EO 3: Yunnan Sultan

EO No 3 is about olfactory opulence, the overflowing gush of oud, rose, and musk to create my signature Ghalia. Each note in the trio showcases not just the best possible version of it available but unique chords made out of each.

Royal Ta’ifi rose, vintage Myitkyina oud, and a mélange of Tibetan, Tonkin, and Mongolian musks form the core of the fragrance. A core that’s rounded off with old ambergris that, too, hails from the royal court… 

Other than cranking up the concentration, It’d be a challenge to offer you a more lavish rose perfume drunk on oud wearing a garment made of musks perfume.

“The opening is so incredibly fresh and bright it captures the headspace of the most opulent rose imaginable. 

There’s not a heavy vibe about it, even in the late stages of development, the ambergris seems to lift and brighten the oud and base accords.” – Mitchell, USA

Designing and then smelling a semi-bespoke perfume is a feast for both the perfumer and the one the perfume is made for. It lets the perfumer bust open the lock of the commercial cage that confines him to mass market his composition, while the fragheads who gain direct access to the world’s most exotic collection of aromatics get to define their own limits for what flies and doesn’t fly in perfumery.

I’m always surprised by the out-of-the-box thinking. I doubt I would have ever thought of doing what Hamid requested be done. When it comes to rose-oud perfumes, my mind automatically wanders into Indo-Chinese territory. The spiciness, the warmth, the lush wildflower funk of a fine Hindi just works wonders with rose. That’s why I chose a peerless Burmese oud for EO3.

“It’s the smoothest, freshest, most jammy rose I have ever smelled. Every drop of bitterness seems to be pulled out of it to make it as pure as possible.

It’s literally the most luxurious smell I have ever smelled. Everything ends here. There is no above. I found my grail.” – Marvin, Germany

But what would happen if you crank up a perfume that’s already heavy on the oud – oud of the highest order, and more of it than the entire compound base of many finished perfumes? How would the Ta’ifi rose be thickened when more than a third of the perfume oozes oud? What beautiful kind of resinous cloud do you expect people to walk through when you’re nearby?

But it’s not just about percentages here. It’s no exaggeration to say that there’s more oud in this semi-bespoke than in close to 100% of other oud perfumes, and of a markedly higher standard. But it’s the choice that Hamid went with that lets No 3 take a truly unexpected turn.

Jayapura & Yunnan oud + Tonkin Musk, in one bottle. It’d make sense when I tell you such a brew only happened once. If I had more Yunnan oud, I’d be tempted to do a second version of EO3 just with that because of how it contains all the qualities that made Myitkyina such a great choice, and how it would also add its inherently resinous citrus tone to the lemony signature in the best Ta’ifi rose. 

Well, there’s as much Yunnan agarwood in this semi-bespoke perfume as there is Myitkyina… so you and I both now get to smell the exalting effect it has on a rose-centered perfume.

Or do we? The Jayapura sneaks into the base and does funny things to it. Unexpected chord disruption, on paper… chaos. But smell it…

EO No 3 beefed up with a one-of-a-kind Sultani – on top of the Sultan’s Myitkyina – turns opulence into extravagance. Worth every spritz.