Purple Rain: Maluku

The result is an oud that pushes deeper into Purple Rain’s core than anything before it – polished with red agar zest that glows through kinamic wafts you’d only experience otherwise through the likes of Nha Trang.

Maluku agarwood is long gone – the only batch we have left dates back to 1996 – so what you’re smelling here is something that cannot be recreated today. And for this caliber oud to go into a perfume like this. The little I have left has aged for years, so while I’m reluctantly using it, SO WORTH IT.

Maluku’s unique profile comes from a unique strain of agarwood that no longer exists – a red-resinous, exotic oud scent that has no parallel in the oud world that I’ve encountered.

Purple Rain is already an exquisite exposé that features the full cast of exalting fixatives – musks, hyraceum, civet, muskrat, ambergris. They’re the steam in the engine; these facets make Purple Rain. And oud plays a crucial role. So, a curveball distillation like this? Injecting a purplebrew with old-school cannot-find-it Maluku’s red-resin core moving through carnations, pollen, and frankincense riding out waves of that defining muskrat-hyrax madness… yes, you’d already be in for an olfactory feast.

But when you enhance this oud – when you muskify it with musk so old it’s already extinct – you rev that Purple Rain animalic combustion core to the red.

This edition is on par with the concentration of the Überblau edition, retaining three times more oud than previous batches – the gourmand equivalent of turning milk chocolate into dark chocolate… just think of the difference that makes. Not just triple the amount of oud, but a shot of rare, irreplaceable Maluku oud so dear to me most have never heard of it. Due to how limited the oud is, I’m only making a limited number of bottles of this edition available.

Also, in case you wondered, the IG component of Purple Rain itself is the enhanced composition – like the Überblau edition, an entirely new composition built from the ground up that’s distinctly different from previous editions. It is, in my book, the very apex of the Purple Rain experience, replete with a soothing kinamic senkoh core you can’t expect to smell in anything but a bottle of EO. Imagine the difference between Persian rose otto and Ruh gulab – now imagine what swapping out the one for the other will do to the heartnotes. Then spice up the… spices! Darken the brew with more of the signature blackcurrant accord (to keep up with so much more oud!), and tweak the sandalwood.

It’s like exploring Ya Chuan and Nha Trang. Both are distinctly Vietnamese ouds of the same caliber and style, but they’re by no means the same. And having both makes you appreciate both even more.

Purple Rain: Maluku isn’t just an incredible bespoke – it’s an exchange and vision shared between fellow perfume lovers and me that was impossible to realize until now. If you love Purple Rain, this decadent edition will make you love it even more. If you never tried Purple Rain but love Iris Ghalia, then you’re in for everything you love – cranked up to the max, red-resin rendition and all.

If, for some reason, you’re reading this and have not tried either, then find out why so many say that “something about it is just so intoxicating, I’d bathe in it if I could!”

Pure platinum-coated plaque. Each one is custom-made. A limited number ships immediately – subsequent orders are fulfilled as each one is completed.

VERY LIMITED.