EO No.1
Ensar Oud (2018)

I've been fortunate enough to buy or try several pure ouds from Ensar Oud over the years and have never been disappointed.
As The Bark pointed out above, EO no.1 is complex, deep, challenging and, in the final analysis, wonderful.
Scent is one of my fascinations and in all of my hundreds of sample journeys, each tells a story... but have never run into a scent as self- confident as this one.
Clearly the initial leather notes are dominant but the layered nuance of oud takes over after a little time has passed and I disagree it has any of the naivity of a strictly essential oil composition; rather a very focused exhuberance and sophistication. My overall sense is this scent is the product of a nose who has tasted the sublime

This review is for the pure parfum.

I've worn this several times now and I'm getting something a bit different each time. Today, using full sprays instead of dabbing it, it went on very spicy/fresh. A few hours later, the florals have come out to play with a old playing in the background. There are many, many layers to this fragrance and it's a shapeshifter where I'm constantly getting different things, sometimes all at once. To me, these are the best fragrances because they never overstay their welcome; rather, they continue to surprise and delight with each new facet revealed. There is some rawness here that one might expect from all natural materials, but the overall quality is very well done. I wouldn't ever expect this to become a beloved mainstream fragrance and that's alright by me.

I'm having a hard time really understanding EO No 1.

On one hand, it's got real deer musk melting together with a very complex oud, so it's vaguely rubbery and gasoline-ish and has a fecal facet, but it's also flowery and a bit charred. But then there's also a densely muddled essential oil smell, floral and resinous and familiar from many lesser natural oil perfumes. It's kind of sharp and herbal, but also appealingly gross in the manner of a proper oud, but everything happens behind a lump of essential oil smell.

The thing I've found most interesting about getting to know EO No 1 is that there's a point where the real musk and herbs combine that I can tell is what old leather perfumes like Knize Ten, with their weird animalic petrol notes, are trying to recreate with modern synthetics. Smelling the real thing is truly interesting, even if I'm ultimately unsatisfied with EO No 1.