The Oriscent Connection

The idea of Scent Legends came to me back in 2016 and the original concept was built on my experience since 2007 of establishing a well-known private collection of Artisanal Grade oud.  I realised that there were other private collectors in my position whose passion for this unique scent led to significant fortunes being spent in acquiring the finest examples they could find and Scent Legends was born in 2019 as a place where collectors of vintage scents could make their collections available to a wider audience.  

The ouds offered here represent the olfactory quests of collectors who have searched for and found the world’s finest Oud oils and wish to share their unique and inimitable treasures with other like-minded individuals.  Scent Legends is not another launch of oud oils to sell for monetary gain.  The oud oils listed are the jewels of several personal collections that have been with their collectors for years and could be kept in continued storage for the foreseeable future.  These oud oils constitute the height of what is possible with oud and represent the culmination of olfactory journeys undertaken by experienced collectors.  They also perform a very important function as they can be used as tools to benchmark and assess the claims of other oud oils in the present and future.  Let the aroma of these oils and your experienced noses be the yardsticks by which others are measured.     

Oud distillers and merchants across Asia have sold their wares for over millennia and mention of this amazing and mysterious olfactory treasure can be found in the Old Testament as well as the Ahadith (narrations) of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). Although Scent Legends has offerings from well-known oud vendors, the majority of the oud in the private collections made available on Scent Legends were made possible by Oriscent (now known as Ensar Oud).  Established in 2004, the launch of Oriscent by Ensar was inspired by a prominent Jordan-based scholar and spiritual guide with an unstinting and rigorous adherence to the Islamic principle of Ihsan (excellence) combined with a knowledge of the sources of oud in the Far East. 

Oriscent Flyer Circa 2007

This helped transform Ensar's incipient eBay operation reselling oud oils of dubious provenance on eBay, into one that led him to travel to the sources of pure oud oil in the Far East.  While the man Ensar may have his detractors, it would be churlish to deny his absolute determination and exacting standards when selecting, commissioning and producing oud and his unparalleled ability to capture the imagination of the uninitiated with his magnetic descriptions. 

A fabulous collection of oud oils was gradually released by Ensar under the Oriscent label from 2004 to 2012, during which time I myself was fortunate to encounter and acquire.  Some of the iconic legends that were released during this period were the Oud Royale No.1 commissioned by Sultan Qaboos of Oman in 1982, the Oud Sultani made by a Malaysian distiller in 2001 as well as an entire collection of Kyara-evoking oils crafted by a Taiwanese master distiller. 

So here it is.  A significant moment in the history of artisanal oud oil with the final chance to acquire some of the most precious oils distilled, that by rights, deserve to be kept for under lock and key in the Parisian Osmotheque Museum.  They truly deserve the epithet, Scent Legends.  Do yourself a favour and acquire some olfactive history while you can.