No 3 Rugosa: Royal Kinam By Ensar Oud
No 1 was an ode not just to leather but also high-grade oud oil as the star of the show in artisanal perfumery.
So too, No. 3 is at once a tribute to the rose most dearest to me – rosa rugosa – it is also an extravagant take on what made Nos. 1 & 2 game-changers in their respective genres: Oud and Musk…
EO3 incorporates equally ridiculous amounts of oud and musk as went into making its predecessors while glorifying the finale in this EO trilogy with the world’s finest Japanese rose to create a rose-oud-musk to end all rose-oud-musks once and for all.
I did so many permutations of this perfume, and with each and every one of them, we either end up losing money when compared to what the neat oils would command on their own—or hardly breaking even.
The same was true for the No. 1 & 2 OGs as well at the time. We were up against a market awash in cheap ingredients, unable to fathom the caliber oud, precious florals, and other exotic aromatics that went into making those perfumes. The prices were a PR investment. It hits you harder when you look back at all the vintage ouds that went into crafting those fragrances… and are now gone for good as a result.
