Luckyscent Videos: Kemi - ILM Parfum

What is oud? This is a question we get asked a lot at Scentbar. It's because that word is in so many perfume names right now. So the short answer is oud is a kind of wood. It comes from a particular tree, the ocularia tree from Southeast Asia. And what happens is there's a mold that affects the tree causing it to produce a kind of resin and it soaks into the wood and it's very fragrant. So that final effect, that resin-rich wood, that's oud.

You can take a little chip of that wood and burn it on a charcoal as incense. In fact, this is done in the Middle East and in some parts of Asia, specifically in Japan. You can get an essential oil from oud and in fact that oil is the base of a lot of Middle Eastern perfumes.

This fragrance here, although not from the Middle East, it's actually made in Italy. It's called Ilm. It's by Kemi. And it's my favorite example of a very pure oud smell.

Now what does oud smell like? To me it kind of smells like wood mulch but with something extra. Maybe something animalistic or a little bit barnyard. That might not sound pleasant but I love it. Maybe it's an acquired taste but once you get into it you just can't get enough of this oud. It's a little bit exotic but it's just unlike anything else really. And at this point there are so many different directions you can go with oud and they're all very interesting.

Something I highly encourage you to do: spend some time with oud. You can get an essential oil from oud and this oil is the base of many Middle Eastern fragrances. This perfume, Ilm, by Kemi, although made in Italy, has a very Middle Eastern feel. It's my favorite example of a very pure oud smell.

What does oud smell like? To me it resembles wood mulch but with something extra like imagine a little bit of barnyard in there. Something kind of funky. Which