Most people who have smelled oud, well, they aren’t smelling real oud. Instead, what they’ve encountered is some beast-mode approximation. Real oud behaves differently. It still projects, but there’s more movement and depth to the ingredient. It isn’t shouting across rooms like the imitations. It also shifts throughout the day. Like any high-quality , a great oud is alive.

A great oud is what Helena Christensen found in 2010. She was in Elizabeth Gaynes’ Manhattan apartment. Their sons were in school together, and Christensen came to pick hers up one afternoon. The oud enveloped her as soon as she entered—and Christensen notes that her sense of smell is intensely pronounced; the impression was gobsmacking.

“It was almost like a little explosion in my brain that I physically could feel,”

See Full Page