Dom Kwan

This oil’s thick as beeswax – slow-oozing, glass-coating, and lush with that zesty tang of Siamese cherries that seem to ripen mid-air into golden pollen, a throwback to the character of old-school Sarawak distillations.

Swipe it on and a glossy, amber-gold sheen forms on your skin, wafting around its resinous vapor for hours. And where many fruit-forward ouds taper off into dusty notes of meh with little incense oomph, Dom Kwan does the opposite: it zooms straight in on the scent of raw, heated agarwood, decorated with delectable accessory notes.

Try this: Take a swipe and then walk from one room to another, then step outside and back in again, and smell how the scent keeps evolving in micro-shifts. It’s an oud of such depth you continue discovering throughout the day. In an air-conditioned dining room, it’s all syrupy, lip-licking sweetness; take a few steps outdoors and suddenly you’re greeted by a meditative, warm-wood hush. At the office you’ll catch yourself stealing discreet sniffs from the back of your hand, and each time a slightly different facet opens… thick, sugary top notes one moment, and the next, a calm, incense-led serenity.

The first Dom Kwan distillation sold out overnight nearly a decade ago. If you still have your bottle and wonder how this compares, the answer lies in the wood itself. The crassnas behind this distillation were older and the resin more mature. As a result, you’ll find the scent profile is now more nuanced and possesses a higher-grade incense profile compared to the straight-up fruity profile that came before. 

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where this scent fits on the oud spectrum. It dances between wildflowers and sun-dried timber, cushioned by a soft undercurrent of citrus-tinged honey. What’s most disarming, though, is the taste of it – so savory, so mouthwatering, that every time I uncap the bottle I’m half-tempted to dip in straight into my coffee. If there were ever a “gourmet savory” oud, this is it.