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Germany

Erotic Appeal, Arabic Roots Help Oud Seduce Europe's Upscale Perfume Market

"Warm, sexy and always a little different," is how perfumer Alberto Morillas describes oud, a pricey oil made from agar wood and its resin. Used for centuries in Arab countries, the perfume ingredient is now also a hit in Europe. If you

Oud la la...you smell nice (Dutova Anastasia)
Oud la la...you smell nice (Dutova Anastasia)

*NEWSBITES

With ancient roots that cost more than gold and legends of Arab aphrodisiacs, a mysterious scent named "oud" has arrived from the east to seduce Europe's top luxury houses.

It was exactly 10 years ago that it was first tucked into the Western market, when M7, an Yves Saint Laurent scent for men was released with a small dose of oud.

"Nobody had used it until then, nobody knew about it," says Alberto Morillas, one of two perfumers who developed M7. "And oud still has something magical about it."

In Arab countries the intense scent has been known for over 2,000 years. Oud oil is made from agar wood and its resin. The wood of agar trees, which grow mainly in the rain forests of Southeast Asia, is not itself particularly valuable. But when their heartwood is wounded, agar trees close the scar with resin.

The best oud comes from resin that has developed a particular mold – the more mold, the stronger the scent and the greater the price: up to 50,000 euros per kilo.

"A trend started in Western Europe about 10 years ago. And oud has really taken off in the last two to three years," says Bodo Kubartz. Kubartz is a perfume expert who wrote Das große Buch vom Parfüm (The Big Book of Perfume) together with Frank J. Schnitzler.

"The oil has something animalistic, something woody about it that at the same time is very modern," says Morillas. "It smells warm and sexy and always a little different. I dream of creating more perfumes with oud."

The available selection of perfumes containing oud has grown over the last 10 years. These include Bond No. 9, launched in 2008 exclusively for Harrods. It continues to be the British department store's top-selling perfume.

Paris perfumer Pierre Montale was inspired by oud during a three-year stint in Saudi Arabia, and has since specialized in oud scents. He offers about 20 varieties. "But many of the big names in perfume have also caught on and launched their own oud scents," says Kubartz, which, he adds, remain customer favorites despite high prices.

The oil is so rare and so hard to get that it is very pricey: 100 milliliters of Bond No. 9 "New York Oud," for example, cost 310 euros. Because of ever greater demand, agar trees are endangered. They used to grow from India to New Guinea, but today have practically disappeared in India, Bangladesh, Thailand and China.

Meanwhile, perfumer Alberto Morillas advises wearers of the precious scent to apply it to the Adam's apple. "That's very important," he says. "Warmth is produced by the vibrations from speaking that makes the smell even more intense."

Read the full article in German by Nicola Erdmann

Photo - Dutova Anastasia

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

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Society

Genoa Postcard: A Tale Of Modern Sailors, Echos Of The Ancient Mariner

Many seafarers are hired and fired every seven months. Some keep up this lifestyle for 40 years while sailing the world. Some of those who'd recently docked in the Italian port city of Genoa, share a taste of their travels that are connected to a long history of a seafaring life.

A sailor smokes a cigarette on the hydrofoil Procida

A sailor on the hydrofoil Procida in Italy

Daniele Frediani/Mondadori Portfolio via ZUMA Press
Paolo Griseri

GENOA — Cristina did it to escape after a tough breakup. Luigi because he dreamed of adventures and the South Seas. Marianna embarked just “before the refrigerator factory where I worked went out of business. I’m one of the few who got severance pay.”

To hear their stories, you have to go to the canteen on Via Albertazzi, in Italy's northern port city of Genoa, across from the ferry terminal. The place has excellent minestrone soup and is decorated with models of the ships that have made the port’s history.

There are 38,000 Italian professional sailors, many of whom work here in Genoa, a historic port of call that today is the country's second largest after Trieste on the east coast. Luciano Rotella of the trade union Italian Federation of Transport Workers says the official number of maritime workers is far lower than the reality, which contains a tangle of different laws, regulations, contracts and ethnicities — not to mention ancient remnants of harsh battles between shipowners and crews.

The result is that today it is not so easy to know how many people sail, nor their nationalities.

What is certain is that every six to seven months, the Italian mariner disembarks the ship and is dismissed: they take severance pay and after waits for the next call. Andrea has been sailing for more than 20 years: “When I started out, to those who told us we were earning good money, I replied that I had a precarious life: every landing was a dismissal.”

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