Nuit de Ceylan

It’s like Sri Lankan oud appeared out of nowhere… and then disappeared just like that. 

We were fortunate to have been there during that brief window to capture the unique olfactory portrait while we could. As if subconsciously sensing the urgency, we moved to Sri Lanka to scour for rare Walla Patta and distill this unique breed of agarwood artisanally.

You might have noticed that we don’t currently sell any Sri Lankan ouds. It’s simply because you can’t get the same scent again, so you must be super picky about when and/or how to use any. On the ground, buying the raw agarwood to distill was like watching Bitcoin boom. The prices kept shooting up in real time.

Then the floods hit.

We were there for that as well – right in the thick of it. Watch this video for a glimpse at the devastation that made buildings crumble, bridges collapse, and agarwood lay buried under thick layers of mud.

(I predict we might see a similar sudden reappearance of agarwood from Sri Lanka once excavation unearths these buried treasures. If that’ll happen in our lifetime is a different question…)

For now, and for the foreseeable future, what we distilled between 2016-2019 is all there is of this caliber Walla Patta oud. And this isn’t just me saying that…

You can find out more about the story here, but we already started to pull our Sri Lankan ouds as far back as 2019 when most of the demand for expensive oils and wood didn’t come from our retail customers, but from distillers themselves. 

The same trend has continued. Just last month distillers and wood collectors from the Far East and China visited us in Jordan and all but begged for, among other things… Sri Lankan oud. 

We didn’t sell a drop.

But it’s not just a matter of obtaining the best raw Walla Patta. While living in Sri Lanka, we were bombarded with phone calls (I still don’t know how they got our number) from folks who were, almost equally urgently, trying to distill Sri Lankan oud – but failing miserably.

“I’ve lost kilos! What am I doing wrong!?”

“The yield is terrible, how do you do it!?”

“I keep burning the oil, what should I do?”

Some of these guys were very persistent. The problem was that they all followed the Indian school of distillation. It’s all they knew. But that’s not how you coax the finesse of those fine Walla Pattan minty aquamarine notes from the wood – it’s how you destroy them! Not to mention the caliber Walla required to capture the immaculate Suriranka profile – nobody else would even think of distilling Walla that expensive.

It was in the midst of our Sri Lankan escapades that I started working on a project called “Nuit de Ceylan”.

Iteration after iteration, it became one of the most elaborate attars I had ever composed – but never quite finished. Much like Iris Ghalia was finally made…

But it wasn’t until we had the grandest Sri Lankan ouds ever produced on hand that the composition finally locked into place. Walla’s oceanic cool made jasmine pop in ways I hadn’t smelled before. Its mimosa-like white floral facets lifted the entire structure. The formula took on a new dimension – became sharper, green-blue, and alive.

We intended to release Nuit de Ceylan on several occasions. But there was just one problem…

I didn’t want to use our precious Sri Lankan ouds! Would you sacrifice such precious distillations after you had spent months chasing rare harvests through flood zones, hunting down any and all that remained? When pioneering farmers, veteran distillers, and Chinese agarwood collectors come to you for the liquid green-blue potion those harvests turned into?

Most of it’s still locked in the safe. But I used a fraction – just enough – to make this limited batch.

A flash of medicinal frankincense and smoked mandarin peel – a touch acidic yet it’s what makes it rip through a haze of civet-laced fir resin sprinkled with iris root and crushed pink pepper.

Juniper ash and wild coffee blossom spark against a smear of castoreum and violet leaf. Osmanthus appears briefly, not in pure floral form, its creaminess adds a light leathery tone that stays close to the skin. A flicker of mimosa-meets-mint from incense-grade Walla Patta laced with yuzu cuts through, sharp and aquagreen, before being swallowed by a wave of ambergris and petrichor musk.

The profile is less about ornamentation and more about showcasing raw material integrity. 

The heart is dense and unapologetically expensive: red champaca, Thai frangipani, French mimosa, osmanthus, iris, elderflower, and orange blossom – all meticulously chosen (quality differs massively). Jasmine, rather than a pretty heart note, smells a touch animalic, stripped of sweetness, and used as a base amplifier rather than a distinct note. Supporting notes include Bourbon coffee blossom and Italian wildflower extracts that bolster the pulsing Walla Pattan base. 

And it’s in the base where the agar magic is truly cast. While incense-grade Sri Lankan oud gives the profile a cool, metallic edge, it emerges even more as you move towards the drydown. Fifteen-year-aged sandalwood from Timor adds dry heat to the otherwise zesty-moist wild Walla Pattan oceanic edge.

Nuit de Ceylan isn’t just a scent. It’s a record, an olfactory screenshot of a moment that may never return.