This brought me back to my Oudh Infini review.  A blast of in-your-face oud that is not apologizing for what it is.  Just being itself in full Beauty and the Beast” mode. There is a blast of Hindi funk that is absolutely stunning.  Like a prized fighter after the big one—all roughed up, bleeding, but victorious and something to behold. That’s what this oud is all about.

Now we are getting a clear accord that I have seen in all three perfumes I have tried from Dixit and Zak.  There is a fresh, clean layer in all three.

HINDI OUD Let’s Talk:

Onchya Shells: Leather and seamalic scent used in incense making in the East, including heavily in Japan.

Comes from the Red Sea all the way back to the days of Moses.  Pretty Cool.

Dixit and Zak do one-off’s.  They have messaged me personally and let me know that.  We have heard this from other perfumers who later gave in and came up with part twos.  I am not for sales tactics that say that to sell out then make more and use the same tactics.  Like the “one bottle left” on ETSY to get you to hit that “Add to Cart” button. I am always watching for the hype train.  

Alright, back to what this is.

Fragrance in my opinion compared to Perfume’s Notes

We have an oud that complements the composition and is the star of the show.  What’s the name, folks? “Emperor Hind.” Hind refers to India, and the River Indus, which flows from Pakistan, but hearing “Hind” will automatically create an association with Hindi oud.  So if you’re going to put it in the name, it better showcase it. And oh, Nelly, does it. This is pungent, funky oud for advanced connoisseurs.  You’re warned, but it is a perfect pairing against what this opens up with and dries down to.

In the opening, on top of the oud, there is a blast of citrus with lemon, pink grapefruit, and sweet orange forming the citric punch.  Pink grapefruit comes across clearly, with a spritz of lemon. Orange helps with the citrus accord and the bright air of the “Dizaide”—see what I did there?

The next note I get very strongly beyond the oud is the patchouli: strong, punchy, and fresh, with champaca as the eye candy.  All of this floats in the air with saffron, and this is Dixit and Zak, so you are going to get the best sandalwood the earth has to offer.  I get a clear Mysore profile in this, which adds another punch.

Finishing out the heart is another animalic accord that I can only tear apart as the onchya shells, hyraceum, and a urinal civet.  The heart sits on a seamalic (seashell animalic) leather. Think light, tan leather with some nice ocean sea shell animalic atmosphere—seriously, it’s there, and it’s fantastic.  The leather is coming from the onchya shells; it’s crazy good. Ambergris adds to this phase and can be detected very clearly here (the top was way too powerful to detect any of this).

Alright, we get three clear transitions here.  The final one you guessed if you kept up on the notes list: incense.  A familiar fresh incense is what you’re left with on the skin for a good four hours.  It’s pleasing to all and somehow all of that majesty spoken of before is gone until another spray.  The spikenard adds a bit of therapeutic feel to the drydown, a medicinal earthy incense, if you will.

Projection is loud—could even reach past two feet. 

Sillage is long tailed; if you walk by someone, they are going to get bliss if they know what’s up.

This will last up to twelve hours, the last four being a soft skin scent on your pillow to wrist, as I like to do.

Overall, this is a well structured perfume using many facets of the old school.  A showcase of biblical and hidden Earth ingredients showing us why they are the standard for perfume structure.  Dixit and Zak are playing at the next level and are not holding back raw materials from us. KUDOS.