Borneo 3000

This is an enhanced, revamped edition, with an even higher oud concentration.

My mentor named this oud.

Twenty-one years ago, I had a few names in mind and went to him with the problem. When he heard that the wood it was distilled from cost $3,000 a kilogram, he said: “That’s it – Call it Borneo 3000.”

Neither of us knew, then, what we had just named.

What followed is something I still find hard to fully explain, even to people who’ve been into oud for years. Borneo 3000 didn’t just find an audience – it created one. There are collectors who will tell you, unprompted, that this was the oil that got them. Not just hooked on Borneo, but hooked on oud itself. At a time when most people who even knew the word “oud” only knew Hindis and Cambodians, Borneo 3000 introduced an entire generation to a new species. To Malinau. To Borneo.

For some, it set the standard. For others, it became the oud profile they’ve been chasing ever since. In many cases, both.

Its signature vanillic, cinnamony-honey profile doesn’t just make it the quintessential Malinau, but the most pristine portrait of the incredible sinking-grade agarwood it was distilled from. It quickly became and to this day remains the benchmark for artisanal Borneo oud. Sure, there have been Borneos like it – but not on par with it. In twenty years, I haven’t smelled its equal.

The distiller passed in 2016, and I don’t think people fully appreciate what that means.

Because what made Borneo 3000 wasn’t just the wood – it was him. His ability to capture the scent of quality Malinau agarwood so accurately, so profoundly. While there’s the obvious familiarity when you smell any oud from Malinau agarwood, his distillations captured the 3000 effect.

The original 2004 distillation sold out more than a decade ago. What we have – and what’s in this perfume – is from his final batches, 2015 and 2016. The last oud he ever made with this signature. We have held it back since.

B3K is built around Borneo 3000 – not as a reference, not as an homage from a distance, but with the actual distillation at its center, aged over a decade at this point, pushing through every layer of the fragrance.

I wanted to take everything that makes B3000 iconic – that floral cinnamon signature, the raspberry and honey, the semi-dry polleny texture – and saturate the perfume with it.

This perfume rendition is the supreme Borneo oud experience. That’s why, in addition to the oud itself, you also have Borneo oud hydrosol and raw Borneo oud resin in the carrier (not to mention ancient Tonkin musk and ambergris).

And this edition is brimming with oud, which makes up 60%+ of the composition, not counting the agarwood components in the carrier. That floral cinnamon signature, the raspberry and honey, the semi-dry polleny texture – you won’t catch faint echoes of it. The decade-old B3000 comes through everywhere, top to base.

If you know Borneo 3000, the oud, this is going to mean something specific to you. If you don’t, you’ll smell why an entire oud culture started around this distillation and why people lose their minds over Borneo oud.

TOP — Raspberry · Gardenia · Caraway · Golden Apple · Egyptian Jasmine · Strawberry · Pink Pepper · Honey

HEART — Borneo 3000 · Nanga Parbat · Sumatora · Mimosa · Elderflower · Water Lily · Violet

BASE — Borneo Agarwood Resin · Vintage Burmese Oud · Vintage Timor Sandalwood · Vintage Tigerwood Extract · Green Tea Extract · Bourbon Vanilla · Borneo Hydrosol · Royal Tonkin Musk · Royal Ambergris · Canadian Castoreum

Reviews of the previous edition…