Forget diamonds, oud perfumes are a girl’s best friend. Hear me out. There are many things I aspire to do in this life, namely: Living it as the rich aunty that travels all over the world, buys her nephews expensive gifts, and walks around leaving a lingering aroma of richness and spice wherever she steps. The key to achieving these dreams (well, at least the latter) is with an oud fragrance.
My parents made me fall in love with ouds. Growing up, I could recognise my dad’s clothes in a sea of African printed garms just by smelling them. I also knew my mum was about to throw down her best red-carpet-worthy outfit by the oud scent wafting from under their bedroom door. Scents have an extraordinary power of unlocking memories. It’s not surprising I have such vivid memories of these moments. In fact, ouds are amongst the most memorable types of fragrance due to their intensity and decadence.
With the sexy, musk, and rich oud scents also comes a hefty price tag. Oud essential oil is extracted from Southeast Asian agar trees, which produce a dark, dense, and fragrant resin to protect themselves from a specific mould infection. It may not sound glamorous, but the result is *chefs kiss*.
However, studies also show that fewer than 2% of these wild agar (aquilaria) trees produce this precious resin and experts also claim that the very best oud comes from the oldest trees. All these reasons combined make oud essential oil one of the most expensive raw materials in the world – its liquid gold!
Although the raw ingredient is mostly found in Asia, oud perfumes have become a staple in the Middle Eastern culture, and are seen as a prestigious asset often associated with royalty status. More recently, oud perfumes’ popularity has been increasing in Western culture too. Google trends also detailed a rise in demand for the search term of oud this year. No wonder we are all becoming a bit obsessed. Must be something in the air?
Understandably, ouds are not for the shy or the faint-hearted, and they might be a little overpowering to those who prefer a delicate, floral scent, but the beauty is that oud fragrances have an undeniable unique ability to elevate any occasion scent and are the perfect token of indulgence. Plus there are some that are a bit easier on the most sensitive olfactory senses than others.
We asked Alchemists of high perfumery, at Initio Parfum Prive some of your most asked questions around ouds and here is everything you need to know:
Why are oud fragrances so expensive?
“This sacred wood sees the light of day in the Assam mountain range in Bangladesh, an isolated, hard-to-access location. It is in this place that a parasitic insect attacks the smooth trunk and light bark of the Aquilaria tree to feed on the sap, causing an infection that manifests as fungi. In response to this attack, the tree produces a dark resin that hardens the wood to protect it. So it’s not simply a case of waiting for the tree to be ten years old for it to secrete this precious resin, only one tree in a hundred produces this miracle. It’s a sort of botanical lottery. This is one of nature’s priceless riches, the result of an arcane stroke of luck, which is why it’s so exorbitantly priced.”
What makes oud so special and opulent?
“It can take up to ten days to distill oud wood chips to obtain a high-quality wild, exotic essence. It will have a more or less animal aspect according to the age of the tree. Following this painstaking operation, the essential oil obtained is thick, oily and resiny. But agarwood (the other name for oud) also has a special miracle: each tree develops its own disease and so the resin is unique each time, meaning every fragrance is a unique vintage.”