ud is the resin an Aquilaria tree makes when its wood is wounded and infected. Burned, it is bukhoor smoke; distilled, it is dehn al oud; blended, it sits at the base of modern perfume. Ask an Emirati what home smells like and you will hear about it before any perfume: smoke drifting room to room, oud on the curtains, as Aaliya Alzarooni wrote in Gulf News in August.
What oud is, and where it comes from
Three words get mixed up. Oud is the wood, burned as chips on charcoal. Dehn al oud is the oil distilled from it. Bukhoor is a blend: wood chips soaked in oils and perfume, usually with oud among them. Gulf News traces all three through centuries of Gulf life.
How the Gulf wears it: smoke, oil, then spray
The order matters. First the smoke. Bukhoor burns over charcoal in a mabkhara, and the burner is carried from room to room until the smoke has settled into cushions, curtains and clothes. People hold a sleeve or the ends of their hair over it. The habit is as alive in a new Abu Dhabi cafe, which Khaleej Times visited in September, as in a family majlis.
Then the oil. Gulf News describes dehn al oud going onto the pulse points after the smoke. One drop is enough; oil sits close to the skin and lasts for hours. Warm it between the wrists, touch the neck and behind the ears, and keep it off silk and pale fabric, since the oil is dark and marks.
Last, a sprayed perfume over both. The spray is what people notice first. The smoke and oil underneath are what is still there in the evening. A short pass over the mabkhara suits an ordinary day; a longer one suits a dinner or a wedding.
Smoke into the fabric, oil on the skin, spray on top.
Oud in a Western bottle, and the notes beside it
New to oud? Start with the yuzu, worn alone. Grew up with a mabkhara at home? Try one over your own dehn al oud and see what the spray adds. All but the Versace sit in our unisex perfumes.
Oud is Aquilaria wood saturated with a dark resin. The tree makes the resin when its wood is wounded and infected by a fungus, as the FAO and the journal Molecules describe. It is burned as bukhoor, distilled into dehn al oud and used in perfume.
From Aquilaria trees in South and Southeast Asia, which is why oud is sold by origin, such as Cambodian or Indian. Aquilaria is listed in CITES Appendix II, so wild oud is traded across borders only with permits.
One drop on the pulse points after the bukhoor: warm it between the wrists, then touch the neck and behind the ears. Keep it off silk and pale fabric, which it can stain, and spray perfume over it last.
Oud is the wood itself, burned as pure chips. Bukhoor is a blend of wood chips soaked in oils and perfume, usually with oud among them. Both are burned in a mabkhara.
In modern perfume, oud is either cultivated wood or an oud accord built by the perfumer. On Atir, each perfume’s notes separate "oud" from "oud accord", so you know what is in the bottle before you order.