Oud SQ: Terengganu
$999 – $1,500
Because it’s such an historic distillation, pinpointing the origin would elude the……
Oud defines every crevice of the fragrance. Every top note is filtered through Vintage Oud and shoots out the other end to meet you mid-air dripping with tears of Black Resin. Cubeba Pepper and Rosewood dart through thick purple-red clouds of resin rain. The Rose absolute (as opposed to otto – for its deep red, headier profile) in the heart has been reddened, drenched in Oud.
Copious pourings of Oud right into the composition. Plus Raw Agarwood inside your bottle. Plus a shot of in-house raw Oud Resin in the carrier. And, if that wasn’t Oudy enough for you, a splash of Oud Hydrosol along with the Resin to mend the brew the way only Oud would.
The handsome Clove-tinged Tobacco in the base, too, only serves to sweeten the thick foundation of Oud that stands after all the hours.
I can chant “oud” all day all night – but what kind of oud, exactly, are we talking about here?
If you’re reading this, I assume I don’t have to bother unpacking the gibberish that is marketed as ‘oud’ in all those so-called mainstream oud perfumes.
In the ‘artisanal’ sphere, people think they can buy a 3gr bottle of EO oud and launch an entire perfume line based on that… while they’re conveniently silent on how much oud is actually in your bottle.
Likewise with even niche ‘oud’ perfumes that contain only a smidgen of skanky cheap oud.
To create an EO perfume doesn’t just mean you pick up a tola of oud and then weave a story around that. Instead, it takes investing hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time in order to secure the caliber oud we use. Oud, almost all of which will be dunked into your EO perfume.
This involves tiresome trips to the countries the ouds we talk about are distilled, where we distill them. Sometimes we invest in a distillation we only plan to use perhaps two, three, or five years later. Sometimes an oud is so precious you have doubts about using it at all.
This is not to boast or put anyone down but to illustrate that there are oud perfumes and then there’s OUD perfume. We wouldn’t incur such expenses or go through such logistical acrobatics (right now we’re in the Far East waiting to hear back from CITES for details about getting our oud back to the atelier) if the end result you smell wasn’t palpably notches above anything else.
So, I wonder sometimes if it ‘clicks’ in frag lovers’ minds. That at EO you don’t just get any oud. That the oud in this perfume is the only one of its kind.
But it’s not even about the sheer rarity of the magic T in this spray but all about the sensual, blue purple bubbles that pop to let your Oud-addicted nostrils feast on what is an accentuated soliflore oozing out vintage Teregganu oud.
Why specifically Terengganu oud?
If you’ve followed the Sultani scene, you’d have noticed that the most coveted and popular Sultani profile is vintage Myitkyina, on which the previous Oud SQ was built.
But what you likely would not have known about at all is an extremely rare stash of West Malaysian oud. That’s because what you have here is the Sultan’s private distillation of it, which is less known about and more limited than even the rarest Myitkyina.
Not only that, this is also one of the earliest distillations from the region in oud history. As you may know, Indo-Malay oud distillation only began to pick up in the early 1990s, and this oud dates right back to the cusp of that incredible period.
That was a time that gave you access to the finest, most mature wild aquilarias anybody would ever again find. And, instead of selling the raw wood as everybody soon started to do, you actually had the chance to transmute those majestic giants into drops of olfactory bliss. Soulful wafts of the most resinous malaccensis of the sinking sort which elicit an exquisite floral tone that’s as if the creamiest floral bouquet baptized in the oud’s legendary herbaceous blue purple.
Oud SQ is that Terengganu profile, in spray format, decked with silver bells and golden whistles, to create not only the most accurate perfume rendition of this legendary oud profile, but to impregnate the brew with EO’s signature DNA.
Again, if you’re reading this, I assume I don’t have to explain the difference between the Sultan’s private estate ouds and the ones that are ‘from the Sultan.’ I also don’t have to highlight that by “Terengganu profile” I’m referring to one of the most acclaimed ouds ever: Oud Sultani, 2001…
And I certainly don’t have to re-iterate that you’ve got about as much luck distilling sinking-grade Terengganu oud today as you would finding a time portal back to 1985 to distill the sinking T that’s in this brew.
Because it’s such an historic distillation, pinpointing the origin would elude the greatest veterans and experts, especially because Terengganu oud has always been a luxury to smell, even during the golden days of oud. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to find even seasoned distillers who have not had the chance to smell it. How many have you smelled?
While the Myitkhina that defined the previous edition of Oud SQ could have been mistaken for an old Pahang distillation, the now-gone resin-crammed sinking Terengganu agarwood that birthed this oud shoots straight through your nose.
If you’ve smelled the likes of Oud Ahmad, you’d know how Kelantan’s darker, wetter jungle herbal tone departs from the purple blue floral beauty of the finest Terrangganu. If you’re lucky enough to own OS 2001, you’re in for a reunion where the tantalizing oud is decorated with saffron-laced myrrh cracking through tobacco leaves, all filtered through a tantalizing treacle of castoreum and plum.
TOP
Clove
Cubeb
Rosewood
HEART
Vintage Terengganu Oud
Rose Absolute
BASE
Cambodian Oud Resin
Castoreum
Tobacco
Featured Testimonials…
It’s different from the Oud Sultani series. This is dark, a burgundy-glazed oud resin surrounds you dancing with dark spices. The medicinal whiffs of aged ouds is so addictive. This is very complex, it has an old-world feel to it.
… then came the Rose 
I haven’t purchased EO creations for a while, mainly because of prices tag and my lack of funds, but also because the recurring use of Musk in the compositions made me skip any desirable ones.
When Oud SQ was launched , I managed to get a 2 ml sample from a friend as I really wanted to try the first perfume devoid of Musks that was done in ages …
This is what I wanted!
Oud, Oud and Oud, vintage ones, deep, slightly Smokey (not burnt) woody, resinous, potent…
Put some funds apart, lent a kidney and purchased the 30 ml .
With the proper sprayer (the sample vial had the usual big droplets spray), what I smell is even deeper and hypnotic… I also managed to smell some pepper upon initial blast, smell Tobacco… but it wasn’t until a colleague of mine approached me for a duty and asked out loud who was “wearing a Rose” that I have come to smell the darkest Rose ever and I smelled it, too, from waving my wrists before my face… I hadn’t noticed it before and it came out say 8 hours after application.
I understood in that very moment that my money was so very well spent and that I have got hold of a super well blended masterpiece, so very different from what
Ensar has done so far…
Oud SQ is out this world! This one is on a different tier from the other EO fragrances. I’ve never smelled anything like this before.
Heavy blast of Ouds up front, it’s very dark and resinous, with a hint of smokiness reminiscent of low heat burning oud chips. I’m also getting some molasses, a touch of vanilla and a bit of black pepper and clove in the background. I didn’t pick up much of any florals, not perceiving the roses, and didn’t get any fruits or citrus up top. I did get a bit of woodsy and dry leafy black tea notes, as well as a blanket of warm Castoreum.
Put simply, this is an Oud Soliflore, akin to an Oud spray, it’s all about the Oud, Oud, and more Oud, very little of anything else to affect or taint the Oud Profile. It does remind me of the dark oud facet of the Tigerwood PP(minus the black ambergris), understandably so since this Oud SQ has vintage Tigerwood in it.
This is a very resinous and masculine dark scent profile, Oud heads should find this very interesting or happy.
Medium density and tenacity, overall feels ethereal, the juice is pitch black but didn’t stain my skin. It’s still fresh, going to have to revisit again after a few weeks.
FOLLOW UP
I call this SQ the “Sesquiterpene Quencher”
If you want to smell Oud get this one. What other brand of parfum could you spray on yourself and get a full on blast of OUD that you know is real right from the beginning.
Right from the beginning I start to smell a strong aroma of oud resin. Its nice and dark and oily. It gets sweet after a bit and the oud becomes less prominent. But I love to spray it again and get that direct oud hit that comes right at the beginning.
Another delivery on the name oud in Ensar Oud
Such an interesting fragrance, one that rewards multiple wearings. Personally I’ve found it to be quite addictive – and fun to discover some of the different notes present in this one, can be quite dense that way – a lot there.
At first it makes me think of sparkly raisins and resinous ooze. The floor is lava and its made of oud resin that is bubbling and popping and wafting vapors for hours.
There is a woody element that comes off slightly dry on the top, but this is somehow balanced with a watery humidity towards the bottom, if that makes sense – maybe from the hydrosol, don’t know. Might be the oud itself, it offers a damp quality.
I see the sparkle as purple, but more muted than Oud Sultani-Terranganu – it is in that wheelhouse for me though – but redder.
There are notes of sweet tobacco leaf, and a dark vanilla that is not overtly sweet at all – learning masculine for me. If there is a rose I only get in a peripheral kind of way, like the edges of the rose petals laying in the scent so woven in that you don’t quite pick them up but still add the regal feel. That nose reaction of smelling a rose that happens mid-sniff.
Slight vapor/smoke is present early on, tones down a bit during the mid and final dry down, you can almost see it and smell the twirling smoke that comes up here and there, there is an ashy quality at times.
Slightly reminiscent of being at a goth club, standing next to a girl smoking a clove cigarette. A scent I always loved – with some nice molasses in there too.
It’s a musky oud, a beauty. I do get the Tigerwood in there in addition to other ouds.
I will say the scent is extremely pleasant in the air – not in the direct whiff – but as you fan it off your body into the air just has an addicting slightly powdery yet creamy quality that is quite pleasurable.
The second time I wore it I picked up milk chocolate here and there. Vanilla tobacco scented Oud chips on the burner. Butterscotch purple florals.
Addictive.
Meditative and calming.
Gives me a nice scent bubble without going crazy.
I don’t know that it’s a crowd pleaser, but I’m perfectly OK with that, I wouldn’t see it as a turn off for most.
Super curious to see if this one evolves over time.The ouds themselves are beautiful – I get definite Burmi vibes, with some Cambodian.
Other stuff too.
Zero barnyard here, maybe just the slightest pinch of camphor.
Its more earthy leather floral resin territory.
Madame’Oud and I took our daughter and son-n-law to Houston this weekend for the presentation of “STAR WARS, A NEW HOPE” performed by the Houston Symphony. WOW!!! The movie was so much better with a live symphony performing the soundtrack than we could have imagined.But it was not just the usual cast members that made an appearance, we spotted an EO there as well. OUD SQ made his debut. This legandary movie deserved to be viewed by the wearing the combination of legendary ouds found in SQ. This is such a smoky, deep, woody resinous scent that is as dark as Darth Vader himself. But only like EO can do, the combination of his floral DNA shines through, with rose and clove, brightening up this creation to make it enjoyable by everyone within a 10 foot radius of us yesterday in the audience.The Rebel Army was once again victorious for the OUDIVERSE!! May the OUD be with you ALWAYS!!
Darkness upon darkness of medicinal, addictively bitter-sweet purple, and immensely dark resinous oud bliss.
Oud SQ spicy (star anise, cinnamon and nutmeg), resinous, medicinal, camphorous and chocolaty. My best Oud perfume overall in my collection.
It’s insane.
This bottle is getting better every time I wear it, it is aging beautifully.
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