Journal Notes:

I wanted to explore an oceanic scent again after Ocean Kinam. This time, the focus shifts more heavily toward the scent of the sea itself: seaweed, salt, and seashells.

I brought in onycha for its dry, marine-animalic mineral facet, along with sage and yuzu. But I went a step further, developing a process to tease out saline facets from Mysore sandalwood. The result is a creamy, dense sandalwood with a natural salinity that sits perfectly alongside onycha and seaweed. I then supplemented the composition with black cardamom and beeswax, creating a bridge into what follows — an assortment of eight ouds:

Here is what will be in your bottle: Aceh, Pahang, Prachin, Khanh Hoa, Hong Kong, Iriani, and a vintage Tarakan oud.

Why so many ouds — eight of them? Isn’t that too much? There are two parts to my answer.

First, the role of oud here is perhaps different from what some might expect. In many compositions, oud is used as the focal point — something bold, dominant, and immediately recognizable. Here, I am using it differently. Most of the ouds in this blend come from regions whose profiles naturally lean green, woody, earthy, herbal, and resinous. Those qualities allow them to connect naturally with the yuzu, sage, black cardamom, seaweed, and onycha.

Rather than standing apart from those materials, the ouds weave themselves through them. The green facets of Pahang, the earthy depth of Tarakan and Iriani, the dry structure of Prachin, the leathery darkness of Khanh Hoa, and the floral lift of Aceh all reinforce different parts of the composition. The result is not an "oud perfume" in the traditional sense, but a scent where oud acts as connective tissue, linking the marine, herbal, spicy, and woody elements into a more coherent whole.

Second, customers' noses. As my customer base has grown, I wanted to offer something for the more discerning oud enthusiasts. There is certainly enough oud here to appreciate and explore, but I was careful not to let it dominate the composition. The goal was never to overwhelm the marine character, but to support it. If anything, the oud serves the oceanic theme rather than the other way around.

For those who enjoy examining a blend layer by layer, the ouds are there to discover. For everyone else, they simply contribute to the atmosphere: green, salty, woody, and quietly expansive. If you're after a dialed up oud note, you can get your bottle topped up with a few choices available as add-ons.

I contemplated making this blend a standalone, one take. But each time I test it and trace the scent trail it offers, new ideas emerge. So, I decided to reserve part of the batch for a different take—an Oceanic Chypre, or even Rose. We'll see.