Chinese Oud
Note Profile
About
Chinese Oud, Chen Xiang, is agarwood oil from Aquilaria sinensis in southern China, chiefly Hainan. It is the clean end of the oud spectrum: herbaceous, quietly honeyed and faintly medicinal, with almost none of the barnyard that defines Indian oud and none of the dried fruit that defines Cambodian. Wild material is nearly gone and most of what is sold now is plantation-grown.
Scent Profile
Opens green and forest-like, moss and damp cedar over herbal tones, cool and dry with a bitter edge. The heart is refined dry wood with a subtle honeyed sweetness and a faintly medicinal cleanness. It settles into a quiet base of leather, resinous incense, a dry tea-and-paper note and a soft mineral edge, with an earthy trace where other ouds turn animal.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
Origin
Aquilaria sinensis heartwood, infected and resinous, hydro- or steam-distilled over 48 to 72 hours. Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan. Chen Xiang means sinking incense, the grade of wood dense enough with resin to sink in water. CITES Appendix II.
Usage in Perfumery
A heart-to-base note for clean, meditative and East Asian-inspired compositions, used where oud is wanted as depth rather than as shock. It is the origin a perfumer reaches for when the formula cannot carry an animalic oud.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Chinese Oud
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Chinese Oud appears prominently.
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