Oud

What it is

The impression, not the resin. Real agarwood is rare enough that an accord labelled oud on a mass-market bottle is usually assembled from woody synthetics, cypriol and guaiac wood, and contains no agarwood at all.

What it smells like

As sold in the West it is a house style rather than a material: dark sweet wood with saffron and rose laid over it, smoother and more polished than the real thing. Anyone who meets this accord first and the actual resin second tends to find the second one a shock.

How strongly it is worn

The average strength this accord is listed at, where 100 means it dominates the fragrance.

73 / 100

What builds it

How much more often than the catalogue average. 1.0x would be chance, so these are the things that genuinely travel with it rather than the things that are simply common.

Accords it sits beside

Same measure, with its own family filtered out. Saying woody turns up with oud is a restatement, not a finding.

When it is worn

Against the average fragrance here. The line marks that average, so a bar past it means this is worn in that season or setting more than most.

Houses that use it most

Counted across the fragrances here, which reflects what we cover as much as what a house makes.

Montale (18), Amouage (14), Rasasi (14), Mancera (10), Ajmal (9), Byredo (8).