Kyara
Di Ser (2000)

Fresh, delicate rose petals, floating on a current of sunshine and citrus ... opening into a deep whirlpool of kyara oil and woods. A kaleidoscope of kinam and greenery, wafting in and out of focus. A spring breeze across the Japanese countryside.

Current notes which differ than listed:
Kyara grade agarwood, cedarwood, rose otto, patchouli, sandalwood

TLDR: Extraordinary (4.9/5). A unique oud perfume masterfully blended from exceptional ingredients.

This is a remarkably composed and beautifully blended fragrance. The ingredients are very special. Of course, the eponymous kyara oud is the star of the show, but the Japanes Hamanasu Rose is also a special ingredient. The citrus used in the opening is a very natural smelling and delightful lemon with a bit of grapefruit, or perhaps yuzu, but whatever it is, it sparkles. The patchouli used here is also beautiful. It is clean and warm, particularly in conjunction with the slight sandalwood in the base here.

The oud here is camphorous. The green, minty and almost citrus tone is unlike the other ouds you might have experienced. The medicinal bright note from the oud persists throughout the scent's many hours of longevity. The notes chosen to make up the totality of the fragrance serve to accent and highlight the characteristics of the kyara. The entire experience is contemplative and beautiful.

This is a perfume, not a oud oil. As such, it presents an olfactory experience that is at once more and less than the experience of heated kyara. The non-kyara elements which Di Ser have chosen to include in this fragrance can be seen as distractions from the pure oud experience or as enhancements of it. I believe they are both. The experience of kyara (burnt in Japan) which I have been fortunate to have, is abstract, meditative and quiet. It is a near-religious thing. I am utterly unsure how, where or when one would choose to smell like kyara heating in a mica burner. This fragrance, by contrast, is one I wear from time to time. The elements added to the rare oud tincture here makes the fragrance workable for use.

In any event, the price charged for this product, which I accept is driven by the incredibly costly star ingredient, makes it a scent to be used sparingly by those of us who do not regularly attend meetings in Davos.

This is wonderful stuff. Whether you want to part with the sort of cash it takes to obtain even an miniscule sample of this fragrance, let alone a full bottle, is up to you. But this fragrance is a remarkable experience and I am glad to have had both the chance to sample it and to buy a full bottle. Yes, it is very expensive, but here you definitely get what you pay for.

Di Ser's Kyara is an exquisite natural oud fragrance that features genuine oil distilled from kyara, the highest grade of agarwood in the world, considered only to be kyara when it comes from wild, densely-resinated Vietnamese agarwood of at least 80 years in age. Because of its rarity, kyara is never used to distill oud oil. Until Di Ser decided to do it, that is. Di Ser is in the unusual position of having access, through its mother organization, a Japanese research facility in Sapporo, on Hokkaido Island, to a wide variety of rare botanicals, woods, and resins collected for research purposes. Most pieces of kyara are collector's pieces, kept in private vaults across Japan and China: Di Ser's mother organization happened to have one.

It's genuinely nuts that the brand decided to distill kyara and equally nuts to put it into a fragrance, but there you go – the essence of artisanship is taking the kind of anti-commercial risks that just wouldn't fly in the mainstream. Its price – $1,150 for 33ml of extrait, $25 for a 0.5ml sample – reflects the kind of madness that using genuine kyara entails.

The scent itself smells amazing. It captures the elusive aroma of kyara when heated gently on a burner, which is an ethereal, almost silvery-jade smell encompassing arboreal sap, conifers, and an aromatic note that, to my nose, bridges the fiery heat of freshly-grated ginger root and the dull warmth of powdered ginger. I smelled both the pure kyara oil from whence the fragrance was built, and the fragrance itself; the finished fragrance has a rose note that suffuses the taut coniferous notes with lush sweetness. If you have loads of money and absolutely no sense, then at least sample Kyara to find out just how delicate (and non-animalic) oud oil can be.

Definitely a nice fresh Oud with a bright lemony opening. The medicinal woody Oud is great and lasts throughout, but I'm not sure if it's quite the Kyara smell I've experienced on a couple other occasions. I don't feel like I get much cedar or sandalwood, but a bit of pine resin or something close. I also
don't pick up any rose, but that's a good thing for me, I didn't want smell any rose. Obviously it's extremely expensive, but if you have a flexible budget, it may be worth the FB price.

Atypical Agarwood
I was so curious to experience what many regard as THE holy grail in the oud world known as: Vietnamese Kyara Oud, that the choice was fairly easy in making one of the most expensive blind fragrance purchases to date: Di Ser Kyara. Kyara oud is said to be atypical of the standard agarwood scent profile in that it does not produce animalic, fecal or barnyard-ish qualities. Kyara oud is wild, extremely old, rare, and commands an exorbitant price (€500 for 1 gram.) When burned, it is said to have a calming, euphoric, spiritual effect. The packaging is simplistic, modern, and elegant. The square unlabeled clear glass bottle (with a dark brown wooden cap) is housed in a gold cloth pouch neatly tucked inside of a smooth sanded wooden box. The box is tied shut with a thick purple string folded neatly in a bow. There are pamphlets inside describing each of the fragrances offered by the company as well as some interesting information about the house of Di Ser, Japanese culture, agarwood, and more. The opening was pungent and pleasantly medicinal. This medicinal bite remains throughout the life of this scent. The scent that followed was mind numbingly fresh, crisp, minty, and camphorous. The patchouli shows it's strength here and normally this accord would impede me from wearing in hot weather but this is the exception. I've worn this scent 4 out of the last 5 days (95°F weather.) The patchouli here is so masterfully blended and of the best quality I've ever smelled (Prior to this, favorite patchouli coming from Roja Parfums H-The Exclusive Aoud.) Here the patchouli lacks the typical dank/dark musky profile Im so used to. Accompanying the Hamanasu Japanese Rose (Rosa Rugosa Thumb) is a sparkling fresh and slightly powdery sweetness that balances the deep woody heart and base notes. The fragrance opens strong and tapers down close to the skin at the 4-5 hour mark. As I write this, the scent has lasted more than 12 hours on my clothing and I'm still catching wafts of it.Tenacious for an all natural extrait. Expensive but I already wish I had a backup.