Areej Le Doré: The Oud Distiller Who Cured Rose Oil in Camel Leather

Russian Adam's first trade was not perfume. He sourced agarwood, chopped it, dusted it and cooked it, and out of all that wood came a tiny amount of oil. He did it again, and again, through nearly a hundred different agarwood oils, before he composed anything at all.

Areej Le Doré is the house he built afterwards, and it still carries the marks of the first job. Some of what went into his bottles he collected, distilled, cured or cooked himself, and where a formula needed a synthetic, he wrote the word down.

He was a distiller before he was a perfumer

Working one material over and over taught him something small and useful. A single ingredient behaves differently at the slightest change. A nose can catch differences that small. With enough repetition he learned to push them where he wanted them.

The perfumery came later, and he taught himself. Russian Oud, from his third collection, was built around agarwood oil he had distilled. The Russian in that name is him.

The materials modern perfumery let go of

Knowing one wood well was not the same as having enough to work with. He wanted a wider range of rare things to compose with, and Areej Le Doré came out of that wish. What he went after was the kind of material modern perfumery has largely let go of, forgotten for being too rare, too costly and too hard to get hold of. The house runs on one rule: every composition carries at least one ingredient many people have never heard of.

Al Majmua is the plain example. It is a modern chypre built on majmua, one of the most famous and most difficult of the traditional Indian attars, distilled on Indian sandalwood and carrying vetiver, kadam and pandanus flowers into the heart with it. On skin it opens bright and tart, bergamot over a bruised blackcurrant, and then smoky vetiver comes up with the watery breath of kewda behind it. Oakmoss and iris root settle it, and it stays close to the skin and does not leave in a hurry.

Camel leather bottles and a boiler of fruit

What he wants out of a perfume is an old thing brought back and then turned. Malik Al Taif is the old half. Its rose oil he collected in India himself, once the distillation there was done, and the method he used on it next has a long history behind it. He cured the rose oil himself, in camel leather bottles, to draw the last of the water out of it.

Indolis is the turn. Pineapple, ginger, lime and tangerine went into a single boiler together and were cooked. For Walimah, made to celebrate his own love story, he distilled a thousand fresh yellow champaka flowers. None of them is sold at the house any more.

Two roses, and what sits under them

War and Peace 2 opens on amber resin. The house dates it at 35 million years. Below that sit two roses, a Taif rose and an Indian one, with orris and Indian patchouli keeping them off the sweet side. Then the base arrives, and the base is his: an extract of deer musk and castoreum he made himself. Deer musk comes from the musk pod of the male musk deer and turns warm and skin close as it dries. Castoreum comes from the beaver and smells of tarry leather. Worn together, they are why the perfume stops smelling like a bouquet and starts smelling like a person who has been out all evening.

One patchouli, given the whole stage

The house found the patchouli in Nepalese Patchouli to be near kin to the rarest agarwood oil in Russian Adam's collection. It goes by the King of all Patchouli. The perfume sits inside a tincture he made for it and used as its carrier, so even the thing holding the composition together is his work. It opens cool and floral, lilac and hyacinth over blue lotus, then the patchouli takes the room, earthy and mineral, with orris butter powdering the edges.

Where the word synthetic shows up

The complaint underneath the house is a plain one. Across perfumery, the names of the precious materials have turned into empty titles worn by things that are not them. The answer to that is a promise: when a raw material appears on an Areej Le Doré ingredient list, it is genuine. He composes with rare naturals and an occasional gentle touch of a good synthetic where one is needed, and the list itself says which is which. Malik Al Taif carries a touch of a secret synthetic fixative. The note list for War and Peace 2 prints the word synthetic beside its civet.

One hundred numbered bottles

The first collection was Siberian Musk, Oud Zen and Ottoman Empire, each capped at one hundred full 50 ml bottles of French glass, every bottle carrying a number from one to one hundred. The cap came from the materials, and from not wanting one batch to smell unlike the next. Siberian Musk was gone in a couple of months, and Russian Musk followed it, the same formula again with better ingredients.

On the house's history page the sold-out label now runs almost the whole length of the list, Russian Oud, Walimah, Malik Al Taif, War and Peace 2 and Nepalese Patchouli among them. One block still reads in stock, the 7th Collection, and Al Majmua is in it.

At Gouttes Rares his work comes as decants, and the Areej Le Doré decant guide goes through what we carry one perfume at a time.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Russian Adam of Areej Le Doré?

He founded Areej Le Doré and composes everything in it. He distilled agarwood oil first, nearly a hundred different ones over several years, and came to perfumery later, self-taught. The business is based in Indonesia.

Is Areej Le Doré a natural perfume house?

It works with rare natural materials and adds an occasional gentle touch of a good synthetic where one is needed. The promise is that a raw material named on an ingredient list is genuine, and the synthetics get named too. Malik Al Taif carries a touch of a secret synthetic fixative, and the note list for War and Peace 2 prints the word synthetic beside its civet.

Why is Areej Le Doré always sold out?

The runs are small. Each perfume in the first collection came as one hundred numbered 50 ml bottles, a limit the rare materials set, and Siberian Musk was gone in a couple of months. On the house's history page the sold-out label now runs almost the whole length of the list, with the 7th Collection, Al Majmua included, still in stock.

What does the name Areej Le Doré mean?

Areej Le Doré stands for an aroma and aura that is golden. Beyond that the name is not translated word by word. The perfumes are meant to bring together the depth and intensity of Russian culture, the mystery of Arabian perfumery and the elegance of French fragrance.

Where should I start with Areej Le Doré?

War and Peace 2, if you want the part Russian Adam made with his own hands, the deer musk and castoreum extract in its base. Decants here run from 1 ml to 10 ml, and the Areej Le Doré decant guide goes through what we carry one perfume at a time.