Agar Aura - pure oud products

Kiyosumi

This product has gone the way of all those before it...
Gone, never to come back.

Grab our other oud oils, before they are gone too!

Description
Reviews

Kiyosumi. Clear. Serene. Tranquil.
This oud is in many ways the Vietnamese sister of our popular oud from Sumbawa island, Ketenangan.

Having gone 25 hours without a single meal, another 24 hours with just 4 bananas, braved daytime temperatures of 104°F, lost consciousness soon after the briquettes were ignited... what I endured to craft Kiyosumi at a remote distillation facility in Vietnam can only be called 'labor of love'.

The wild-harvested raw material was of course excellent to begin with (see here). Then of course there's the fact that it was gently distilled with relentless care, capturing the shimmery top notes in their crystalline purity, and the thrumming deep red heart in all its magnificence.

If you've never smelled wild Vietnamese agarwood before (virtually extinct now), the simplest way to imagine its aroma is: a cross between agarwood from Cambodia and Borneo. But with the Cambodian fruitiness toned down, and definitely none of the terpy notes that plague most Borneos.
In reality though, this simplistic analogy doesn't do it justice. Vietnamese agarwood is (was) the most balanced and, for many, the most 'perfect' of all agarwood varieties. And Kiyosumi presents that refinement with precision and grace.

Yes, you will encounter extravagant whiffs shockingly reminiscent of green kyara in this oud, but green kyara this is not.
Kiyosumi evokes the aroma of highly resinated fragrant wild Vietnamese agarwood... tea-tobacco sweetness with a faint powdery coumarin-like quality, as well as brighter minty and frosty highlights. Also, due to how the distillation process was designed, there is a bitterness integrated into the scent profile from the latter-stage base note compounds that provide a delightful (and super addictive!) contrast against the sweeter and brighter highlights.

If your olfactory compendium never ventured past Hindis and Kamboodis, it is time you discover the aroma that, for centuries, captured the hearts of Far Eastern connoisseurs across China, Japan and Taiwan - the aroma of the finest wild Vietnamese agarwood.

...simply amazing and it makes me sad that that’s the case, because I don’t have the money to buy a bottle...
Kiyosumi is simply oud through-and-through. To me, it’s just one note, at heart-level, going by the perfume pyramid, that is so tranquilizing and serene that I keep the sample by my bed to be able to catch whiffs of it when I go to bed.
N.W. (Norway)

Damn Kiyosumi is I don't know what is it but it's doing something to me that I can't explain..
It's gets more powerful over time and even after 10 hours, It opening to me in most surprising way. It just took me two wearing of Kiyosumi to decode to order 2.5gm bottle. so today I ordered Kiyosumi full bottle. Even it's most expensive thing I ever purchased for myself. but I can't afford to loose if it goes out of stock.
Brother all i wanted to say THANKS a lot creating Kiyosumi and I hope full bottle contains same mystery as sample one did.
M.B. (USA)

I must say this is as close to a perfect oud that i have come across!
With most oils i have there is the drydown which i love. Waiting for it, seeing it forming itself.. I find that the super jummy spicy sweet woody drydown is what oud is all about for me. Normaly this only start to reach its maturity at least 3-4 hours after application.
What stood out for me is that with Kiyosumi, is that it has that quality right from the beginning of the top notes, to end 10hours later.
An oud that has the drydown gorgeousness through out the whole ride even in the opening.
Normally when an oud reach the drydown it stays so close to the skin that i have to dig my nose right into it.. Instead i got that (agar)aura around me whole day right from the first second when it still has a good projection..
With some other Ouds, especially some Trat and non barn Hindi oils i love the flowery opening, but it seems to disappear within the hour.. With Kiysomi the opening is super delicious but it never went away. Its stayed like that only highlighting different aspects..
S.V. (Norway)

Even my wife said that Kiyosumi is actually enjoyable and good..
First time I hear she says that about a pure Oud.
S.V. (Norway)

*Otherworldly*
E.V. (USA)

Like a ray of sunshine captured in an oil.
R.S. Canada)

Both kenmei and kiyosumi remain the only two oils that capture the note of green oil kyara so well and so clearly. Is insane. So precise, so minimal, so profound.
R.S. (Canada)

Kiyosumi in my opinion is truly one of the greats. Flawless.
T.G. (Dubai)

Blissful marriage of Cambodi Crassna, Borneo Malaccensis, and Chinese Sinensis without being any. Well excuted and mind boggling heated-agarwood-on-low-temperature oil.
Dried fruit soaked in honey flavored-chai latte and coumarin-laced fresh tobacco leaves garnished with the slightest white flowers and a drop of almond oil to enhance its bitterness.
Amaretto oud liqueur...
A.I. (USA)

Kiyosumi certainly strikes me as more purely heavenly, rather like Ceylon No. 1.
R.S. (UK)

Kiyosumi is spectacular. I’m so glad I grabbed that.
Customer

Man this is killer stuff... The Kiyosumi is incredible, maybe my fave.
P.O. (USA)

There was a moment once when I was meditating on Kiyosumi and I perceived a kind of prismatic structure to the scent - it was like the inherent quality of the scent had been refracted in the various notes that were present. Shortly thereafter I read something you wrote about how you had been influenced in your art by impressionism, and it fit perfectly with what I perceived. One could almost 'see' the nature of the scent construction (and initial deconstruction of the properties of the raw material).
R.S. (UK)

What a treasure. A serious mood lifter.
Customer (USA)

Kiyosumi is an oil which seems to gain power for hours after application. It is a mixture of the things that make Vietnamese oud my ultimate oils. Deep, transcendent, and deeply introspective.
P.O. (USA)

I have been quite intrigued by kiyosumi because it is the most profound deep cherry note i have experienced in a Vietnam oil. There is no bitterness....a very balanced sweetness but the cherry is by far the dominant note, I would describe it as more grounding rather than uplifting. I have some excellent Vietnam woods which ive been able to collect and I love finding the right piece with the right burn where i get this same unmistakable cherry note unique to the origin. A very gentlemanly scent, something James Bond might be inclined to wear.
T.G. (Dubai)