Imagine walking down the halls of an imperial library where, instead of books, each shelf is lined with green boxes containing crystal flasks filled with sinking-grade agarwood; the choicest rose harvests the world has to offer; musk pods from all species of deer dating back centuries; colossal ambergris rocks… frankincense, jasmine, sandalwood, vetiver – all carefully selected by a team of experts who serve one solitary customer and none besides.
As a kid, I used to wonder about the galaxies and it never failed to bewilder my mind. Thinking about the number of centennial agarwood trees needed to fill up such a collection is even more mind-boggling.
What if you could wander through this osmotheque? Not just roam freely but also swipe to your heart’s content; explore and open the green boxes that house the crystals and the gold flasks, untouched by sun or light. Unopened for decades.
Where would you even begin? As you ponder how many tons of black agarwood must have gone into filling those flasks, you can’t help by think “For all the advancements in perfumery, how come nothing smells like this anymore?”
After the tour, the curator gives you full access and commissions you to compose a perfume for the man who made it his mission to gather all these aromatics from all over the world. You may open and choose any of the green boxes for the composition, and pocket as much musk & ambergris as you can carry.
Then, once you’ve lined up your selection and tinctured the musk and ambergris, the curator pulls out a special box and tells you, “Here, make this the star of the show…”
Little did anyone know that this library existed, and that forty-odd years after those flasks were put on the shelves, they’d end up in the EO atelier. And that, from the atelier, instead of going to the patron who made it all possible the perfume would end up in a 15 ml bottle, on your shelf.
The curator’s secret ingredient was a blend of rose, oud, and spices you could “smell from 15 miles away” (this is how Omanis describe the royal collection). A mukhallat composed by time as the ingredients have macerated year after year into a scent you cannot decipher. You smell the rose—but what a rose! And the oud—but what oud! Like the library’s antique musk, separate pieces turned into an inseparable whole, you get to indulge in a fragrance that’s literally from another era.
A soft whiff of cardamom fused with an unorthodox duo of green mandarin and French rose lines the top notes which gradually make way for the full force of what Sultan Red Rose has to showcase: two rare harvests of vintage and exceptionally diffusive Ta’ifi rose extracts that form the heart of the composition.
Vintage rose and oud, even if simply blended neat create this rich deep-red liqueur which is a beautiful companion to the red tenor of Rose de Mai with that slight tinge of mandarin amped up with a citrus sweet Hojari note.
The heady vintage heart is enhanced by one of my most prized sinking-grade Malaysians, which adds a layer of resinous, pull-your-hair-out gorgeous, oudy element to the composition.
Distilled decades ago, the Sultan’s sinking-grade Malaysian oud is so rich, you smell it right in the opening, while its ultra replete agarwoody profile is brought to life by the diffusive power of the Ta’ifi roses.
If you’ve smelled Oud Sultani and Purple Kinam, picture a mix of the two and you’ll have a rough idea what the Malaysian smells like.
This narcotic purpleness drenched in that sinking-oud-rose mukhallat’s velvet liqueur heart gives off gentle wafts of Hojari sweetness in the background, intertwined with the lush olde Malayzi with just a touch of tobacco to compliment the juicy tone the Ta’ifi roses bring to the profile.
Creating a perfume using our curator’s vision to acquire the world’s most delectable ouds and flowers and unite them in what would become a royal artifact—embroidered by today’s most sought-after aromatics—was a challenge and a privilege.
Few have heard… felt… an oud tree heavy with hard sinking resin hit the ground—the earth doesn’t shake; it thunders—or gazed at football fields full of roses, or swam out to collect a massive floating ‘rock’ at sea, or tried to clean up after handling the stickiest musk pods from yesteryear.
But that’s what you get here, bottled.
What Customers are saying about Sultan Red Rose…
“After spending a lot of time with this perfume, I’m still struggling to put into words how incredible it truly is. The syrupy rose feel I get from this is just so addicting. A sillage that leaves everyone baffled and mesmerized. I ordered the 15ml but got the 30 ml by mistake, after getting the first whiff I was adamant on paying for the rest of it. That should tell you everything!”
Hamza • Denmark
I received my Sultan Red Rose this evening! Thank you so much!! And thank you for the gift of Hong Kong Ghalia (it is gorgeous) and the samples.
I spent an hour writing a review on Trust Pilot and then I think it got tossed when I tried to submit it. I seem to be having problems with all kinds of mail.
Ensar Oud has spoiled me for anything else. There is simply no “niche” or “designer” house that comes within a million miles…not even Frederic Malle’s The Night….which I managed to get a sample of, and which I thought I had to have until I bought Sultan Red Rose and Oud Yusef… And spent days sipping the few samples that you sent along with them.
There is no way that I can afford to buy some of your fragrances. But believe it or not, reading the detailed poetic descriptions again and again gives me such tremendous pleasure that it’s almost enough to satisfy my craving.
Perfume houses are businesses. They exist to make money. Perhaps some of the great noses and perfumers create fragrance because of their passion for scent. But not not the companies they work for.
When I read your articles and descriptions, it is clear to me that this is not a business for you; it is your passion and your art. It is more than even that; it is intertwined with your spirit. It is a prayer. And I believe that Ensar Oud is the vehicle for sharing that quest and passion with the rest of us.
Thank you for that.
This was Jen, my beautiful bride’s, SOTD #june2023. A beautiful combination of pure rose mixed with the ethereal magic that is the Sultan Red Rose. As Shakespeare once said “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet.” Well after enjoying this layered combination all day, we can say that Shakespeare was wrong. For that statement to be true, it would have to say an “EO ROSE”. She received several compliments this morning and she basked in the beauty of these fragrances. Such a joy to be able to experience.
It’s divine, and fascinating. I have never had perfume of this quality and depth before, it is just amazing. My favourite, but all Ensar Oud perfumes I’ve bought are my favourites.
It’s marvelous. Smells like syrup at the very beginning. Although after some time I felt as if I was walking through a thick scarlet mist. The fragrance lingered besides me but I could catch anything specific. I could only smell the sweetness, but could not recognize any characteristics of roses in my memory. The scent is deep, yet ethereal. A brand new experience.
Minutes ago,I applied this perfume again. This time I can finally distinguish oud and rose of high quality,creamy and rich.
My friend and I all agree it is worth the price!
Unbelievably great! I can’t put into words how magical this perfume is. Out of all of the Rose Oud perfumes that I have smelled to date, this one is my favorite!
Just received and sprayed it – now the magic fills my room, my street, my city, my world… awesomeness! It seems like a masterpiece! So powerful!
EDIT: Day by day, I love Sultan Red Rose PP even more. It’s really amazing! It‘s a masterpiece.
Truly a honour to be able to experience such a perfume! You’re right, the musk is so LOUD right now!… getting the sweetness and spicy rose! WOW.
It’s a work of art, the one and only, thank you for bringing it to us!
My goodness, what a rose! 24 hours later and I can still smell the one spray I put on my wrist last night. It’s hard to do this fragrance justice with words, it has to be smelled to be believed. You can see my reaction to it when I first smelled it last night.
It left me speechless. I had to sit back in my chair. It put images of giant, radiant melting rubies in my head.
It has a sweetness to it, a freshness, an intensity and energy that reaches out and slaps you in the nose when you experience it. I had my wife smell it this morning and she did a double take on it. “Wow what is that? Wait you put that on last night?” This is a sweet rose jam that screams off your skin. The Queen, the King, the Emperor of Rose. I could write on and on about this fragrance, and I’ve only worn it once. I’m already obsessed with it. If you’re passionate about rose and enjoy sweet fragrances, please try this. It’s worth the experience.
“Quite a different one from Ensar Oud 3, oud and a marshmallow cloud of taif roses. I’m a huge nerd for the rose-oud combo fragrances out there, but this is really, really something else. Finishes with a badass ride of ambergris.”🤘🏻🤫
Carlitoismael • Baltimore, Maryland
A new queen is ordained with one simple twist it touches your loved ones and gives you a warm embrace and a kiss… Sultan Red Rose please don’t miss this once in your lifetime opportunity…
For 40 or more years rose was my first love then after decades I grew bored and in my case I reached to Serge Lutens, Fredrick Malle Portrait of a lady first edition, and may I add sorry that’s my little bit of ego talking.
And my big finds of the time Tribute & Homage which in my opinion is the greatest rose fragrance ever, until now.
Sultan Red Rose surpasses any rose fragrance because until know it was about beauty and love to the special one that smells it. Now Homage, after 30 years is able to retire and enjoy its glory, as Sultan Red Rose gracefully takes its place.
The warm embrace from your loved ones, to be finally caressed in a warm embrace and for the very first time kissed…
Incredible! It can be said to be the pinnacle of rose oud!
After running my nose through countless oud-rose combos, I think I’ve finally found the most luscious of the lot! A sultry, resplendent, and rosaceous work of art from EO: Sultan Red Rose!
You are presented with the olfactory equivalent of biting into a cardamom pod. A mind-numbing euphoria of kaleidoscopic green tints. There is a raw sweetness along with tangs of bitterness from citrus notes.
The biggest player in the opening however is the French Rose, which has a vegetal stem with piquant thorns. Easily one of the freshest openings for an oud-rose fragrance.
What happens next with this fragrance never ceases to amaze me. The dry down is red—I mean super red. Think March 16, 2020 level of red or the crimson leather feel of Kashmiri Saffron. Then picture yourself being slowly engulfed in a bed of redolent rose petals. That is what the Taifi Rose in this fragrance does. I say engulfed because of the thousands of Taifi Roses it would have taken to create the oil used in this fragrance; quite literally enough to bury anyone.
There is an elegant freshness along with an unmistakable honeyed sweetness, which I’m sure is propelled by frankincense. Oud slowly sinks into the roses, which has you constantly lifting your wrist up throughout the day. It is cleaner than any synthetic Oud while being as meditative as some of the finest Hindi Ouds.
The addictive and projective qualities are heightened by a noticeable musk. Ambergris not only provides a slight saltiness but also buoyancy – as if you have risen to the surface of the rose pool.
Sultan Red Rose is truly in the upper echelon of oud-rose fragrances. The sheer redness of it has you thinking about it even when you are not wearing it. It’s beyond me that this hasn’t sold out yet.
This is Rose/Oud done right, a beautiful composition.
Imagine Tibetan Musk with the jammy, and ethereal sweet rose amped up. Add a bit of spice, resins, a nice kick of Oud, and a hint of Rambutan and Lychee undertone. A lot of depth, very elegant, and uplifting. This is exactly how I imagine all Rose/Oud compositions are supposed to smell like.
Now that I’m spoiled by it, not sure how am I going to settle for anything less. Sultan Red Rose is the benchmark and the reference for all Rose/Oud combo, at least it is for me. This profile has imprinted and registered in my scent memory bank permanently, can’t be undone now.
What a gorgeous scent, almost feel undeserving to be wearing the SRR in my pajama at home, this one deserves a tuxedo, no less.
Bravo Ensar Oud, another gem under your belt.
Ben W. (USA)