Bortnikoff
Oud Monarch
The Story
Oud Monarch is the Extrait de Parfum from Bortnikoff, the house Dmitry Bortnikoff founded in Thailand in 2018 after co-founding the agarwood distiller Feel-Oud. Its base names two separate agarwood oils, Oud Merauke and Oud co Chang, and sets cacao against them rather than pushing smoke forward.
Oud
Dark resinous wood with depth
A dense, resinous wood that smells warm and slightly medicinal, with a leathery, animal-tinged smokiness and a sweet, almost barnyard funk underneath. It feels ancient and brooding, wrapping the skin in something thick and quietly powerful.
Woody
Dry grain of cut timber
The smell of cedar shavings, sandalwood, and dry vetiver roots, a sanded, resinous warmth with a faint pencil-box rasp. It feels grounded and composed, the quiet backbone that makes a scent read as serious and lasting.
Floral
Petals in soft full bloom
The rounded, dewy scent of flowers in bloom, soft and slightly sweet with a powdery, nectar-like glow. It reads romantic and gentle, conjuring a garden in late spring and a feeling of lightness against the skin.
Gourmand
edible sweetness good enough to bite
A dessert-like warmth built from sugar, vanilla, caramel, and baked or creamy textures that smell genuinely delicious. It feels cozy and comforting, wrapping the wearer in something soft, sweet, and almost edible.
Warm Spicy
Glowing embers of the spice drawer
The rounded heat of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg, dry and slightly resinous, like a baking pantry rather than a sharp kitchen. It creates a flushed, enveloping warmth that feels intimate and cool-weather, hugging the skin from within.
Animalic
Warm skin, musk and muscle
A raw, body-warm muskiness that reads of skin, hair, and fur, sometimes sweet and powdery, sometimes sharp and faintly feral. It feels primal and intimate, blurring the line between perfume and the person wearing it.
Magnolia
Lemon-cream petals breathing over a southern garden
What it is
Magnolia is the bloom of trees in the genus Magnolia, among the oldest flowering plants on Earth. Perfumery draws on species like Magnolia grandiflora and Magnolia figo (champaca's relative); fresh petals yield a costly absolute by solvent extraction, though most commercial magnolia is rebuilt with aroma-chemicals.
How it smells
A creamy white-floral scent bridging lemon and tea rose, brighter and less heady than jasmine. It opens with a citric, almost effervescent lift, then softens into milky petal, green stem and a faint clove warmth before drying clean and slightly fruity.
In perfumery
Used in the heart to add a luminous, dewy freshness without the indolic weight of tuberose or gardenia. It pairs with citrus, peony, lily and soft musks in feminine and unisex blends. It scents airy garden-style florals and soft floral compositions.
Good to know
Magnolias predate bees by tens of millions of years, so their tough petals evolved to be pollinated by beetles. True magnolia absolute is rare and costly to extract, which is why the magnolia in most bottles is a clever aroma-chemical reconstruction rather than the natural oil.
Frangipani
Tropical petals breathing coconut and almond cream
What it is
Frangipani is the flower of Plumeria, a small tropical tree in the Apocynaceae family grown across the Pacific, Caribbean and India. The waxy five-petalled blooms keep releasing scent after picking, so the aroma is captured by solvent extraction or CO2 into an absolute, occasionally by traditional enfleurage.
How it smells
A creamy, sweet white floral with a pronounced coconut-and-almond lactonic softness, ripe peach or apricot fruit, and a green, slightly spicy edge. Less indolic than jasmine or tuberose, it reads sunny and milky, opening fresh and petalled before settling into warm, custardy sweetness.
In perfumery
A heart note bringing solar, tropical creaminess to white-floral and beachy compositions. It blends with coconut, ylang-ylang, jasmine, sandalwood and vanilla. Soliflore and sun-warmed compositions explore its lactonic, solar character.
Good to know
Yields are brutally low, well under a tenth of a percent from flower to concrete, so true frangipani absolute is scarce and most commercial accords are reconstructions. The name is widely traced to a Renaissance Roman noble family whose almond-scented perfume was used to perfume leather gloves.
Rose de Mai
The honeyed May rose of Grasse
What it is
Rose de Mai is Rosa centifolia, the hundred-petalled Provence rose, hand-harvested for only a few weeks each May around Grasse, France. Fresh petals undergo volatile solvent extraction into a waxy concrete, which is then washed with alcohol to yield the absolute.
How it smells
Softer and rounder than Damascena rose, it is honeyed and jammy with green-leafy freshness and a fruity lychee-and-pear nuance. The opening is bright and dewy, drying to a warm, faintly spicy, honey-wax sweetness with a pollen-dusted depth rather than a sharp metallic bite.
In perfumery
A heart-note centerpiece bringing natural radiance and lift to florals, chypres and orientals. It pairs with jasmine, violet, patchouli and oakmoss. The Grasse centifolia harvest supplies many of the great French couture houses, and it sits at the core of countless landmark soliflore roses and classic aldehydic florals.
Good to know
The yield is famously tiny: roughly 600 kilograms of freshly picked petals produce about a single kilogram of absolute. That punishing ratio, combined with the brief May window and limited Grasse acreage, makes genuine Rose de Mai one of the costliest naturals in perfumery.
Himalayan Rose
High-altitude damask rose, fresh as mountain dew
What it is
Himalayan Rose is rose otto steam-distilled from Rosa damascena grown at high altitude in the Himalayas, the terraced foothills of Nepal and northern India rather than the valleys of Bulgaria or the Anatolian plateau. It is the same damask species behind classic rose otto, but the mountain terroir of cool nights, bright thin-air days, and slow ripening concentrates a strikingly different oil with a pale golden cast. In an all-natural house, this is genuine distilled otto, not a rose absolute thinned with solvents, nor a geraniol-and-citronellol reconstruction.
How it smells
Fresh, dewy, and green-tinged, it reads like a rose cut at dawn rather than one steeped in jam. The unmistakable damask heart is there (that honeyed, faintly spicy rose-petal warmth), but here it is lifted by crisp green-stem and a lemony brightness, cleaner and clearer than richer ottos. The overall effect is airy and high-pitched: radiant, almost watery in its freshness, with far less of the heavy honeyed depth that weighs down lowland roses.
In perfumery
Prized as the most transparent of the great damask ottos, it gives a composition a living, just-picked rose rather than a dense conserve. Perfumers reach for it when they want rose to read fresh and green: to brighten an oud, lend dew to a chypre, or keep a soliflore from turning syrupy. Because steam distillation yields so little oil (roughly one part oil to thousands of parts petals), it is costly and used as a precious accent, often laid over sandalwood or musk in the attar tradition.
Good to know
Smell it against its siblings and the difference is immediate: Bulgarian rose is rounder, fruitier, and velvety-sweet; Turkish rose is plush and waxy with a jammy edge; Taif rose, grown high in Saudi Arabia, is denser and spicier, edging toward saffron and clove. Himalayan rose is the lightest, greenest, and dewiest of the four: less honeyed depth, more clarity and lift. Naturals like this are quieter and more fleeting on skin than a synthetic rose accord, but they carry a complexity and golden warmth no single molecule can imitate.
Cinnamon
Red bark warmth dusted with sweet fire
What it is
Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of evergreen Cinnamomum trees. True Ceylon cinnamon, C. verum, comes from Sri Lanka; the coarser, cheaper cassia from C. cassia is common in food. Bark strips are peeled, curled into quills, and steam-distilled into a bark oil rich in cinnamaldehyde.
How it smells
Warm, sweet and dry-spicy, with a glowing red-hot quality from cinnamaldehyde and a soft clove-like nuance from eugenol. Ceylon bark is rounder, faintly floral and refined; cassia is sharper and more biting. The dry-down feels woody, balsamic and faintly leathery.
In perfumery
A heart-note spice giving oriental and gourmand scents their cozy heat, it pairs with vanilla, amber, rose, apple and tobacco. Used sparingly, it adds glow without sting. It marks the classic spicy oriental and the spiced heart of many autumn fragrances.
Good to know
Cinnamaldehyde and related compounds are skin sensitizers, and IFRA restricts those molecules directly, which is what limits cinnamon bark oil in fragrance. Once worth more than its weight in gold, cinnamon helped drive Portuguese and later Dutch control of Ceylon; the Dutch even burned stockpiles to keep prices high.
Tobacco
Dried leaf curing into honey and hay
What it is
The cured leaf of Nicotiana tabacum, a tall broad-leaved plant in the nightshade family. For perfumery the dried, fermented leaves are solvent-extracted to a dark concrete and absolute. Unburned and unsmoked, the leaf gives a sweet hay-like aroma rather than the smell of cigarette smoke.
How it smells
Warm, sweet and dry: cured hay and pipe tobacco laced with honey, dried fruit and a faint cocoa. There is a leathery, slightly herbal-green bite up top that settles into a soft, ambery, balsamic warmth, sometimes carrying a powdery floral nuance.
In perfumery
A heart-to-base note giving warmth, sweetness and a lived-in depth, often paired with vanilla, tonka, leather, honey and spice. It headlines tobacco-centered scents, often built around vanilla or sweet spice, and shades countless oriental and fougere compositions from beneath.
Good to know
The sweet, fruity, hay-like character of the absolute comes from curing and fermentation, not the living leaf, which smells sharp and green. Authentic tobacco absolute is expensive and restricted in some markets, so many modern tobacco accords are reconstructed from coumarin, hay and spice notes instead.
Oud Merauke
Wild green oud from the last frontier
What it is
Oud distilled from wild Gyrinops and Aquilaria filaria trees in the rainforests of Papua and West New Guinea, a region only tapped for agarwood since the late 1990s. Its dense, lignin-heavy heartwood demands long water soaks and high-temperature steam distillation to surrender its oil.
How it smells
Raw, green and untamed, among the most feral of regional ouds. A wet, after-rain mud and forest-floor opening gives way to fermented herbal funk, mushroom, dark coffee and cacao, with vaporous, almost metallic edges. Less sweet than Cambodian, less fecal than Hindi, but vivid and primal.
In perfumery
A connoisseur material distilled in tiny batches by artisanal oud houses, rather than used in commercial scent. Storied single-origin distillations from densely resinated Gyrinops are near-mythic among oud-heads for their green, tart, wild character.
Good to know
Papua agarwood comes from a young, tightly quota-managed supply, with oil yields often a fraction of a percent, which is why genuine distillate is scarce and costly. Aquilaria and Gyrinops are CITES-listed. Anything labeled Papua oud in an affordable mass fragrance is a synthetic accord, never the real oil.
Oud co Chang
Smoky leather and embered medicinal woods
What it is
Thai oud is distilled from Aquilaria crassna grown in eastern Thailand, with Trat province on the Cambodian border its most celebrated source, the same Cardamom Mountains range that yields Khmer oud. Wood is often aged for years before distillation, building the depth that defines the region's character.
How it smells
Leathery, smoky and medicinal, opening with a plush full-bodied smokiness like smouldering embers. A distinctive fruity sweetness threads through tannic leather, warm spice and honeyed tobacco, with camphorous, almost antiseptic facets that give Thai oud its bracing, resinous edge and a faint animalic warmth.
In perfumery
Thai oud bridges the sweet Cambodian and animalic Hindi styles, offering smoky leather depth without overwhelming funk, which makes it valued by artisanal distillers and blenders alike. Trat oils in particular are sought for a balanced, full-bodied profile that wears richly on skin.
Good to know
Sharing the Cardamom range with Cambodian crassna, Thai border ouds can echo Khmer sweetness while carrying more leather and smoke. Long pre-distillation ageing rounds the medicinal sharpness, and the best sustainably sourced Trat oil rivals far costlier origins for complexity.
Cacao
Bitter dark chocolate before the sugar arrives
What it is
The roasted seed of Theobroma cacao, a small understory tree native to the tropical Americas and now grown across West Africa. Pods hold beans wrapped in white pulp; the beans are fermented, dried and roasted, then solvent-extracted into an absolute carrying the bittersweet aroma of unsweetened chocolate.
How it smells
Deep, dry and roasted, like cocoa powder or dark chocolate shavings with almost no sweetness of its own. Bitter and faintly dusty up top, with nutty, coffee-like and earthy facets, drying down into a warm, powdery brown softness that clings close to skin for hours.
In perfumery
A heart-to-base note anchoring gourmand and oriental compositions, lending edible warmth without sugar. It pairs naturally with vanilla, tonka, patchouli, orange and chili. Pioneering masculine gourmands and chocolate-themed niche scents foreground its roasted cocoa character, the latter weaving cacao through coffee and bitter orange.
Good to know
The genus name Theobroma means food of the gods in Greek, echoing cacao's sacred status among the Maya and Aztec, who drank it bitter, frothed and spiced as a ceremonial brew. Sugar-sweetened chocolate is a later European adaptation; the perfume note stays true to the original bitterness.
Civet
Animal warmth that makes flowers bloom indecent
What it is
A glandular paste from the African civet, a nocturnal cat-like mammal secreting it from a perineal pouch, historically scraped out by hand and tinctured in alcohol. Modern perfumery instead uses synthetic civetone, a large-ring ketone whose macrocyclic structure was elucidated by Leopold Ruzicka in 1926.
How it smells
Raw and undiluted it is shockingly fecal, pungent and indolic, edged with skatole and sour butter. Diluted to traces it turns warm, honeyed and slightly leathery, with a tobacco hum and skin-like radiance. The shift from repellent to alluring happens entirely through dilution.
In perfumery
A base-note fixative valued for radiance and carnal warmth, lending florals a living, skin-like glow. Classic alongside jasmine and rose in animalic chypres and orientals. Trace civet shaped many vintage aldehydic florals and ambery orientals before synthetic civetone displaced the natural material.
Good to know
Civet farming confines wild-caught animals so the gland can be scraped repeatedly, and it continues on a reduced scale in Ethiopia even though synthetic civetone has displaced the natural material almost everywhere in perfumery. This perfumery civet is not the Asian palm civet behind kopi luwak coffee, a different animal in the same family.
Castoreum
Leather and warmth drawn from the beaver
What it is
An animal secretion from the castor sacs, paired cavities under the skin between the pelvis and tail base in both male and female beavers, whose contents blend with urine to mark territory. Trappers dry the sacs, then extract a tincture, resinoid or absolute. Most modern perfumery now relies on synthetic recreations.
How it smells
Dark, warm and leathery, with smoky, tar-like and faintly medicinal birch-tar facets. Beneath the animalic depth sit sweeter tones of dried fruit, hay and vanilla, plus a whiff of new leather and woodsmoke. Heavily diluted, it turns soft, suede-like and skin-warm.
In perfumery
A base-note fixative bringing leather, animalic warmth and long tenacity. It anchors chypres, fougeres and leather scents, pairing with birch tar, labdanum, oakmoss and tobacco. Castoreum builds the hide of leather scents, the warm drydown of classic orientals and the smoky depth of vintage Russian-leather styles.
Good to know
Beavers eat willow and poplar bark rich in salicin, giving castoreum a salicylate, almost aspirin-like character. It has long been used as a flavouring material as well as a perfumery one, though falling use and ethical concerns mean genuine castoreum is now rare and mostly synthetic.
Labdanum
Sticky amber resin scraped from sun-baked rockrose
What it is
Labdanum is a dark, sticky resin from the rockrose shrub Cistus ladanifer, native to the western Mediterranean. The plant exudes a fragrant gum on its leaves and twigs in summer heat; branches are boiled or scraped to recover the crude resin, which is then solvent-extracted into absolute and resinoid.
How it smells
Deep, warm and balsamic with leathery, animalic and faintly sweet facets that read as soft amber. Dried-fruit, honey, smoke and pine undertones run through it. It opens resinous and almost ambergris-like, then dries into a brown tobacco-and-leather warmth that lingers for hours.
In perfumery
A foundational base note and the natural backbone of most amber accords, usually built with vanilla and benzoin. A strong fixative, it deepens chypres, orientals and leathers and pairs with rose, oakmoss and incense. It underpins many golden-age oriental classics and countless amber compositions.
Good to know
In antiquity labdanum was combed from the matted beards and thighs of goats and sheep that had browsed through cistus thickets, then raked off with a thong-fringed tool called a ladanisterion. It is one of the oldest aromatic materials, predating distillation by millennia.
Vanilla
The warm sweet heart of comfort itself
What it is
Vanilla comes from the cured seed pods of Vanilla planifolia, a climbing orchid native to Mexico and Central America, now grown mainly in Madagascar and Indonesia; the vanilla of Tahiti is a different species, Vanilla x tahitensis. Green pods are picked unripe, then blanched, sweated in the sun and slow-dried over months until they darken and develop their aroma and vanillin.
How it smells
Sweet, warm and creamy, with a balsamic depth recalling custard, caramel and dried fruit, a faint smoky tobacco-like edge sitting underneath. It opens soft and gourmand, then dries into a powdery resinous warmth that clings close to skin and reads richer than synthetic vanillin alone.
In perfumery
A base note prized for richness and lasting warmth, vanilla rounds sharp edges and anchors oriental and gourmand compositions. It pairs naturally with tonka, amber, sandalwood and spice. Many of the most enduring oriental and tobacco fragrances build their core around it.
Good to know
Vanilla ranks among the costliest spices because each orchid flower opens for one day and must be hand-pollinated, a technique devised in 1841 by Edmond Albius, a twelve-year-old enslaved boy on Réunion. Most commercial vanilla flavor now relies on synthetic vanillin.
Fragrance Character
The opening is creamy and tropical, frangipani and magnolia before any wood arrives. Rose de Mai, Himalayan rose, cinnamon and tobacco warm the middle. The cacao in the base reads dusty and dark, closer to bitter chocolate than to sugar, and it keeps the two ouds smooth rather than medicinal. Wearers describe a warm animalic edge surfacing in the drydown.
Longevity
how long it stays on skin
This gauge reads the expected wear time, how many hours the fragrance keeps speaking on skin before it fades. A marker near the low end means a few fleeting hours, while a marker pushed to the far end promises a scent still present from morning into night.
Sillage
the size of its scent trail
This reads how far the fragrance reaches beyond you and the trail it leaves behind. Low sits soft against the skin, an intimate whisper noticed only up close; high climbs through moderate and strong toward enormous, filling a room and lingering in the air after you have left it.
Experimental
For the bold and curious
Unconventional, boundary-pushing scents for someone who wants to provoke a reaction and stand apart. Suited to artistic, challenging compositions: inky tar, rubber, fermented fruit, metallic or animalic facets that defy easy liking. On this wheel a glowing coin means it rewards the adventurous nose, a dim one means it plays things safe.
Office
Polished but never overpowering
Close-quarters professional settings where a scent should be noticed only by those near you. Suited to restrained, clean compositions with modest projection: tidy citrus, soft musk, pale woods that read competent and considerate. On this wheel a glowing coin means it works in shared workspaces, a dim one means it carries too far.
Evening
After dark, turned up
Dinners, drinks, and nights out when a fragrance can deepen and project with confidence. Suited to richer, warmer compositions: ambers, resins, smoky woods, or plush florals that bloom under low light. On this wheel a glowing coin means the scent comes alive after sundown, a dim one means it stays better suited to daytime.
Romantic
Close enough to be felt
Intimate moments and date nights meant to draw someone nearer. Suited to warm, sensual compositions that hum against skin: creamy florals, vanilla, soft musk, a touch of spice or amber that invites closeness. On this wheel a glowing coin means it sets an alluring mood, a dim one means it leans more practical than seductive.
Formal
Refined for the occasion that matters
Weddings, ceremonies, galas, and dressed-up affairs that call for composure and elegance. Suited to polished, structured scents with quiet authority: smooth woods, refined florals, soft leather, nothing loud or playful. On this wheel a glowing coin means it carries the right gravitas, a dim one means it feels too casual for the room.
Casual
Easy comfort for unhurried days
Everyday wear with no agenda: errands, coffee, friends, a slow weekend. Suited to soft, approachable scents that feel clean and natural, like fresh citrus, light woods, or a gentle skin warmth. On this wheel a glowing coin means the fragrance fits these laid-back moments, a dim one means it asks for more.
Day to Night
where its mood naturally falls
This slider reads the hour the fragrance was made for. A marker to the left leans luminous and bright, easy in daylight and open air; slide it right and the character turns deeper and warmer, the kind of presence that belongs to evening and candlelit rooms.
Winter
Warmth that carries through cold air
Cold air mutes and slows a fragrance, so winter rewards the dense and the warm: resins, smoke, vanilla, leather, and ambered spice that radiate heat against the chill. The bar shows how strongly this particular scent holds up and glows in cold weather.
Spring
Fresh blooms in mild, rising warmth
Mild, humid air lifts lighter compositions beautifully, so spring favors dewy florals, green stems, soft powder, and transparent citrus that feel alive rather than heavy. The bar shows how well this particular scent matches that fresh, gently warming season.
Summer
Bright and airy in real heat
Heat amplifies and projects scent hard, so summer calls for cool, crisp, breathable things: sharp citrus, salty marine air, aromatic herbs, and watery freshness that refresh instead of cloy. The bar shows how comfortably this particular scent wears in real warmth.
Fall
Spiced warmth for cooling days
As temperatures drop, richer materials read clearly without smothering, so autumn suits dry woods, warm spice, tobacco, amber, and golden fruit that feel cozy and contemplative. The bar shows how naturally this particular scent settles into crisp, cooling days.
Best Worn
Autumn and winter, from late afternoon onward. It suits dinners, evenings out and cold weather generally, reads unisex, and works for anyone usually put off by drier, smokier oud.
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The Vibe
The Nose
Dmitry Bortnikoff
Founder and perfumer
An architect by profession who turned to distilling. He co-founded Feel Oud in 2013, distilling agarwood and sandalwood oils, then launched Bortnikoff in Thailand in 2018. Its perfumes run 95 to 100 percent natural: Bortnikoff Sayat Nova, Bortnikoff Santa Sangre, Bortnikoff Musk Khabib, Bortnikoff Sir Winston.
More by this noseOud MaximusMusk KhabibMusk Cologne
The Maison
Bortnikoff
Genuine deer musk, real oud, true ambergris. Small batch extraits made of living materials.
Dmitry Bortnikoff builds the slow, artisanal way, from naturals most makers simply cannot get their hands on. Real Indian oud fermented and distilled the old way, deer musk tinctured over months, honeyed roses distilled straight into sandalwood. The result feels alive on skin, warm and a little unruly.
- Origin
- Thailand
- Founded
- 2016
- Known for
- Real animalics, tiny batches
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