04/10/2024
DrB1414
148 Reviews
DrB1414
1
The Great King Malay
Ensar Oud Kannan Koh. When Ensar says, "It is better than Sultani" your expectations skyrocket. Could Malay get any better than Sultani? It appears so.
A decade older than Sultani and forged from just as high caliber wood Kannan Koh is a towering Malaysian oil. It takes the best aspects of Oud Sultani and Oud Ahmad and adds to them. And although Ahmad is the dearest to my soul, I cannot deny Kannan's superiority to both.
It starts powdery and floral. An explosion of red powderiness and many floral notes like lilacs, white flowers, violets, and frangipani. There is also a zesty green facet to this introduction. The latter is not prominent on the skin, yet surprisingly so if you smell it from the bottle. Unlike Sultani, which takes a bit of warming up to explode into its purple floral glory, Kannan bursts like that, and unlike Sultani, this oil is bright red. After the powdery-floral opening, a sweet, resinous quality takes over. It feels like the flowers have been drenched in honey. The second stage of this oil is reminiscent of Oud Ahmad's musky quality, with its black incense fumes. This phase is short-lived, more subdued than with Ahmad, and not as dark. The final stage doesn't smell like the dark Malay dry-down of Sultani and Ahmad, is brighter, somehow dusty-vanillic with faint bitter green facets, and almost recalls the aroma of a few Microcarpa and Gyrinops Indonesian oils from Borneo and Maluku. The red color dims out a bit but never fades away. The bright red and sweet aroma are the main characteristics of this oil. However, its complexity stretches far beyond that. It features a beautiful vertical progression with many layers and a color spectrum spanning red, golden, gray, and green.
IG:@memory.of.scents
A decade older than Sultani and forged from just as high caliber wood Kannan Koh is a towering Malaysian oil. It takes the best aspects of Oud Sultani and Oud Ahmad and adds to them. And although Ahmad is the dearest to my soul, I cannot deny Kannan's superiority to both.
It starts powdery and floral. An explosion of red powderiness and many floral notes like lilacs, white flowers, violets, and frangipani. There is also a zesty green facet to this introduction. The latter is not prominent on the skin, yet surprisingly so if you smell it from the bottle. Unlike Sultani, which takes a bit of warming up to explode into its purple floral glory, Kannan bursts like that, and unlike Sultani, this oil is bright red. After the powdery-floral opening, a sweet, resinous quality takes over. It feels like the flowers have been drenched in honey. The second stage of this oil is reminiscent of Oud Ahmad's musky quality, with its black incense fumes. This phase is short-lived, more subdued than with Ahmad, and not as dark. The final stage doesn't smell like the dark Malay dry-down of Sultani and Ahmad, is brighter, somehow dusty-vanillic with faint bitter green facets, and almost recalls the aroma of a few Microcarpa and Gyrinops Indonesian oils from Borneo and Maluku. The red color dims out a bit but never fades away. The bright red and sweet aroma are the main characteristics of this oil. However, its complexity stretches far beyond that. It features a beautiful vertical progression with many layers and a color spectrum spanning red, golden, gray, and green.
IG:@memory.of.scents
