What does oud actually smell like? A beginner's guide

The short version

• Natural oud smells woody, sweet and balsamic, often with smoke, leather and spice, and some has a sharp, animal edge.
• Many perfumes that list oud use an accord, a blend built to suggest the smell.
• Test oud on skin, not just paper, and wait at least 30 minutes before you decide.

See our guide to woody fragrances for oud beside sandalwood, cedar, vetiver and patchouli.

Where the smell comes from

Oud comes from agarwood, the resin-filled heartwood of Aquilaria trees and their close relatives, Gyrinops. They grow from India across Southeast Asia to New Guinea and southern China. Agarwood is also called aloeswood, eaglewood or gaharu.

A healthy tree's heartwood is pale and close to odourless. That changes when the tree is wounded, by lightning, insects or an axe, and fungi get in.

The tree's defences then fill the wood around the wound with a dark, fragrant resin that helps hold the fungus back. It builds up slowly, over months and years, darkening the wood.

Only an estimated one in ten wild trees, or fewer, ever form the resin. That's why top-grade chips and oil sell for thousands per kilo. Much agarwood now comes from farmed trees, wounded or infected with fungi on purpose.

The molecules behind the smell

Agarwood holds hundreds of compounds, but two families do most of the work.

The first family is the sesquiterpenes, mid-sized molecules built on 15 carbon atoms. They make up most of distilled oud oil and carry most of its woody smell:

• Agarospirol smells spicy, peppery and woody.
• Jinkoh-eremol adds a rich, deep woodiness.
• The agarofurans are another woody group.
• Others add sweet, floral or cool, minty touches.

The second family, 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromones (chromones for short), is tied to the warm, sweet, balsamic smell of heated or burned agarwood. Some of the most plentiful barely smell until they're heated.

Heat breaks them into smaller, fragrant molecules that drift off in the smoke. That's a big part of why a smouldering chip smells sweeter than cold wood.

Agarwood is burned as incense across Asia and the Middle East, and its smoke may not smell like oud oil.

What you'll actually smell

Most ouds show several of these:

• Woody, first and foremost.
• Sweet and balsamic, often compared to honey.
• Smoky and leathery, like incense and worn leather.
• Spicy, and peppery in some oils, thanks to agarospirol and its relatives.
• Fruity or floral in some ouds.
• Sharp and animal. Some natural oud has an animal, even farmyard, edge. This part splits opinion.

Oud also lasts. You only smell a molecule once it evaporates, and heavier ones are slower to do so.

Limonene, behind the zing of lemon peel, has 10 carbon atoms and is one of the first to fade from a perfume. Oud's sesquiterpenes have 15, and its chromones 17 or more. They hang on, so perfumers use oud as a base note, the part you still notice after brighter notes fade.

Why no two ouds smell quite the same

One study of 58 agarwood samples found hundreds of shared compounds, yet every sample was unique.

The mix of sesquiterpenes varies by Aquilaria species and by where the tree grew. Wild and farmed agarwood of the same type can also differ clearly in their main compounds.

The resin also changes as it forms: year-long studies saw its chromones build up and shift type month by month. So wood harvested early may not smell like wood left longer.

By tradition, the wood is soaked in water before distilling. Fungi and bacteria grow in the soak, in effect fermenting it, and researchers think they help shape the oil's smell.

In lab tests, changing the soak, say by adding microbes or yeast, changed both the oil's yield and its compounds.

Natural oud, oud accords and the label

Natural oud is rare and costly, so many perfumes use an oud accord instead: a blend built to suggest agarwood's woody, leathery smell. It's usually lab-made aroma chemicals plus some naturals, such as woods and patchouli.

Perfume writers say accords are now the oud you'll most likely meet. Some find them plainer than the real thing, without its warm, balsamic depth.

Agarwood is also covered by CITES, the global treaty on trade in endangered species. Aquilaria malaccensis went on its Appendix II in 1995, and the other agarwood-producing Aquilaria and Gyrinops species followed in 2004. Appendix II doesn't ban trade, but trade across borders needs permits.

So treat "oud" in the notes as a description of the smell. The list doesn't usually say whether it comes from natural agarwood oil, an accord or both.

What oud is often paired with

Natural oud is potent, so perfumers usually pair it with other notes. Oud, rose, saffron, musk and amber are counted among the main ingredients of traditional Emirati perfume.

The same names turn up in many modern oud perfumes. The usual partners:

• Rose, which brings light and lift to oud's darkness.
• Saffron, often alongside rose.
• Spices, which pick up oud's own peppery streak.
• Resins such as myrrh, which lean into the incense feel.

How to try oud for the first time

• Use your skin. Paper strips are fine for ruling scents out, but perfume behaves differently on skin.
• Give it time. The light top notes come first, so wait at least 30 minutes, ideally a few hours, for the heavier notes you'll live with.
• Keep it to three scents. Any more at once and they blur.
• Start small. A sample or small roll-on lets you wear oud for a few days before buying a bigger bottle.

Choosing between an oil and a spray? See our guide to how perfume oils wear.

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