What Is the Difference Between Oud and Oud Oil (Dahn al-Oud)?

Confusion often occurs between "oud" and "oud oil," so some think that they are a single thing, and others reckon them two different materials with no connection between them. And the truth is between this and that: oud and oud oil are two forms of a single material, but each has its form, its use, its method of production, and its unit of sale. In this article we clarify the difference between oud and oud oil a precise and honest clarification, so that you know which of them suits your need.

1. Oud and the dahn: the same origin, two forms

Before we detail the differences, we ought to establish the common foundation: oud and oud oil return to the same source, which is the wood saturated with the aromatic resin that the Aquilaria and Gyrinops trees form. For the resin is the essence of the value in the two cases, and the difference is only in the form in which this material reaches you.

In the first form the aromatic material remains carried inside the wood as it formed in the tree, so it is cut into pieces or chips that are burned so that their scent exhales. And in the second form the resinated wood is taken and distilled to extract its aromatic oil in a concentrated liquid form which is oud oil (dahn al-oud), applied to the skin or entering into the composition of perfumes. So the axis separating between the two is simple and clear: a solid wood that you burn against a concentrated oil that you apply or blend.

And this distinction differs from another distinction you may have encountered, which is the difference between oud and made bukhoor; for that compares pure wood with a perfumed blend that may contain numerous components. As for here, the comparison is between two pure natural materials from the same origin: one of them in the form of a solid wood, and the other in the form of a distilled oil. So do not think the dahn a material different from oud, but it is oud itself in a more concentrated form.

And because both rest upon the resin, the quality of the dahn follows the quality of the wood from which it was distilled; for the wood rich in resin gives a deeper dahn, and the poor wood gives only little. And for this reason oud oil is not understood a correct understanding except after understanding the wood itself, which is what we begin with.

And it is useful to realize that this relationship is not a relationship of competition but a relationship of derivation: for the wood is the origin from which the dahn is derived, not the reverse. And the confusion between the two terms arose because both are named "oud" in the daily speech; so the speaker says "I bought oud" while he means the wood, and another says "I perfumed myself with oud" while he means the dahn. And this leniency in the naming is acceptable in the colloquial, but whoever wants to buy with awareness needs to distinguish between them a clear distinction so that he does not ask for one thing and take another.

And perhaps a questioner may ask: as long as the dahn is more concentrated, is it not always the best? And the answer is that the matter depends on the purpose, not on the concentration alone. For the burned wood fills an entire space with its scent, which the dahn does not do, as it remains a personal perfume close to its owner. So each form has a field in which the other does not compete with it, and we will return to this detail in the section "which do you choose."

2. What is oud (the wood)?

Oud in its woody form is that solid part of the trunk of the tree that was saturated with the aromatic resin until its color darkened and its weight grew heavy, so it became a material for burning. And it is the closest of the two forms to nature, since it reaches you almost as it formed in the tree, after cleaning and cutting only, without a treatment that transforms it from its original form.

The method of its use is known in our assemblies: a piece or chip of oud is placed on a coal or an electric burner, so its scent rises with the heat to perfume the place. And to understand the structure of this wood and how the resinated part differs from the rest of the light trunk, review the article what is agarwood? which details that.

And you find the wood prepared for burning in the oud chips collection within the natural oud collection. And this woody form is what is available to you now for trying and acquisition, and upon it we build our talk of the dahn in the following section, since the dahn is extracted from wood like this and not from other than it.

And the pieces of wood vary in the color, the weight, and the density according to the amount of the resin accumulated in them; among them is the light, faint in scent, and among them is the dark, heavy, high-density that the enthusiasts value. And this very variance is what is reflected later in the extracted dahn, since the dahn carries the imprint of the wood it came from. And for this reason the estimation of the wood by the sense — its scent upon heating and its heaviness in the hand — remains the practical entrance to understanding its value before any talk of prices or commercial appellations.

3. What is oud oil?

Oud oil (dahn al-oud) is the aromatic oil that is extracted from the resinated oud wood through distillation, whether by water or by steam. And the general idea is that the wood is soaked or exposed to heat and steam until its volatile aromatic components separate, so they are gathered and separated from the water to remain in the form of a dark, concentrated oil. And we content ourselves here with the general description without entering into precise technical details that vary between the distillation workshops.

And the essence of the dahn is that it gathers the most precious aromatic part of the wood in a concentrated form; for while the scent in the wood is distributed in its mass and is released gradually by the heat, the dahn gathers this aromatic trace in a liquid of small quantity, high in concentration. And this relationship to the resin we detail in the article what is oud resin?, for the dahn in its essence is a concentration of the resinous aromatic part that grants oud its value.

And because the dahn is a concentrated liquid, its method of use differs entirely from the wood: it is not burned, but a little of it is applied to the skin as a perfume, or it enters into the composition of fine perfumes as a precious component. And we at Oud Treasure are working on providing the dahn line within the natural oud oil collection and the Indonesian oil collection, and they are being made available currently and have not been offered for sale yet, so our talk of them here is introductory, no more.

4. The comparison table

The following table gathers the most prominent differences between oud the wood and oud oil in a single glance. And the values in it are general and descriptive, and may vary in reality according to the type, the origin, and the grade, so read them as a framework for understanding, not decisive figures:

And note that the column "the method of production" is the crux of the essential difference: for the wood reaches you close to its natural state after cleaning and cutting, while the dahn passes through a process of distillation that separates it from the mass of the wood and gathers it a liquid. This additional step is what explains the difference of the form, the concentration, the unit of sale, and the price all together; for they are all branches of a single origin, which is that the dahn is extracted and the wood is not extracted.

And the conclusion from the table is that the difference is not in the origin but in the form and the use: the wood is a material that is burned so it fills the place, and the dahn is a material that is applied or blended so it accompanies its owner. As for the unit of sale, it differs by virtue of the nature: the wood is weighed by the gram because it is a solid mass, and the dahn is measured by the tola or its fractions because it is a precious liquid of small quantity.

5. Pure dahn against the diluted

Among the most important of what whoever is interested in oud oil ought to know is the distinction between two circulated types: pure dahn and diluted dahn. And the pure is the pure oil as it came out of the distillation without addition, whereas the diluted is an oil lightened by the addition of carrier oils or solvents such as di-octyl phthalate (DOP) or dipropylene glycol (DPG), for the purpose of lowering the concentration or the cost or facilitating the use.

And the dilution is not a defect in itself if it is declared with honesty, for some of those who use the dahn prefer a lighter grade. But the problem occurs when the diluted is sold as pure, so the buyer pays the price of the pure and takes the lightened. And for this reason the basic standard remains transparency: that the buyer knows exactly whether he is before a pure or diluted dahn, and with what oil it was diluted.

And among the signs that some of the experienced take as a guide in distinguishing the pure from the diluted are the stability of the scent and its development on the skin, and the viscosity of the oil and its consistency, however these are indicative signs, not decisive ones, since it is difficult to be decisive about the purity by the sense alone. And for this reason we do not see the honesty in claiming guarantees of absolute purity, but in the honest disclosure of the nature of the oil, its source, and its grade, and leaving the final judgment to the nose of the user and his experience.

And we commit — when the dahn line becomes available with us — to clarifying clearly whether the oil is pure or diluted, without claiming a purity that we cannot prove. And we avoid in this article mentioning any figures about the prices of the dahn or the tola or the ratios of extraction, because they vary and because our line has not been offered yet. And whoever wants to deal in quantities can look later at the oud oil wholesale page. And we will devote to this subject independent coming articles such as "how is oud oil distilled?" and "the pure and the diluted dahn" in which we detail what we summarized here.

6. Which do you choose?

There is no "best" choice absolutely between oud and the dahn, but a choice more suitable for your need and your use. And the practical rule is that you begin from the purpose then choose the form appropriate to it.

So if your intent is perfuming the assembly and the home and creating the atmospheres of hospitality by which oud is known in the Gulf, then the burned wood is the master of this field; its scent fills the place and accompanies the furniture and the clothes. And this is a collective use par excellence that suits the occasions and the gatherings. And those who acquire oud in quantities for burning can look at the oud-for-burning wholesale page.

As for if your intent is a personal perfume that accompanies you alone, or a component you introduce into the composition of a perfume, then oud oil is the more suitable; a small drop of it on the skin suffices, and it is the component that the makers of perfumes value for its depth and its stability. And those who work in the industry of perfumes find what concerns them on the oud for perfumers page.

And one may gather between the two forms: a wood with which he perfumes his assembly, and a dahn with which he perfumes himself when he goes out. For they do not compete but complement each other, since each of them serves a need that the other does not fully fulfill.

And it is well also to take into account the factor of the budget and the frequent use: for the wood is consumed with every burning, and a little of the dahn suffices each time so it lasts longer despite the costliness of its unit. And this is not a decisive price rule, for both extend over a wide range of grades, but it is a practical consideration that deserves to be put in the reckoning when choosing. And whoever wants to try before committing to a quantity, the beginning with a small sample is wiser than the large purchase on the first try, since the scent is an individual experience that a name does not describe nor a picture.

7. Our dahn line is being made available

We would like to be entirely honest with you: our oud oil line at Oud Treasure — including the natural oud oil collection and the Indonesian oil collection and the wholesale dahn page — is still being made available and has not been offered for sale yet. So what came in this article about the dahn is introductory and educational, not a call to buy what is available currently.

And until the dahn becomes available, you can do two things: register your interest through the contact page so that we inform you when it is offered, and test the quality of our wood now — which is the foundation from which the dahn will be distilled — by requesting a sample of the oud with which you sense the scent and the grade yourself. For whoever knows the quality of the wood is reassured about what will come of its dahn.

And when the time of the offering comes, we will clarify the source of each dahn and its grade and whether it is pure or diluted, upon the same approach that we follow in our wood: transparency in the origin and the grade, and no promises we do not fulfill.

And we prefer this path deliberately; for the market is full of claims of absolute purity and resounding figures, and we see that the trust of the buyer is built upon honesty, not upon exaggeration. So when we say that the line is being made available, that is out of keenness that we do not sell you a promise before we sell you a product. And until it is completed, our wood available now remains the best proof of our approach in the source and the quality, and it is itself what our dahn will be distilled from when its time comes.

Read also

For a wider deepening, begin from the complete guide to oud which gathers all the axes of the subject in one place. And it benefits you to read alongside this article: what is agarwood? to understand the wood from which the dahn is distilled, and what is oud resin? to understand the aromatic material that the dahn concentrates. And to know how the names agarwood, oud, and gaharu refer to the same material, review the difference between agarwood, oud, and gaharu. And we are working on devoting interconnected articles such as "the scent of authentic oud" — we add their links here successively whenever they are completed.