agar (odhu)

AgarAura's previous Japanese incense-inspired blends have been outstandingly popular, but Kyoto marks the launch of our new 'Smoke Infusion' series and give incense lovers an experience like no other.

Take a look at the ingredient list of the finest Japanese incense mixes, and you notice they are short and simple. It is the qualityof the raw materials and the precise ratios in which they are used that sets them apart. 

In that vein, Kyoto was formulated with minimal ingredients. But its more than just a concoction of essential oils. What makes it unique is the fact that its infused with the smoke of fine Vietnamese agarwood, vintage Indian sandalwood, and honey. The painstaking and time-consuming process of enfleuraging the smoke took almost a year to complete
And its no exaggeration that this is literally incense in a bottle.

Formulated using some of the most traditional ingredients, Kyoto is an olfactory journey several centuries back to the imperial court of Japan. Unscrew the cap, and you would almost think there is incense burning right under your nose.A word to the wise, if you are a fan of agarwood or sandalwood, you don't want to miss out on Kyoto.

Oud comes from the wood of the tropical Agar (Aquilaria) tree, believed to have originated in the Assam region of India, and from there spread throughout Southeast Asia. When the wood of this tree gets infected with a certain mould variety (Phialophora parasitica), it reacts by producing a precious, dark and fragrant resin, which is the perfume ingredient oud (also called agarwood).

Oud (in Arabian ‘oudh’) is highly valued by perfumers for its sweet, woody, aromatic and complex scent. It is used in forms of oud oil (dehn al oud) or raisin (oud mubakhar). The oil of oud, whether extracted by distillation from wood, or by melting the raisin, is non-irritating and can be applied directly on the skin, or added in a perfume composition, most often as a base note.

The odour of agarwood is complex and pleasing, with few or no similar natural analogues. As a result, agarwood and its essential oilgained great cultural and religious significance in ancient civilizations around the world, being mentioned throughout one of the world's oldest written texts – the Sanskrit Vedas from India.

There are seventeen species in the genus Aquilaria and eight are known to produce agarwood. In theory agarwood can be produced from all members; however, until recently it was primarily produced from A. malaccensis. A. agallocha and A. secundaria are synonyms for A. malaccensis. A. crassna and A. sinensis are the other two members of the genus that are usually harvested.

Formation of agarwood occurs in the trunk and roots of trees that have been infected by a parasitc ascomycetous mould,Phaeoacremonium parasitica, a dematiaceous (dark-walled) fungus. As a response, the tree produces a resin high in volatile organic compounds that aids in suppressing or retarding the fungal growth, a process called tylosis. While the unaffected wood of the tree is relatively light in colour, the resin dramatically increases the mass and density of the affected wood, changing its colour from a pale beige to dark brown or black. In natural forest only about 7% of the trees are infected by the fungus. A common method in artificial forestry is to inoculate all the trees with the fungus. Oud oil can be distilled from agarwood using steam, the total yield of agarwood (Oud) oil for 70 kg of wood will not exceed 20 ml (Harris, 1995).

The First International Scientific Symposium on Agarwood was held at the Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, during 2013 under the auspices of Associate Professor Dr. Rozi Mohamed.

Psychoactive is one way to describe it.  Mind-blowing is another.

A perfumer's guilty pleasure, oud oil, also known as agarwood essential oil, is without a doubt the most refined olfactory merchandise available anywhere.

The distillation of oud oil has become an art form in its own right. Bursting with a rich and enchanting aroma, aficionados study classic oud samples as they would the Mona Lisa.

These days, a new fad has taken root among designer perfume lines – Dior, Tom Ford, Yves Saint Laurent, Estee Lauder, to name a few – who have started to incorporate agarwood scents into their mainstream products.

However, producing high-end oud today is a thing of the past. We no longer have access to the grade of agarwood previously used in its production. That, and you could never supply such a precious material to the mass-market without manipulating the process by introducing chemical additives of all sorts. Consequently, the market for essential oud oil has become tainted by the spread of such synthetic products being sold as 'agarwood/oud oil', while in fact they hardly qualify.

While perfumers worldwide have only just stepped onto the stage of oud oil, Ensar Oud has already drawn its curtain. We offer vintage oud oils - oud distilled many years ago, in trademark fashion, from a grade of agarwood now impossible to get hold of, which was then left to naturally age and mature ever since.

The Vintage LTD oils in the Ensar Oud collection were painstakingly produced by the most highly qualified distilleries in the Far East. Our unheard-of distillation techniques and rigid standards of purity means that the agarwood oil you get from us is a very different products compared to the generic qualities you can find in the common market. For one, we made sure that incense quality raw agarwood was used in the production of our agarwood oils. Too expensive for common distributors to implement, this was common practice at Ensar Oud.

The agarwood tree is a tall evergreen that spans across the majority of south east Asia. With more famous and sought after species presiding in north east India, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, it can also be found in Laos, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and Myanmar.

Agarwood, also known as oud and aloeswood, is a dark resin that forms in the heartwood of the Aquilaria genus of the Thymelaeaceae family, after it becomes infected with a certain mould. As the infection progresses, the tree creates this dark aromatic resin to help combat the infection. This infected wood is prized for its unique and distinctive fragrance.

This precious wood is then sorted into different grades and ground into chips or powder before being distilled, with the most common methods being either steam or hydro distillation.

As a fragrance pure agarwood oil can differ massively, with the main factors that influence the final scent coming down to the grade and age of the wood, the care and skill during distillation, and the geographical location and species of the tree.