Kinam Rouge

Vietnamese oud stained by the deep red of Rose 1978 and the rouge of red champaca, myrrh and musk-infused patchouli. Kinam Rouge smells like a rich resinous cherry oud, velvet smooth with a liqueur-like olfactory texture.

Saffron oleoresin imbibed by grapefruit and red mandarin drunk on carnation come together to bedazzle you with boozy top notes you haven’t encountered before. 

Add henna’s herbaceous rouge to juhi and red cedar and the heart melts with a rich sweetness. This decadent crimson heart pulsates off frangi’s fusion with red champa to lend an exquisite floral tone to the zesty top.

Where frankincense is fresh and citrusy, red myrrh is soulful, earthy, and adds a darker syrupy sweet tone that works like magic with the rich creamy tang of the highest quality frangipani.

I wanted the scent to be dense and layered, overflowing almost – but not dark. Lush red, yes! But not too noir…

Enter a dash of pink pepper at the top and pink lotus (it took us ages to find a harvest worth using, which makes its maiden appearance here) alongside the henna-decorated frangi-champa fusion. The lily’s buttery pink is morphed by the pasty plumeria and red champaca’s narcotic fondant to create a spicy burgundy finish.

The sensual top notes that lead you to a luxury floral theater where the notes all play in unison is backed by a base ensemble composed of the quintessential red oud – Vietnamese oud – in the form of Kinam Rouge coupled with Nha Trang Saafi (both now discontinued) oozing out pristine crassna-sinensis resin right into a gush of the reddest Sultani Oud in our collection.

The effect of the ∼30-40 years-aged Malaysian oud made me think hard about naming this perfume “Oud Ahmad” after the famously red 2001 Kelantan distillation. But it’s the way this incense-grade oldie (even the oldest, rarest Malaysian ouds you could wish to find would likely be two decades younger than this vintage marvel) and the Nha Trang and grapefruit and carnation inside the frangi inside the magnolia inside the vintage red rose inside the red jasmine all painted with henna dried with red cedar that makes this Kinam Rouge.

The limited edition full-grain Italian calf hide jacket was handmade by Habib Dingle and the brew comes steeped in Black Ambergris SQ, while our in-house infusion of full-spectrum patchouli with Tibetan musk (by itself a feast!) adds lift and projection to the perfume and the reddened musked-up patchouli’s earthen verve to the otherwise super oudy drydown. This is not only the first raw-musk-infused patchouli I know of, but these ancient musk pods’ truffle-like flavor imbues the amber-earthy aroma of fine patchouli with a priceless edge.

TOP
Red Cedar
Red Mandarin
Grapefruit

HEART
Henna
Saffron
Frangipani
Red Champaca
Juhi (Jasmine)
Rose 1978
Carnation

BASE
Bourbon Vanilla
Wild Vietnamese Oud
Vintage Malaysian Oud
Musk-Infused Patchouli
Black Ambergris SQ
Myrrh

Kinam Rouge smells regal. Dense and sultry. At the same time, there’s a playful, teasing brightness to the opening that makes it not only highly wearable anywhere, but enticingly so. Addictive. A brightness that beautifully reflects all red olfactory wonders, the oud and musk and the henna-laced precious petals that surge in by the half-hour with their more auspicious tenor. (That’s when the thought hits you again: “Time for another spritz!”)

But all the red wonders are in truth accessory chords built around the main theme of this perfume: the legendary oud oil Kinam Rouge, the first Vietnamese oud we ever offered on EO. Distilled in 2014, it remains one of the oldest Vietnamese distillations out there, and it’s an oil that has only grown in renown since we stopped selling it in order to eventually make this perfume.

No matter how hard you try, you cannot distill Kinam Rouge again. And as with all old ouds, even if you could distill it, you can never account for the years it’s aged – the new version will take another eight years to smell like what this one smelled like today. 

To sing true to the beauty of this landmark distillation and also bid it farewell, we’ve composed an olfactory poem with it. To remember it, and to see it imprint its unique DNA on this perfume bearing its legendary name.

Featured Testimonials…

Velvety red florals with a cherry liqueur vibe, sour Vietnamese oud giving the kinamic facets to end in a strong resinous base with animalic black ambergris and patchouli musk infusion.

 

An unapologetically floral oud!

—Paulo C / USA