Oct. 20, 2018

The secret of Blue Oud!

Blue has been always a majestic color, a color that was described as seductive and powerful, the sky is blue, the ocean is blue, there is no color that exists in nature in the size and vastness of blue.

What does blue have to do with perfumes; as we mentioned that natural perfumery is just the reflection of nature itself, does the power of blue exist in perfumery?

Some kinds of wild rare agarwood are commonly known in the Arabic world as (blue smoke) of (Azraq) this comes from some specific materials in this old oud wood that when it’s burned it will have a blueish color smoke, this kind of wood is considered one of the best and most in demand in many places especially the Arab world.

Additionally, there is the ancient Indian Blue Kinam oud oil that does actually look dark blue when seen in the light, and the Blue Lotus which is considered one of the most beautiful and precious flowers that is usually used in old Chinese and Indian medicine and in some limited cases, in perfumery.

So, this is the real part about what we call “Code Blue”. What are the things that they don’t want you to know? The dirty little secrets that no one is talking about and no one wants to talk about; as they say, knowledge is power and those who have power usually tend to keep it for themselves. We, on the other hand, believe in a totally different distribution of power. So here are the things that they don’t want you to know.

The Blue oud oil, and by that I don’t mean the extra thick rare Kinam that you probably won’t smell in the entirety of your life because it’s the rarest raw material on the planet. I’m talking about freshly distilled oud, usually in Thailand and Cambodia that looks like blue ink, light blue, straight blue, Kool-Aid drink blue. It is usually promoted as “Blue Oud” or “Royal Blue” and usually gets sold for triple if not quadruple the price of any other oud oil comparable to it. Most people who buy this oil are from the Arab countries and from the Middle East. The seller or the distillation company usually promotes it as a rare oud made from aged wild trees that were in the hearts of the jungles for decades!

Anyone who ever distilled oud or has even been in the jungles knows well the amount of wild aged trees that still exist and that it’s both logically and physically impossible to produce oud oil from it in kilos. Actually, some sellers are even selling by the dozen (6 kilos) I know! Unbelievable stuff. So, what’s the trick?

The trick is they bring regular low-quality oud oil, usually mixed with the synthetic, in most cases we are talking about vacuumed oil and not distilled. The oil is usually Thai or Cambodian with prominent Tart notes; they make sure that the oil is light in color and texture so in another way they can’t do this with "Indian Kalakasi, Thick Seufi, or Prachin". Then they mix “Chamomile extract” with it or what is also known as “blue tanacetum annuum”, if you don’t know what this is, it is a very dark blue color liquid that one drop of it can color a whole liter of pretty much any kind of liquid to blue. Now if they wanted to keep the best quality in most cases, it will simply be a food color or synthetic color. The oil will be shaken and stirred and then left for few days to fully and magically turn to a royal blue oud oil and so the price of it will magically quadruple.

We are mentioning this is not place shame or to be hateful with any maker or seller or company. We all know that the major and big corporations will hire a nose to make a perfume or cologne from cheap synthetic materials and then make a bottle that it more expensive than the liquid and then make a package that is more expensive than the bottle, then pay for marketing and advertisements more than the liquid, the bottle and packaging combined and still get away with it. Each and every time, that is something for the general consumer, the person who buys cologne because he liked the advertainment of the young man or women half naked on the beach, for the little brother who simply wants to buy a special brand of perfume and make it his signature perfume because a famous singer kept mentioning it in his songs. We are not concerned about the young brother nor the singer, we are concerned about the people who want to learn, find and use real oil, natural oils, pure oils and then get cheated and lied to and sold something that not genuine or true. We know that we will get some hate and probably attacks by many people who sell and promote new hypes and trends like “code blue” but does it make a difference for us?

Not to brag about it or look arrogant but we’ve been here for 300 years, we made and bespoke perfumes for sultans, presidents, and kings which no other perfume house or perfumist has done. We got sold out on half of our listed oils in the first day of publicly launching and surpassed both our goals and expectations for the year in the first month of launching, so it doesn’t matter to us what kind of hype or fast money trend is going on in the market, we will always keep our code and promise to be 100% transparent, honest and genuine in what we make, do and say.

To us perfumery is not a job or a career, it’s a lifestyle, something we would still do if we knew that it wouldn’t make us any money, something that we still do even if no one else wants to do it, something that we still do no matter how hard or complicated it will get, because to us this is a lifestyle and a way of living. It’s not just a business or something that we do because we are good at it, we are good at it because we love it and choose to do it the only way that it should be done, the right way!