Enchanted Jasmine: Chenla

There’s a long history of rose-oud attars and perfumes, but for some reason you hear far less, if at all, about jasmine-oud perfumes. 

This started off as a semi-bespoke perfume project we worked on three years ago, but was never brought to fruition. That concept grew into an attar. The attar, in turn, became the bedrock to continue building what finally became what we wanted to be the ultimate jasmine fragrance…

Jasmine has always been a staple in EO attars and perfumes, but with Enchanted Jasmine we set out to create the jasmine/oud perfume with EO’s DNA in full force.

The heart of the aroma aims for an exquisite burgundy red. Hints of raspberry and strawberry are only featured to subtly influence the two stars of the composition: Vintage jasmine (from the 1980s) and a rare unreleased Oriscent Cambodi that makes jasmine smell even more exquisite than you thought it could.

It’s pretty simple if you think about it: Use the finest jasmine and oud money can buy, and you’re good to go…

Of course, finding those two is a tall order. 

But that’s what you have here. Rare, high-grade agarwood resin crafted in the exquisite fashion of a timeless olfactory pagoda, infused with forty-year-old jasmine, direct from the royal vault.

You could compose a simple jasmine/oud duo and call it a day, but with Enchanted Jasmine the duo is the cornerstone upon which we took artistic license to add some EO and Oriscent flair to the SQ collection. 

TOP
Mango
Raspberry
Lavender
Basil

HEART
Jasmine SQ
Jasmine Grandiflorum
Jasmine Sambac

BASE
Chenla (Oriscent Oud)
Sandalwood
Bourbon Vanilla
Royal Musk SQ
Grey Ambergris
Orris Root

Chanla is one of the most challenging Cambodian ouds we’ve ever distilled, and we’ve distilled our fair share. Part of the challenge was that it was not distilled in Cambodia, but that we collected harvests over several months, sorted, graded, ground, packaged, and then hand-carried the dust to Taiwan, where it was hailed as the finest raw material distilled there to date.

In terms of profile, it shares a thread of DNA with Royal Kinam – a red bitter note that you will not find even the highest-grade Cambodis. And it’s this bitter-red heart that makes it so incredible when injected with vintage jasmine’s succulent red aroma. 

Rose is inherently diffusive, which works really well with oud, and particularly well with dark-profiled ouds where the contrast makes the scent pop. Jasmine, on the other hand, is much denser aromatic that requires a more piercing, sparkly oud to dance with. And that’s just what Chenla gives you: An Oriscent sparkle, a diffusive, boozy, medicinal, almost sinensis-like pitch that makes Enchanted Jasmine the perfume to end all jasmine perfumes.

Who wants another boring floriental when you can have everything that makes jasmine so stunning, decked out ghalia fashion drenched in Chenla, a kyara-dry fusion that opens the fragrance as the lush vintage jasmine core moves more and more to the front as the minutes go by?

Smell that Chenla incense slowly beginning to smoke up your scarf until the drydown comes and the resinous agarwood tangoes with smooth sandalwood and mango-sweetened jasmine opening that drips with bourbon vanilla, all whirling in a musk-amber-oud trifecta that lets your spritz pop and bedazzle you and everyone around you.