EO N°3 Ensar Oud / Oriscent Pure Parfum

Phew, quite a pithy announcement that Ensar has knocked out there in his announcement for his latest release "EO N°3". But anyone who has ever dealt with the brand Ensar Oud, knows that Ensar, whose native name, by the way, is "Ensar Tokati", neither lacks self-confidence, nor that he is often stingy in his description with superlatives.

"The best..." here, "the finest..." there. The good is already very convinced of his products and creations and that is of course reflected in the price. 599$ for 30ml "PureParfum" are now standard here. Under it goes hardly what - over it goes fast.

Ensar probably maintained a very close contact with Sultan Qabus (Qaboos) bin Sa'id, who was Sultan of Oman from 23 July 1970 to his death on 10 January 2020. Not least because this had apart from its collection of innumerable luxury cars and rare clocks also a weakness for olfactory treasures. The collection must have contained countless treasures from all over the world. Priceless rarities such as "Sinking Grade Agarwood" from all parts of Asia, decades-old Ambergris chunks weighing tens of kilos, deer musk from Tibet, Kashmir, Mongolia, and even the king of all musks, the virtually non-existent Tonkin musk from Vietnam. Even the main player in the new EO N°3, the "Royal Tai'fi" comes from what he calls the "Royal Archive".

The Taif rose (Rosa damascena trigintipentala), native to Saudi Arabia, is also known as the queen of all flowers. The average price of a "tolah", which is a small glass vial that holds 11.7g of oil, is about $800. And this is not even the best quality grade. The top notch oils, aged for years, are usually sold only to wealthy collectors and royalty and far exceed this value. In the case of Sultan Qaboos' "Royal-Tai'fi", the extraction is dated back to 1980. So you can imagine that this was quite an expensive story. (But you can also just look on the EO website, what you have to put for 2.5g pure Taif oil from this collection on the Pöller)

I am by no stretch of the imagination a gullible person but the recurring mention by name and the use of pictures of the Sultan on the EO website eliminate legitimate doubts about these statements yet quite sustainable. I honestly hardly believe that a sultanate would tolerate a non-legal use of the name of a more than respected head of state for many years.

In addition to the three, already mentioned above musk variants, Ambergris and the royal rose oil finds in EO N°3 also decades long matured Myitkyina Oud from Burma still a small place. I wonder how many of you have pronounced the word "Myitkyina Oud" correctly when reading right now. I am certainly not one of them.

I could still report for hours about the individual ingredients but before the first people here from boredom, I come rather times to the fragrance itself.

I had due to the really DICK applied announcement on the part of EO pretty high expectations of the fragrance, I must confess and not only because of the price almost a little "fear" now to be disappointed. So I hesitantly pull the trigger of the bottle enclosed in handmade leather and.... BOOM..... olfactory mic drop... Short goose bumps.
What flows here in the nose has simply NOTHING to do with the typical Rose-Oud combos, which I knew until Dato.

The fragrance starts with an incredibly fine citrus note, which is probably one of the special characteristics of the Taif Rose. No sharp citrus reminiscent of bergamot and Co. Much finer, softer and rounder. Only seconds later, the rose unfolds its breathtaking aroma. You can't really break down the profile. It's a combination of citrusy notes, pleasantly light sweetness, a cooling menthol freshness that feels like taking a deep breath through your nose after eating a menthol candy. In this complex mixture of impressions, one can nevertheless clearly recognize the typical, luxurious character that rose brings to a fragrance. The combination of the different musks, each of which has its own character - Tibetan musk is sparkling, tangy / Mongolian musk slightly animalic, earthy and Tonkin musk rather sweet creamy - act as a kind of turbocharger for the rose and amplify its special properties many times over. The ambergris here acts more as a fixative and provides more durability and projection. Those who fear a typically salty, slightly maritime here definitely need not worry. For me personally, the oud only comes out in the heart and base. But even here, it doesn't take a dominant role. At most, it brings a slightly woody, green note to the background, reminiscent of oud distillations of the eaglewood genus walla-patta from Sri Lanka, giving the composition EVEN MORE depth. The other ingredients such as pepper, mandarin and nutmeg are so finely woven that you can hardly smell them out individually. What makes this fragrance special is simply, the combination of these oils and extracts and the intangible quality they exude without inhibition. It feels like this fragrance changes character every few minutes. Sometimes it smells sweet, sometimes fresh, sometimes warm, sometimes cool. All of this is combined with an intangible lightness and elegance that I have never experienced before. The rose is at no point heavy, stale or waxy, as is often the case. The scent is classic yet modern. A paradox bottled in glass and leather that leaves me with a big grin and absolute excitement after each application.

Many will now say again, "How can you spend so much money on a fragrance?" I understand that. It is justified. It's a question I would have asked myself six months ago. I no longer really think of Ensar's work as perfume but rather as art. I can count on one hand the number of days I've worn his works outside of my four walls. I don't wear them to smell good to others, because that's a matter of taste anyway. I look at them like others look at a work of art on the wall of a gallery. Is a Picasso worth millions because the color is so special or the canvas was particularly expensive? Beauty and the personal impact on the mind are in the eye (or nose) of the beholder. This is also the reason why I would never make "buying recommendations" or anything like that. I can only reflect what a fragrance does for me and how it affects me. In the case of EO N°3, I am almost inclined to say that the end of the line has been reached here. I don't think there is any room for improvement in terms of quality and craftsmanship here. In combination with the elaborately handmade bottle from the studio of Habib Dingle, who among other things binds the St. Johns Bible for the Vatican, this fragrance is probably the crown jewel of my collection. On one of the social networks, I was asked, "How would you describe the rose in EO N°3?" I could really only quote Ensar himself, " It's a Rose to end all Roses...once and for all."