Tryvge Harris: "None of the ouds in any of those commercial perfumes are real. None."

In an interesting interview of Trygve Harris on FragranceScout, the owner of Enfleurage NYC (dedicated to natural essences of the highest grade, including the very rare gardenia essence) who lives in Oman reveals some (not so astounding surely if you have been following our pages here for some time) facts about oud/aoudh and its commercial inclusion in perfumes, mainstream and niche alike. If you don't know the first thing about oud (rather unlikely unless you had been living under a rock for the past 3-4 years) you can consult our Perfume Raw Material: Oud/Aoudh/Agarwood article; it should get you started and correct some misconceptions.

via anyasgarden.blogspot.com

Asked if one can find a good quality oud, Harris answers that there is no chance any more; "high quality Lao (and Vietnamese, Cambodian, & Thai) [oud] is finished." Of course this is where the synthetic bases popularised these past few years which have given rise to the abundance of "oud" perfumes in the market: almost one release in every eight is about oud at this pace. She also explains that even "real aoudh" used is usually just the dried chips, bearing no resin left, treated so they give off some scent, but not the authentic oud smell. "A great deal of oud is just chemical, or reconstituted. Almost all. I would say you have .01% chance of finding a real pure one. And none of the ouds in any of those commercial perfumes are real. None. It would be madness to create something for the mass market, or even a “niche market” using raw materials whose availability, origin and price are so random."
As to whether this trend for oud will stay with us, she's pretty categorical: "There is just no way that so many Westerners are connect with oud."

All in all a very interesting and frank interview to Giovanni.