Yunnan Royale

There are ouds you own just to have; to help you navigate the oud world; to compare other ouds to, or to train and refine your palette; for interest’s sake, or mainly for educational value.

Then there are ouds you can’t get enough of. Ouds you want to pour over your hair and arms, bathe in if you could. Ouds that gets you excited. Ouds that makes you smell your arms, your wrists, your hands so much that you forget there are other people staring at you thinking, “That guy sure is impressed with how good he smells!”

Royal Yunnan is one such oud for me. Oud so tasty you want to lick it, so rich you say “wow!” in your head on repeat. A swipe you inhale extra-hard to suck every atom of olfactory nourishment from it because it’s just so good.

Of course, you can objectively explain why this is the case. We could talk about the fact that this is one of the rarest profiles in the oud world (how many artisanal Yunnan ouds do you know of?) which makes it inherently interesting as a fragrance…

You could delve into how the scent could be so lush red, akin to top-tier old-school Vietnamese oils, but with more of a saccharine bite that makes it extra addictive. We could examine the incense-grade agarwood required to produce such a scent that overflows with the decadent rouge of Yunnan.

Ouds like Royal Yunnan and Oud Mahmoud are your teachers. Smell what they have to share. Or, in the case of Royal Yunnan – you don’t always have to listen intently. Let the waves of cooling red resin take you for a swim, and inhale as deep as you can, again and again as you hear yourself saying whaoooow!!! for the 100th time.