How oudh found its way back into my life

And then, without warning, the smell of my childhood was everywhere. Somewhere between social media and craft perfumers, Oudh has become ambitious. When Tom Ford launched Oud Wood in 2007, a change started. A perfume linked to the traditions of the Middle East and South Asia entered the Western luxury lexicon, triggering a training effect. The Oudh extracts market alone is expected to reach $ 2.66 billion by 2028, with an annual growth rate composed of 8.9%.

The same perfume profile I have moved away once is now bottled in $ 400 (35,000 ₹), a sophistication marker. Roberto Cavalli’s Divine Oud. Oud mood satin by house Francis Kurkdjian. Oud Ispahan by Dior. Revonditioned, renamed and recovered – except not by me, not yet.

According to Abdulla Ajmal, CEO of Ajmal Perfumes, international perfume houses have reinterpreted Oudh for more than a decade, sometimes using a real oudh but more often creating an “ Oudh ” with saffron, rose, leather and vanilla. This makes the scent more accessible but also dilutes its meaning. Traditionally, Oudh symbolizes spirituality, wealth and heritage. The wood wood of the Aquilaria tree, found in abundance in Assam, has been used for centuries in religious ceremonies, meditation and old -fashioned perfumery.

However, her reinvention is not necessarily a loss – she introduced new audiences to her depth, those who could possibly seek the real thing. I am one of them, passing hesitant traces to something more daring, learning to kiss what I used to keep on my arm. When my sister and I felt the fenty scent for the first time, a rich wooded rose tickled my nose and we exchanged a look. “It smells so much Dubai,” we both think we are. But this time, I don’t go away.

Oudh ends in my memory, unlocking the past in an instant, which psychologists call the Proustian effect. Marcel Proust discovered it in a madeleine; For me, he persists in this perfume, carrying the warmth of the summer evenings and the echo of the laughter of my grandmother. It is the smell of childhood, of history, of a self that I spent years trying to go away, only to realize that I never wanted to let go. This may be why I finally stopped avoiding it. Nostalgia does not only concern the desire for the past; It is a question of deciding what is worth clinging. I choose the perfume of the house.