Top Notes 
Frangipani
Magnolia
Heart Notes 
Cinnamon
Tobacco
Himalayan rose
May rose
Base Notes 
Cocoa
Papua oud
Vanilla
Thai oud
Civet
Labdanum
Castoreum
Styler
20 Reviews
Styler
Very helpful Review
5
My favourite fragrance of all time
There are three categories of oud. 1. Oud accord (this is a scent created with synthetic molecules like Norlimbanol that resembles oud), i.e., the "oud" that most of us have encountered in our fragrance journey (Initio oud for greatness, etc.). 2. Oud aged for several years on farms. This type of oud is usually used by rare companies that decide to incorporate a little of this material into their fragrances. Usually, this oud oil is purchased from factories that mass-produce it, and the amount of it in fragrances is very small, usually complementing the synthetic oud accord mentioned earlier. 3. Natural, rare, and extremely expensive oud found in nature.
To this day, I have managed to find three independent perfumers who search for, find, and purchase the highest quality oud. They distill the oud oil themselves and then sell it or use it to make perfumes. These are Areej le Dore, Ensar Oud, and Bortnikoff. These individuals stand out from all other mass-produced fragrance manufacturers because their perfumes contain Western-world-banned or heavily restricted natural ingredients. For example, in Areej le Dore's Russian Musk, you can find a significant amount of Siberian deer musk. But how is that possible? After all, IFRA would never allow such fragrances on store shelves! Have you ever seen any of these manufacturers fragrances in stores? Areej le Dore and Bortnikoff are based in Thailand. In Asia, the rules of perfumery are much more lenient. All ingredients are legally sourced according to the region's laws. Meanwhile, they are shipped to us via the internet.
Typically, niche perfumery uses about 10% natural and 90% synthetic ingredients. In designer perfumery, that ratio can be 1% to 99%. Very proud manufacturers reach the 25/75 mark. Here, we are already talking about astronomically expensive, luxurious fragrances. The three manufacturers I mentioned have pushed this margin so far that synthetic ingredients are only used to enhance the fragrance's longevity on the skin. In an interview, the founder of Areej le Dore claimed to use 90% natural and only 10% synthetic ingredients. Ensar Oud initially made a name for himself by selling oud oils. However, Bortnikoff had a different idea. He wanted to show the true beauty of oud to a broader audience. Therefore, in his fragrances, oud is surrounded by other natural notes. In the case of Oud Monarch, we have frangipani (almost unheard of in perfumery; its distillate is known as red ylang-ylang), magnolia, cinnamon, cocoa, rose, and vanilla. In this way, oud is transformed into an almost gourmet, pleasant, rich, warming, and cozy aroma.
After many years of collecting fragrances, discovering these scents was like opening a window to an entirely new world for me. They don't smell like anything else in main fragrance shops. They emanate from the skin completely differently than anything I've had before. I used Oud Monarch fragrance for a week - every day. And every day it seemed that the smell was slightly different. New nuances, new notes emerged. That naturalness... It is certainly not a scent for hot weather. But it is so natural, so pleasant that it didn't bother me even at +30°C. Although Oud monarch is dark, sweet, and musky scent.
I honestly could write another two pages here, but I'll try to summarize. Until I tried the Bortnikoff line (I had about 10 samples from his collection, big thanks to a fellow perfume enthusiast), I can confidently say that I had no idea how wonderfully high-quality oud smells. These are scents that are nothing like what's found in western perfumery, but for someone with even a little perfume knowledge, they are very wearable. Feeling the amount of natural ingredients in these fragrances, it has become difficult for me to go back to about a third of my collection.
To this day, I have managed to find three independent perfumers who search for, find, and purchase the highest quality oud. They distill the oud oil themselves and then sell it or use it to make perfumes. These are Areej le Dore, Ensar Oud, and Bortnikoff. These individuals stand out from all other mass-produced fragrance manufacturers because their perfumes contain Western-world-banned or heavily restricted natural ingredients. For example, in Areej le Dore's Russian Musk, you can find a significant amount of Siberian deer musk. But how is that possible? After all, IFRA would never allow such fragrances on store shelves! Have you ever seen any of these manufacturers fragrances in stores? Areej le Dore and Bortnikoff are based in Thailand. In Asia, the rules of perfumery are much more lenient. All ingredients are legally sourced according to the region's laws. Meanwhile, they are shipped to us via the internet.
Typically, niche perfumery uses about 10% natural and 90% synthetic ingredients. In designer perfumery, that ratio can be 1% to 99%. Very proud manufacturers reach the 25/75 mark. Here, we are already talking about astronomically expensive, luxurious fragrances. The three manufacturers I mentioned have pushed this margin so far that synthetic ingredients are only used to enhance the fragrance's longevity on the skin. In an interview, the founder of Areej le Dore claimed to use 90% natural and only 10% synthetic ingredients. Ensar Oud initially made a name for himself by selling oud oils. However, Bortnikoff had a different idea. He wanted to show the true beauty of oud to a broader audience. Therefore, in his fragrances, oud is surrounded by other natural notes. In the case of Oud Monarch, we have frangipani (almost unheard of in perfumery; its distillate is known as red ylang-ylang), magnolia, cinnamon, cocoa, rose, and vanilla. In this way, oud is transformed into an almost gourmet, pleasant, rich, warming, and cozy aroma.
After many years of collecting fragrances, discovering these scents was like opening a window to an entirely new world for me. They don't smell like anything else in main fragrance shops. They emanate from the skin completely differently than anything I've had before. I used Oud Monarch fragrance for a week - every day. And every day it seemed that the smell was slightly different. New nuances, new notes emerged. That naturalness... It is certainly not a scent for hot weather. But it is so natural, so pleasant that it didn't bother me even at +30°C. Although Oud monarch is dark, sweet, and musky scent.
I honestly could write another two pages here, but I'll try to summarize. Until I tried the Bortnikoff line (I had about 10 samples from his collection, big thanks to a fellow perfume enthusiast), I can confidently say that I had no idea how wonderfully high-quality oud smells. These are scents that are nothing like what's found in western perfumery, but for someone with even a little perfume knowledge, they are very wearable. Feeling the amount of natural ingredients in these fragrances, it has become difficult for me to go back to about a third of my collection.
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