Journal Notes:

In the SQ oud world, you’ll encounter a handful of Oud Rose pairings—but rarely one like this.

What we have here uses the familiar Taifi rose, a favored choice for oils prepared for the Sultanate’s Diwan. The oud, however, is something else entirely: dark, resinous, deep green. The collector I sourced this from and I both suspected Papua. In fact, we believe it is that famous Papua/Merauke oud from the ’80s that made waves in the oud community, based on our personal experience.

The first debut of this find was Two Souls. Its second, a subtle appearance in Qinan Rose. This is the third and last release of the oil.

Working with oud-heavy compositions is never straightforward. Raise the dose, and projection collapses; lower it, and the impact thins out. I leaned on a handful of materials to carry the profile at full weight—without interfering or getting in the way.

Here is the composition I ultimately settled on:

Two Souls (vintage Papua and Taifi rose), Wild Papua oud (2019), vintage Mysore, Tibetan musk, Azerbaijani rose, Silani and Myanmar co-distilled oud, and wild Khaoyai oud produced from logs over forty years old and aged for more than five years post-distillation. I finished the blend with tonka bean, lending a lavish flourish—one only justified by an assembly of materials like this.

A good six months later, I managed to source another Oud Rose from the Sultanate’s Diwan—this one firmly rooted in a vintage Burmese oud profile. After a few iterations, it finally felt complete. I believe I succeeded in translating the original Two Souls attar into a spray format.

Then came the naming. I struggled to find a name that could honor the cornerstone of this blend—Two Souls itself.

Eventually, I was reminded of the phrase Rūh ur-Rūh / روح الروح (“soul of my soul”). The words became globally etched in memory in 2023, after Khaled Nabhan was filmed holding his granddaughter, Reem, following her death in an Israeli airstrike on refugee camps in Gaza. The phrase stayed with me—until I realized the name had been with me all along.

One that speaks to a bond that endures—unchanged by time.

A note about sourcing SQ Oils:

I put my absolute and utmost effort into ensuring that the chain through which SQ oils make it to your bottles is trusted. That is, sourced by members known in the oud space locally and internationally—trusted and connected to the circles where such rare materials exist. So far, there are only a few degrees of separation, just a few beads along the chain, between the oud in this bottle (you) and the original owners. I genuinely think it is easier to move mountains than to build credibility in this space. And it takes little to no effort to lose that credibility, possibly forever.