Oud Mostafa No 5

The little oil presented to you here is the pinnacle of Oud – lock, stock, and barrel. It transcends differences of agarwood species, locales, distillation ‘techniques’, age of trees, wild or cultivated, soaking methods and pot materials (copper, glass, steel).

In an olfactory dictionary (scratch-and-sniff) of all the scents in the natural world, this would be the scent you’d find if you looked up ‘oud oil’.

If the term ‘oudy oud’ had any meaning, then this would be the ‘oudiest’ of all ouds.

Having spent much of my life distilling and collecting rare oud oils from all corners of the globe, I can easily say that for me this is the culmination and apex of all things Oud.

I have only encountered this fragrance on four occasions in my entire career. The first, and perhaps mightiest of them all, was the original Oud Sulaiman LTD. Wild harvested Burmese distilled in 2006. The second was Oud Mostafa. Wild harvested Burmese distilled 2010. The third was an extremely limited run of West Malaysian wood distilled 2012. This was called Kyaratul Mostafa and only sold privately.

What you have here – ‘Oud Mostafa No 5’ – is the smoothest version of the fragrance produced to date, including its predecessor variant distilled from the same raw materials (Oud Mostafa No 4). Cultivated Cambodian agarwood, distilled in the legendary Koh Kong Province. A Cambodian Oud Mostafa? You bet.

This oud is of historical significance, for many reasons. For one, it presents a mind-boggling comeback of the otherwise comatose Koh Kong agarwood scene.

Secondly, it is anything but ‘Cambodi’ in profile. If ‘kinam’ is the epitome of oud wood, the scent presented here is the apex of agarwood oil. And it’s neither classic Cambodi nor contemporary Thai. It is the timeless immortal scent of Oud, purified of all machinations, as it was known and cherished through the centuries by sages and saints alike.

Thirdly, and most importantly, Oud Mostafa No 5 obliterates and removes all barriers between wild-harvested and cultivated oud. It even goes to show that, in the right hands, cultivated oud can even surpass wild-harvested agarwood oil. It speaks of a dazzling world of organic cultivated agarwood fragrances in which the wild, highly endangered counterparts are given a chance to exist.

I have not chosen this oud to bear the name of our beloved Prophet, except that I find it to be the most soul-stirring and spiritually intoxicating fragrance I could possibly produce.

There is nothing ordinary about this oil. One first encounters a composed sweetness enough to make any Borneo jealous.

A moment’s reflection reveals a pristine spicy-earthiness just subtle enough not to disturb the fertile fruity overtones.

The notes are incense grade, powdery wood accords, buttery heart notes of oudy, almost incensey delectabilities, with a soft and delicate aura that resonates and perfumes the air around you with the scent of a sacred garden grove. Smells extremely similar to Oud Mostafa No 1, but yet unique and special in its own way, especially in its softness, smoothness and incredible sweetness.

Oud Mostafa dances with the senses, like the wind with the leaves, spiraling from the earth to the air, but not a moment goes by without you being reminded that this is a scent from another world.

Its rich aromatic plethora revolves around its aloes woody centre like the planets around the sun, always swimming along their orbits, always showing you a different side of it.

What immediately sets this oil apart is its viscosity. Certain ouds have the capacity to be extracted thick and we have a unique distillation technique to capture that thickness. No 5 is velvety smooth on you skin, and with that blast of oudy oomph that characterizes the Mostafa series, think of No 5 as the thick, sticky version of Oud Mostafa No 4.