Oud Royale: Taifi Sultani

In 1982, Sultan Qaboos stamped his royal wax seal on a glass flask that would come to define the oud world.

Inside that flask was Oud Royale.

Everything started with this man, may he rest in peace. At a time before terms like ‘incense-grade’ or ‘triple-super’ were coined, the Sultan didn’t think about 12mm shavings vs. powder, steam vs. hydro, steel vs. copper. His orders were simply to distill the best oud possible—whatever that took.

In 2004, we received a sealed crystal flask directly from Sultan Qaboos’ royal palace, followed by a second flask filled with Ward Sultani—the rose oil that haunts rose lovers to this day, and which I use exclusively in my parfums.

Now, Sultan Qaboos was a very generous man, and such royal gifts are not unknown to those who have been at his service in some way. But what’s inside the bottles would differ—that after forty years you’ve yet to smell the likes of Oud Royale is proof enough.

We’ve been waiting sixteen years to get something of the same quality again. Flasks of similar appearance were specially flown across continents and into Jordan for inspection, only to be sent back. So, when I got in touch with the perfumers of the royal court to source ethically harvested (and very old) Tibetan musk, and they told me about this one bottle of Sultan Qaboos’ oil… my heart nearly stopped.

You might have heard about the legendary Oud Royale (1982). It’s finally hit home that ouds of such caliber aren’t stories used to sell products, but true olfactory heirlooms.

Now, what if I told you that Oud Royale (1982) is in this perfume?

Rather than a feat of perfumery, this is a tribute. To the man who fueled my olfactory journey from the very beginning. Sultan Qaboos is due an enormous debt of gratitude for showing me the way from the start, a kindred soul who had a taste for nothing but the best. If there’s a real Sultan behind all my “Sultan” products, from the famed Leather Attar to the foundation of my main accomplishments to date, that Sultan is none other than Qaboos himself. 

If this oil was in your possession, it’s only fair to keep the best and not part with it. Oud of this caliber, of such stature and historic significance, means more to you than even kinam and isn’t something you’d otherwise ever sell. 

All these decades later, from the Sultan’s royal palace to me, to you; to own what is the OG Royale. The legendary Maroke that lets you feast on a montage of the sickest, most resinated agarwood ever distilled. 

The concentration of oleoresin-rich aloes in this oil is clear as day, the crème de la crème of it all, showcased in opulent Arabian tradition, with flair and impeccable taste. If you took fifty tolas of what is distilled today by the most finicky distillers around and compressed it all into one drop, you wouldn’t get half the repleteness and sheer opulence of this oil.

If it wasn’t clear, this is the Oud Royale, distilled in 1982, and exclusively available on Oriscent.

EO No 1 was meant to be all oud and leather drenched in ambergris—and I always wanted to create a Private Edition for myself. Well, I finally found the right steroids for it…

Not only do you get Oud Royale (1982) on full display, but the ambergris that brings it all together, too, is straight from Sultan Qaboos’ royal collection…

And I don’t mean we added a tiny granule so we could tell you a story… As with Private Blend, the entire carrier is tincture. Most perfumers consider any tinctures part of the compound (which includes diluting otherwise hard to work with absolutes, pastes, resins, etc) when calculating concentrations that determine if the juice is a cologne, Eau or Extrait de Parfum. 

That means they often end up calling what in my book would range between a cologne or EDP… an extrait. But at close to 40% concentrate—proper concentration, not considering any tincture or local carriers part of the equation—Oud Royale goes beyond most standards.

And as for carrier……… revel in the Sultan’s decades-old ambergris.

If all one seeks from perfume is strong projection or if a spritz can be smelled a day later, then I suspect the incredible beauty of vintage sinking-grade oud, antique amber, and old, old Mongolian musk will go unnoticed. Oud Royale is a fine fragrance intended for connoisseurs—and may not appeal to you if all you want is a spray-and-off-you-go sort of juice.

Sultan Qaboos’s own ambergris is so precious that if I was just selling you the tincture neat, no perfume inside, it alone would be worth this price.

You see £2,500+ perfumes where the most expensive ingredient is vetiver. So, imagine 40-year-old Oud Royale reeling in equally old ambergris. We could have charged a lot more money for this… You’re technically buying the tincture, and getting the finest oud on earth on the house!

Oud Royale (1982) is available for all to see and purchase on Oriscent; everybody knows what the oud in this bottle of perfume is worth.

But we’re so happy to see the fantastic reception our perfumes have received and I hope by now you’ve come to realize it’s not about money. At a time when the niche-est perfumes themed around “Musk & Woods” — but contain no musk and likely no woods either — in reality cost hundreds of times what they’re actually worth, Oud Royale plays on totally other turf.

As insane as it already is, Oud Royale (1982) is not the oldest aromatic in this perfume. This is the quintessential rose-oud perfume, and to that end, to accompany the finest oud money can buy, we used a very special extract from 1978. The distillery that made this has been defunct for years, and you probably know what rose like this could sell for neat. Using it in a perfume must seem like madness to even the most seasoned perfumers. It’s easily one of the most opulent roses I’ve encountered, with a rich, bright lemony tinge akin to only the Sultan’s early 80s extracts. 

If there was ever a true ghalia, this would be it. Actually… ghalias were made for the sultans, so that makes this perfume a true Royale. It would have been an honor to present a bottle to Sultan Qaboos himself, head lowered in gratitude as I handed it to him. 

Instead, I’m sharing this private blend with you and my fellow frag addicts who would appreciate what they smell—and see, floating like a blue whale in their bottles. 

The free twirl of Mongolian musk inside your bottle is literally worth more than most perfumes on the market cost to produce. And I’m not even talking about the tincture made exclusively with decades-old ambergris and Mongolian musk passed down from dynasty to dynasty, eventually to Sultan Qaboos—and now directly to you—which alone is worth the price of this bottle. So, the Sultan’s oud…… that’s my gift on top of it all.

Ships by 19 May.

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