Royal Oud by Creed launched in 2011 has earned its place amongst Creed’s top selling fragrances in the span of four short years. Inspired by the marriage of Persian and Parisian influences, House of Creed have taken an ancient and rare base ingredient and adapted its scent to the style of their house. A creation of Master Perfume Olivier Creed, Royal Oud is a regal and hyper-luxurious fragrance that carries with it a history that spans over 2000 years through the key ingredient of oud.
Also known as ooddh, oud is distilled from the dark resinous heartwood called agarwood, which lies at the core of the Aquilaria tree. The endangered trees are native to Asia and the Middle East and produce agarwood as a reaction to a bacterial or fungal attack. Aquilaria trees will secrete the fragrant resinous substance into wounded areas in order to fight off the infection. In the past oud played a key role in Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic worship rituals and has also been an essential component of traditional medicines dating back to medieval times. Historically Oud based perfumes were also popular in Arabian cultures. Described by the Ancient Chinese as having a “sweet, deep but balanced fragrance”, oud is extremely hard to synthetically reproduce and therefore is unable to be accurately substituted.
Harvesting agarwood is typically a very labour intensive affair – only 7-10% of trees worldwide are naturally afflicted with the infection that will produce agarwood and the numbers aren’t necessarily higher despite the incidence of commercial farming. Even lower grade wood would require a minimum of 20kg to produce 12ml of oil. Agarwood and agarwood oil are one of the most costly natural raw materials in the world and can command prices of up to US $30, 000 per kilogram.
Suited for both men and women Royal Oud is a stylishly balanced fragrance tinged with woody, aromatic green and spicy nuances. Top notes blend lemon, pink berry and bergamot seamlessly. Middle notes include luxurious cedar, galbanum and angelic root. In addition to the intense woody sweetness of oud, Creed adds sandalwood and Tonkin musk to its heart notes. Royal Oud effectively invokes images of wood, leather, marble and gold – all the features of an opulent royal Persian palace.
Visit the official Australian stockist of Creed perfume to see more of the range.
