fragrance. So lots of our information will come with links for further reading or text references. We are learning as you are learning, or refreshing.

YAY! Old Herbaceous picked Oudh for us this month. Yes, I spell it oudh because that’s the way I first came to it but Aoud, Oud and probably several other iterations are all good. I do use whatever is on the label for reviews. Oudh seems to be the most like how I hear it in my head.

Photo from Australia’s Grandawood Oud Growers Store

What is Oudh?

Oudh is a resinous scab taken from fungal diseased, ant infested, drilled, chopped with axes or poisoned Aquilaria Crassna trees and called Agarwood. It has been traditionally grown commercially mainly in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Now Australia is vying for a place on the world Oudh market, apparently with outstanding results that are fully natural.
It’s alleged that the international growers use poisons to get the trees making Oudh and then play with/add to the resulting oils extracted. This changes the way the Oudh smells. I’m sure there are many reputable growers though and some that give the rest a bad name.
There are also a slew of synthetic Oudh dupes and extenders that can and are being used. These can be a facet of the Oudh scent experience or made into accords that approximate, or even closely resemble the real deal.

How does Oudh smell? 

Every Oudh scent I’ve smelled has a different shade of scent. There are some basic markers and styles. Smoke, leather, poo, medicinal, band aids, earthy, sweet, dark, dry and raspy or moist and humus rich. It can smell dank like old vase water or warm and fiery. It is such a chameleon. Part of what has made it indispensable to the world of fine, and functional, fragrance.

How is Oudh used in perfumery? 

This is a really interesting thing to me. Oudh has become ubiquitous. Part of that must be associated with the thinning of the base note herd by lack of availability and IFRA compliance. Suddenly we have a perfume industry that cannot use a significant section of its necessary ingredients. Along come Oudh. Taken from the Middle Eastern oils, incense burners and maybe even hookahs. Suddenly we have a new base note and the perfume world goes batshit crazy. Top, heart and base. Oudh fits in anywhere and provides an excellent broad scent profile to fill the gaps.
Not everyone loves Oudh. It often needs to be an acquired taste. When I first started wearing Oudh Jin would take one sniff and yell, “COW POOH!” It often smelled like cow farming and poop. Nowadays he does like some of them, his favourite is the original Mona di Orio Oud.
When mixed with other accords it can broaden and deepen an existing scent profile. Oudh can add shade, ground, define and lift. It can hit you straight away in the opening fireworks or be the lingering darkness at dry down.

In which perfumes will you find Oudh?

Grandawood Oud Spirit, Glory of the Pain

Grandawood has been supplying their own home grown Australian Oudh since 2014, chips, incense, tea and perfumed oils. This is the first French style perfume from them and they also have a variety of very natural Oudh oils.
Smoky poo fires, a sharp citrus that borders between grapefruit juice and orange pith and some beautiful broken leaf and twig. The Oudhin Oud Spirit is very barnyard with hay, goat, the powdery feel of scratching a duck and that smell of kicking up dust. As we head for the heart Oud Spirit has a floral aspect that softens and calms the whole fragrance. At this point the Oudh turns a little medicinal, hinting at band aids and cough syrup. Towards dry down the more leathery aspects emerge and it smells a little birch-y, tar laden but sheer. Beautifully handled.
If you are after an Oudh that punches you in the face, shakes you around and throws you to the floor then Oud Spirit is probably not your fragrance. The Oudh is present but not feral or ferocious. It’s beautiful. Imagine if CHANEL Exlusifs line were doing an Oudh perfume, this is how one of the prototypes would smell before it was shorn of all the spiky bits but after the general shape had been decided.
I can wear Oud Spirit anywhere, it is my go-to low key Oudh. While I know I’m wearing something slightly subversive scent wise, to the world at large I’m just in a very dark woodsy fragrance. You have to be really close in to get the fun stuff. That suits me fine.

Mancera The Aoud

One of our dear friends Alice was in London visiting family in the early 2010s and stopped into Selfridge & Co perfume hall to find me a gift. There was only one SA she clicked with and it was the Mancera girl. They sparked up a conversation and the SA was a perfumista. Oudh was only beginning to become the ubiquitous note it has become and she told Alice that it was the wave of the future, perfect for a perfumista on or ahead of the game. So Alice grabbed a 60ml and brought it home to my great delight and gratitude.
In stark contrast to Oud spirit, here we have a ferocious beast of a perfume. It’s a medicinal band aid attack from the outset. Sharp, huge and extraordinary. Clove/pepper and citrus zest add sparkly and rasp to an already beastly Oudh. As the heart unfolds there is an oily machinery facet that I find fascinating and it’s paired with a bouquet, scratchy saffron and a tea/honey rose. Actually the rose hardly shows itself and the honeyed tea is probably tobacco. A very chocolate patchouli takes the fragrance sideways, it’s been there lurking before coming to the fore. Maybe it’s not even the fore, maybe I just noticed it because still we have this Oudh. It has turned woody and has the choc/patch layer. What a shapeshifter.
Whenever I spritz The Aoud I am so overwhelmed with joy. How can something so terrifying be so beautiful.
Since I first smelled The Aoud this particular way of presenting Oudh has become a trope but back then (from memory) I’d smelled only some of the Indie Oudh perfumes, Tom Ford Tobacco Oud and YSL M7. This mechanical, medicinal, heavily spice driven wood rich, leathery Oudh was a revelation. Such a journey.

Please go check out Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities and see what OH has to add to the Notes on Notes about Oudh.

What are your favourite fragrances with Oudh listed in the notes?
Portia xx