The pinnacle of perfumery?

Ah, Ensar Oud. The brand talked about in hushed voices as some mythical, mystical experience. The reviews always seem to be poetic in nature, haikus extolling the premium quality, the unparalleled blending and mastery involved in creating such works of art.

I don't get it.

That is, if there's something to "get." In art, there's always that kind of imposter syndrome that haunts enthusiasts when they come across something that is near-universally praised by their peers, and they just don't see anything of value in it. Is it too complex or too obscure to understand, or is it just bullshittery that others are falling for? When you get to a place of knowledge in a certain art form, you just have to be confident in your opinion and call BS out when you see it. For example, I've been interested and listened to, and played, classical music all my life. I can tell you with some confidence that John Cage's 4'33" is complete BS. There's nothing to "get" because there's (quite literally) nothing there. Even if someone supremely knowledgable, like a music professor, argues with me, I will stand my ground since I have enough knowledge and confidence in my understanding to pick a side. In contrast, when it comes to postmodern visual art, I have strong suspicions that a lot of it is BS, but I am not knowledgable enough to comment since I haven't studied it. I am humble enough to realize that there might be something there that I'm not understanding.

While we're not at 4'33" levels of bullshittery with Ensar Oud, I've become confident enough in my fragrance knowledge to make the claim that there's something wrong here with the disconnect between the pricing and quality. Like, they're not horrible (6.5-7.5 in my ratings system), but why are they so expensive? I'm sampling the cheapest scents in their collection and they are already the most expensive scents that I have ever tried. And I've tried some expensive stuff (Fueguia, Henry Jacques, high-end Rojas etc). $600/30ml or $1000/50ml means we're talking TWENTY DOLLARS per ml. Most of the scents I rate and review are $1-2/ml!

Obviously there are diminishing returns. A fragrance that costs $1/ml might be twice as good as a fragrance that costs $0.50/ml but a fragrance that costs $2/ml is not going to be twice as good as the $1/ml fragrance. And the $4/ml fragrance is going to be only slightly better, if at all, than the $2/ml fragrance. But if you're going to price your fragrances at a full 10x the price of most niche perfumes on the market, you have to have something to show for it.

And it just isn't there. Tigerwood Pure Parfum and EO N°1: Assam Pure Parfum smell like Francesca Bianchi perfumes which are 1/6-1/8 the price. Actually worse, I'd say. Blue Kalbar Pure Parfum smells like Santa Sangre, which is 1/3 the price, but even simpler with a tame soapy floral chypre drydown. Kyara Koko Pure Parfum and Jungle Kinam Pure Parfum are alright, but oh so musty. Musty, musty, musty. Everything about these fragrances is so dark and damp and dull. Just a whole wave of brown covering your olfactory senses, without any notes popping. Confused openings that don't lead anywhere, and then a monolith of a fragrance that doesn't DO anything. I wanted to wear each a second time before reviewing and I was actually dreading putting them on again. And not because they were too "difficult" or I "didn't understand" them. Because they smelled like my grandma's potpourri. I don't even know what to do with the juice left in my samples. I can't just give them away to a non-fraghead unsuspecting party.

And where's the oud? I already kind of mentioned this in my Jungle Kinam Pure Parfum review, but any premium ingredients are just not that apparent. Again I feel the imposter syndrome creeping in. Is it just such great quality oud that it doesn't stink of a barnyard or present medicinally at all? I'm used to oud smelling a certain way, is it just that I've been smelling bad quality oud? Ensar started as an oud distiller and I have no doubt his oud oils are fantastic; that's how he got famous in the first place. I'm not an oud oil guy and I probably wouldn't know the difference anyway. But I'm sorry, the perfumes are just not there compositionally at all. Or materially even.

It's also insane to me that the only "official" way to experience Ensar Oud's spray perfumes is to shell out $300-400 on a 15ml of the cheapest fragrance they offer. How many unsuspecting people have fallen for the hype and marketing and spent this money only to find that they received a mid fragrance? Then they have to justify it to themselves and others, so they continue the hype and pretend that they're enjoying it. As an indie brand not sold in any physical stores, not offering any kind of samples for your perfumes is just a nasty business tactic, especially for a brand this expensive.*

And the snobbery among the fans is absolutely insufferable. The reason I even bought these samples (from a third party for stupidly expensive prices) were snobs responding to a post on a Facebook fragrance group I am part of looking for potential deals on Ensar Oud fragrances. They were laughing at him and talking about how you gotta "pay to play" in the big leagues with this kind of premium perfumery. I jumped in and mentioned how diminishing returns means that I was sure that Ensar wasn't worth the money, and I got talkings down to, as if I were a complete newbie and didn't understand the complexities of the craft. Everyone talks about niche snobs as if they're all over the place. I've rarely encountered any. But oud snobs definitely exist, and the first brand they get into to feel superior about themselves is Ensar Oud. Little boys spending daddy's money, pretending they know the first thing about perfumery.

Not to say real fans who are very knowledgable don't exist. But they aren't the snobs. And that's where the imposter syndrome comes in. Who am I to say these fragrances aren't very good when there's loads of people in the know who are spending thousands upon thousands to experience his latest creations?

Someone make sense of Ensar Oud for me. Am I a complete dolt that doesn't understand perfumery, even after trying 1200+ fragrances, smelling loads of raw materials, and dipping my toes into amateur perfumery myself? Is there something past the musty floral fog that I'm supposed to see? Are these just the worst 5 fragrances of Ensar's entire oeuvre that I happened to sample and I have to pay $1000/30ml rather than $600 to get the best stuff? Let me know in the comments.

*After writing the article I realized there is a 3x9.5ml "sample" set available currently, but it is priced at $475 which is actually MORE expensive than the single cheapest bottle at the lowest volume. So my point still stands that the minimum cost to experience any kind of Ensar Oud perfume "officially" is $300-400