EO 4

The “cola” note.

Or is it a chord? A profile? A subtle veneer that intertwines with everything around it? Coca-Cola?

Many discern the cola effect in Tibetan Musk, and associate it as an intrinsic facet of deer musk. Still, musk ≠ cola. 

Often, people seek out the cola tone in certain ouds, notably vintage Malaysian distillations. Still, oud ≠ cola.

It could come from certain spice combos, yet spices ≠ cola.

That’s the thing – like musk, like ambergris, like oud or pure tobacco or osmanthus or clove, the cola note is best experienced and branded into your olfactory palate.

Not only do people ask for and seek out the cola note, there’s a proper infatuation with it on the rise! Sohail even commissioned a cola semi-bespoke.

It’s gotten to me as a perfumer to the extent that I’ve changed my signature series line-up because of it…

EO 1 is oud, EO 2 musk and EO 3 rose – each based on time-honored aromatics from perfume history.

But instead of next bringing you a house rendition of jasmine or vanilla or vetiver, I decided on… cola. And for this, I have our frag community to thank.

I would never have thought of putting “No 4” on a cola perfume. That’s what pushed me to do it. Creating an EO Cola that went further than just soda pop and licorice wasn’t only a challenge, but the nuanced way people experienced this note gave me new insights – and frankly, got me excited!

You can highlight the cola effect to different degrees – it is both an effect and a smell. 

To build this note, you’d reach for the likes of vanilla, tamarind, opoponax, peru balsam, anise or caraway to stir up a fizziness drenched in sweet vanillic syrup. To turn the brew into a home run, you’d get them all drunk on vintage Malaysian oud of the purple variety to add the darker contrast that intensifies the cola note.

If you’re familiar with them, you’d notice these aromatics share a thick, resinous sweetness, like caramelized myrrh dipped in a paste of blended dates. (They’re also literally thick/viscous to work with). But they’re not what defines the cola note…

A fine oud perfume doesn’t just contain oud. While this style of perfumery of using just one ingredient and diluting it has been a trend in modern perfumery the way showcasing one bushtroke of blue paint on a canvas and calling it art has become fashionable, that’s actually contra-perfumery…

Perfume aims to embellish and enrich certain aromatics; ornament and arrange them like a symphony would arrange different instruments, with perhaps a solo sax or piano performance as a highlight.

What would you have done with oud?

What would you have done with musk and rose?

What would you do with cola?

No 4 didn’t just set out to capture a cola note, but to inject EO’s DNA into it. To capture the cola note and the cola effect, the smell and the fizzle, and then some…

A fizziness, a rich purple chord with a glaze of cola makes it even more delectable, this medicinal bite that boasts loads of zest that makes No 4 sizzle almost. A sparkly, citrus soda effect, cola-fied in color.

When it comes to scent density vs. scent potency, a cola perfume will tend towards density over potency because of the typical class of aromatics required to create the cola note – balsams, oud, resins… dense, not loud botanicals.

But add carnation to vanilla and davana to carob and marigold to hyraceum, mix mango with the sweetness of osmanthus, inject Green Papua’s incense into seaweed… and see what it does to the perfume’s lift and projection. And smell how they’re all weaved into the cola note.

TOP NOTES
Davana
Carob
Tagetes
Seaweed

HEART NOTES
Rose Otto
Frangipani
Osmanthus
Jasmine

BASE NOTES
Vanilla
Tobacco
Patchouli
Ambergris SQ
Rayong Agarwood
Papuan Agarwood

*From blending to bottling, everything at EO is done by hand.

Featured Testimonials…

To be honest in the beginning I didn’t get what all the cola talk was about I could notice a slight Vanilla Coke aroma but not enough to convince me that it’s really resembling a cola smell. Now after quite a long time I’m getting a pungent cola note, a bit fizzy, purple and somehow mysterious. It’s quite an interesting scent which is quite heavy on the basenotes for me.

 

I’m very glad that I’ve kept my bottle and didn’t choose to let it go.

—Chris A / Germany

Have a sip !!!! Sparkling Effervescent Cola EO4

 

Right off the bat as the title say it all about EO4, it is amazing how Ensar can create this scent profile with natural ingredient and also very hard to describe this scent in words.

 

To me, this is NOT a normal Coca Cola BUT rather a Diet Coke because Coca

 

Cola is all synthetic sweetness. I feel EO4 has light sweet vanillic syrup which is good as i dont like it too much vanila sweet nor syrup taste.

 

Ensar quotes which totally 100% true

 

1/ “A sparkly, citrus soda effect, cola-fied in color”

2/ “……medicinal bite that boasts loads of zest…”

 

There are something else going on with top and middle note but cant describe it such as “add carnation to vanilla and davana to carob and marigold to hyraceum, mix mango with the sweetness of osmanthus, inject Green Papua’s incense into seaweed”

 

Lastly, the Agarwood he chose for the base is light and sensual touch, i guess it due to mixture of Patchouli and Vanila

 

Not a strong bold oud here for sure and i smell light airy of Ambergris on top of green soft minimal sweetness Agarwood.

—Jack N / USA