Private Ghalia: Maluku

While Private Blend started out as a decadent indulgence purely for myself, at the end of the day I’m still an Oud Man…

I’ve done a lot of work since Private Blend was originally composed (which was then only for my own personal use). I’ve designed a series of intricate perfumes, practically all of them oud bombs, so I’ve both grown and learned as a perfumer. I’ve become more attuned to which ouds work best with which aromatics, and also which ones don’t work great together. 

Most of all, my perfumery journey has been a continual process of falling in love with pure oud again and again. When you’re blessed to be able to work with the world’s finest aromatics you appreciate fine oud all the more. 

It happened that one day someone commissioned a semi-bespoke edition of Private Blend – taking an already-over-the-top perfume and turning it into an even more oudified edition!

That got me thinking…

Which oud would I use? If I could choose one oud from the EO archives to jack-up my private blend, which would it be?

Even making a bottle for myself seemed too much. That’s why it remained just a cool concept. Using the only oud of its kind in existence, the only one we ever distilled, the only one we could ever distill, the one that took superhuman effort and months on end to actually distill, the oud I’ve been holding off from selling at all, a red-resin extravagance that comes around once in a lifetime – an oud so precious I was just letting it sit in the dark. Using it, even swiping it, just didn’t seem like an option. Maluku means that much to me.

But it only makes sense that if this is my private blend, it has to be done the way I would do it – and that meant that I wouldn’t put anything but the creme de la creme of all the ouds I have inside.

That’s why Maluku is in here. But being one of my most precious ouds isn’t the main reason it’s in this super exclusive edition of Private Blend…

The reason Maluku came to mind is because of how perfectly it goes with the profile and structure of Private Blend’s composition. A spicy musk bomb drenched in red screamed for the red-resin suave that only Maluku possesses. 

You see, there’s all agarwood, and then there’s Maluku’s ‘red-resin’ cumingiana that’s been off the map for years already. You cannot find it. Most people, even experienced oud lovers would not look at the wood twice because 1) it doesn’t fit your typical black-resin imagery, but also because 2) it’s so rare even the most seasoned oud lovers have no experience with it (more about it raw Maluku agarwood here.)

Not only is Maluku (the unreleased Oriscent oud oil) in here… your bottle will also contain a piece or three of the actual red-resin Maluku harvest – from twenty-seven years ago!

On top of the Maluku, you don’t just get plain alcohol as the carrier either (the industry standard, even for the niche-est perfumes). Instead, all of these precious ingredients were infused — entirely — into a the above-mentioned trifecta of pure deer musk tincture: Tonkin, Tibetan, and Kashmiri musk. This is the backbone and power drive of the perfume.

The blast of spice amplified by a gush of animalics that speaks to your primal self… but is kept in check by the fusion of jasmines, rose, olde school Irian oud, and black tea steeped with blackberries.

For anyone familiar with Private Blend: this ghalia is to Private Blend what Oud Royale is to No 1, and what Private Blend itself is/was to No 2. In other words, this isn’t simply Private Blend with precious Maluku oud added to boot – there are core structural differences between this edition and any prior to it. 

While it retains the Private Blend DNA, the fragrance is a more replete ghalia in terms of the richness, the scope of the florals in the heart notes, the oudiness throughout, the higher overall concentration, and that carnal bite of musk that makes this fragrance stand out so much. 

If Ensar Oud, the oud man & perfumer, could dream up any perfume, no holds barred, with all of his best ouds on the table, and no limits on musk to make the whole brew scorch the sun, this would be the result.

⦿ Only a handful of bottles will be made, and this edition is excluded from any and all discounts/coupons.

⦿ Being the musk perfume par excellence, this edition will include raw vintage Mongolian musk inside each bottle.

⦿ In addition to the Mongolian musk twirl inside, each bottle also includes a piece or three of the actual Maluku harvest from twenty-seven years ago. 

Each plaque is custom-made, and takes one to two week to make. We’ll ship your bottle as soon as your plaque is ready.