Nha Trang

‘Bitter’ can be a deceptive word to describe a scent. Depending on what smell you’re using as a reference, bitterness could denote a kind of fermented twang (not a good thing), while to some it could just mean a scent that’s overly astringent.

But in oud nomenclature, this “bitter” note is highly sought-after and goes hand-in-hand with the most premium caliber agarwood.

If you’ve read my descriptions, you’d have noticed that “bitter” and “narcotic” tends to come up when talking about kinamic oud profiles because you can’t separate that bitter, medicinal glaze from the finest oud oils the same way you can’t separate sheer age from the most precious gemstones.

While there are many aromatics that have a facet of bitterness to them, there’s a single aromatic that embodies bitterness in a truly unique way – so much so that in perfumery, it’s the quintessential Oriscent chord.

I’m speaking, of course, about the peerless medicinal narcotic scent of top-end Nha Trang agarwood…

What if you could inject the exquisite thick, creamy yellow floral beauty of tuberose with the narcotic zest of Nha Trang oud? If you could take that fusion and lacquer it with carnation dipped in a pond reddened by saffron and juhi and filter that scent through a diffuser stuffed with old-school Vietnamese sinkers…

Beeswax sticky with the bitter bliss of Nha Trang resin. A power duo of pink lotus and narcissus softened by vintage roses decorated by henna – all pushed through a funnel thickly lined with Vietnam’s legendary agarwood…

Out comes a sweetness you can taste bursting with a floral-oudy mark branded in bold, still hot with the smoke of an oud that “is not of this dimension.”

NOTES:
Narcissus
Tuberose
Jasmine Juhi
Rose 1978
Ruh Gulab
Orange flower
Carnation
Davana
Saffron
Henna
Champaca
Pink Lotus

Nha Trang Oud (Oriscent)
Patchouli Infused with Musk
Black Ambergris
Bourbon Vanilla
Kashmiri Musk
Costus Root
Beeswax
Myrrh

I’ve been known, when asked what my favorite oud is, to reply without much thought: It’s Nha Trang.

And that’s the oud inside this perfume, and the scent its build around – the Nha Trang.

That makes this not just the only perfume of its kind, but the only perfume of its kind I’ll ever be able to make – Nha Trang was distilled almost fourteen years ago and it’s impossible to make another drop.

To showcase the perfume, leather maestro Habib Dingle dressed your bottle in full-grain Italian calf hide where every detail was painstakingly crafted by hand.

If a spritz of bitter narcotic kyara aroused by the world’s most elegant flower extracts sounds like a scent to remember, then here’s a bottle to keep that memory alive. 

Featured Testimonials…

I have never posted an actual review of anything during four or five years descending into this rabbit hole. I probably have around fifty bottles of oil and the same number of parfums to date, but now is the time if there ever was. I saw the customary Kruger email and, like many of us, we brace ourselves for that olfactory dreamscape and what it will cost to realize the same. It’s like the Gap Band, “I dropped a bomb on you Baby,” when I saw Nha Trang PP!

 

I promptly wrote Thomas Kruger and then arranged with Ensar Oud to do the thing: please add two more grams of Nha Trang and let’s go. When DHL delivered, I did not hesitate to give it a spritz three weeks ago. Nha Trang is not among the oils I possess, not a drop, no sampler, so there was no waiting.

 

The initial impression then was to feel the weight of the oil itself. I amped up this version of Nha Trang PP so that it would more closely approximate an attar in sprayable form and grasp that tenacious kinamic bite and it delivered! The composition is unique in that all the other components, significant as they are, manage to stay out of the way of the Nha Trang. Yet, that Black Ambergris adds its weight and enhances the tenacity of the oil. The other initial impression is the musk, but the patchouli with which it is infused is strangely absent to my nose at the opening. That musk gives a depth to the composition that is surprising, but not bottomless like we have known in other compositions like Oud Sultani, Tigerwood and Oud SQ.

 

The musk and Black Ambergris keep this composition humming in the background from opening through the first four or five hours. This is a contemplative and reflective composition, but as usual, NYC never lets you do that for too long, and this evening I had to run an errand after a long day at my desk and that offered the opportunity to experience the interaction of my body heat and walking through the pine of Christmas trees at a nearby Bodega. Body heat amplifies the musk and ambergris and that humming becomes real pulsating action, even muscular pumping. This thing can really turn it up if you take her out on the road or these fast lane pedestrian sidewalks we have in the City….and then it can cool down and align beautifully with the pine of the Christmas trees as you walk between the rows lining both sides of the sidewalk. I did not anticipate that beautiful environmental interaction with the composition after hustling in the streets.

 

Another interesting aspect to this composition is how aligned the oil is with the florals. You can smell the rose and tuberose on top, but the jasmine must be so aligned that my nose cannot detect it. I believe I can pull out the pink lotus and champaca, but this is testament to choosing the components in such a manner that they will step aside or line up with the oil.

 

Only after a few hours do the saffron and ruh gulab step in to make themselves better known. It begins to reveal a spiciness that also is one of those surprises on the journey and drydown. The oil’s tenacity and focus on center stage remains in the limelight from those extra grams. The oil never loses its grip, given how much sinking grade and incense grade went into the LTD. Perhaps the petrichor is more evident from the pine tree environmental suggestion to my nose, but it can show you a little jungle.

 

Only after the two or three hour mark does it reveal an even more laid back, smoothed edges, creaminess. The musk and ambergris are still humming in the background, with the spices still playing their parts. The champaca seems to take a more forward step that the orange flower must have imparted early on; though, only quite faint, with the champaca somehow merging with the saffron.

 

It’s weird, because while it smoothes out, the composition definitely reveals more spiciness as it dries down. I cannot reconcile that, but that is what my nose tells me. After the six to seven hour mark, the spices recede and it becomes a soft and rounded out hum. It becomes a muted and dark crimson red with hint of petrichor at the top. It wears well among a wide array of people.

 

I am more than pleased I did this insane thing, amping up the Nha Trang PP. In some years, Ensar has warned us repeatedly, the scarcity of materials will have us collectively appreciate what we have done and experienced in this community. It’s the rare opportunity to do the unthinkable and this was very much unthinkable a few years ago. Now it is reality and thank you Ensar and the EO Team for making the dreamwork.

—Edmond C / USA