during the jasmine portion, i appreciate the emphasis on the agricultural labour being performed as highly skilled. too often, we see agricultural labour falsely described as “unskilled labour” as an excuse for starvation wages. these workers often have to endure extreme work conditions and deserve a living wage, same as everyone.
Do u use the artificial, I have used both and undoubtedly the natural one is better, but the artificial one is very close, so I rather use that to preserve natural one for the next generation
Insane how I came across oud at egypt too. If only I didn't get scammed for it, I'd probably get obsessed for it too. The piece of clothing that get in touch with the real oud oil retains the fragance for days, but sadly what I got after I paid $60 for a small vial was a cheap imitation that pales in comparison to the real stuff.
The sandalwood story is sad one in south India , those who know the real story can relate , the government banned private growers from growing the tree , so the wood became very scarce, this caused the price to rise and the illegal smuggling industry grew . today the illegal industry is so big and dangerous that private growers don't want to risk their lives growing this tree. If you search the net even well protected goverment buildings are not able to protect this tree from smugglers. Recently the government has opened the market for private growers ,but it's too late now . No one want to risk it and security is a problem . So this is how the Indian government killed an entire industry and will drive the tree to extinction.
even the police are arresting people with some other wood and say it's smuggling of sandelwood and arrest them. Happend to a middleman i knew who used to sell birch wood and and alot of other wood which are legal and inexpensive.
@underground leaks 101 Hindus are not supposed to be vegetarians, you need to get your basics right. Some sects of hinduism do want the followers to follow satvic diet. Even Jainism and Buddhism promote strict vegetarian diet.
@@VICTOR-uj1lz you're talking about sandal sharbat, the juice is not entirely made out of sandalwood, genius. It just a sugar syrup boiled with few grams of sandalwood in it for flavour
Also because these things are getting harder and harder to get because the entire species of plants and who knows what else relys on those plants are dying or getting endangered due to over harvesting
Why are the same people who claim to be into sustainability and "all natural" so invested in essential oils? It's not "natural" and production is incredibly damaging to the environment. From unsustainable harvesting threatening extinction of species to the amount of heat and water needed for extraction and ending in even more impact from transport there's negatives in every aspect.
$80000 for a litre of oud oil is a gross understatement. I own a bottle of 1gm of cultivated (not wild) oud oil which was $130 and this was one of the cheaper offerings of this seller. Priciest wild ones go for around to $5000 for 3 gms.
All my child hood I have seen Jasmine plants in EVERY house. Everyone grows their own and it smells darn good. Also its a trope for seduction in movies and novels lol.
'Now that we've killed all the trees, I am certain that this industry will never fail, and will double in production in the next few years' - Ernest P Worrell and Wile-E-Coyote
It’s for Jesus. The stabbing of the bark represents the Jew that stabbed Jesus on the cross and the collecting of the oil represents Jews drinking the blood of Jesus.
This video is very informative because it documents the processes how the essential oils are obtained. It is fascinating. However, I am saddened by the fact that human’s need for self satisfaction and greed as well as a way of finding ways to sustain one’s livelihood may in turn cause the demise of some of these precious trees.
@@arc8218 well...😋 I'm so awesome, ask anyone, I knew for an absolute fact that this video is bad in a malicious deceitful way, without having to watch it. TH-cam recommended this video of lies, basically shoved it down my throat, so I clicked on it, and I commented on it, now the TH-cam algorithm thinks I have a hardon for expensive incense videos.
There is another fragrant flower Shenbagam (tamil) OR champaka which is from the tree of the same name. I don't know whether it is used in scents. Read that they are used in scents of luxury brands like Chanel, Dior etc. There are so many naturally fragrant tropical flowers. Sambangi is one too.
I deeply appreciate info blogs like this. It is both shockingly representative of underappreciated and crucially, remarkable cultures and people, who I am too distant of from the US. These folks are real leaders and keepsaker managers of unique and valuable resource wealth. Thanks for the story and for providing a spotlight for people @BusinessInsider
I've had a bottle of Oud Wood for several years. I rarely wear it because it's such a special scent. It's also rare that people know and understand why a smell is so important or desirable
@@luiscarrillo8178 expiration on perfume is generally stated to be 5 years but this is a known fallacy. Vintage perfume collection is real. Most perfumes if kept in the right conditions, ie dark and room temp, can last decades. Like wine occasionally you will have one spoil.
I'm surprised Ambergris wasn't one of the 4. They probably should have replaced Sandalwood or Jasmine Oil with Ambergris, as I would said it's more rare and expensive. For those who don't know, Ambergris is Sperm Whale vomit, and it's very rare and expensive but used in many fragrances. Particularly men's fragrances, and it's a note that's in some of the most popular men's fragrances in the world, such as Dior Sauvage and also niche fragrances like Creed Aventus. To be fair, although the note is used in many fragrances. It's not always genuine Ambergris, and in many of the less expensive fragrances it's a synthetic form of Ambergris such as Ambroxen. A small piece of Ambergris collected from a beach can fetch thousands of dollars. Because it's Sperm Whale vomit, it can't be harvested in a more controlled manner such as planting and treating a tree to harvest it's wood. I believe these things make it more worthy of being on this list.
@@JustysFrank You mean, exactly as I said in my comment? Lol. Read it again, my friend. When mentioning Sauvage, I specifically said that to be fair, the less expensive fragrances use Ambroxen which is a synthetic form. There is also another synthetic called Fermenich's Cetakox, although Ambroxen is more commonly used in fragrances, they are the two most similar to Ambergris. It's funny how you call it a "chemical" as is countless fragrances don't use certain synthetic notes. If no synthetic notes were used in the fragrance world, nearly all fragrances would cost hundreds of dollars per 100ml bottle. Many use some genuine extract and oils as well as certain synthetics. Some all genuine, and some all synthetic. It really depends on the fragrance, it's notes, and it's price point.
The frankincense and myrrh segment reminds me of the production of maple syrup, where they insert a tap into the trunk of the trees and then collect the sap to turn into the sweet stuff.
Isn't it interesting that in a these 3 cases, it is only when the west gain interest in a product, that it becomes an unsustainable and threatened plant and production. Like with so many other things. That said all 3 of these plants aren't just there for beautiful scents. They offer extremely powerful healing properties, especially frankincense. It is of course for the scent that South East Asia produced and consumed them, but it is very much also for their healing properties that they were harvested, produced and used. These are a part of old knowledge.
@@anastasiab9506 The wouldn't be unsustainable supply, if there wasn't an ever increasing demand for these items. Before any of the presented scents became world renown and highly sought after, the supply was enough to match the demand.
It’s not a matter of “the West”. Because these products had religious and class connotations the majority of the people in South Asia would never have had the opportunity to possess them. Sandalwood, Oud and Jasmine oils were prohibitively expensive or outright prohibited to those of “low birth”. All the West has done is industrialise the process and make it available to a wide variety of people in different forms and that naturally disrupts the natural cycle as we are harvesting more of it. The problem is the quantity harvested not “the West”. If India had taken initiative to sell its sandalwood on its own in massive quantities then they would be to blame instead.
It's sad how all of these are native to India but the fragrance industry in this part of the world is so small, historically it was one of our most favoured exports and look at it today. We need to start branding and stop exporting mere raw material.
Branding might actually make it worse. Monopolies can be very destructive and cause more slavery and child labor especially in vulnerable countries such as India. Unfortunately withd emand and price compared to creating alternatives, it's a lose-lose situation. Where artificial creations lower demand for the real stuff which while yes can save the plants (has also caused eradications of plants in the past too) also puts people out of a job. Limiting the use of the real stuff and banning artificial versions actually can give people a job until that plant no longer exists because of over harvesting and unsustainable practices caused by high demand. Then they're out of a job because why work for something that doesn't exist that doesn't produce anything.
@@rivitraven I don't mean we need big companies with monopolies, that isn't possible in most of India anyways - land is too fragmented and no one will sell it to companies because we're primarily agrarian (this is also why we don't already have big brand native companies and only sell raw material), what I'm talking about is a cooperative company like Amul where all farmers growing the raw materials come together to build their own brand. Local people usually make sure not to abuse the resources (or themselves) for excess profit.
Similar to the Himalayan salt video, where it was being mined in Pakistan then exported to India for processing and selling. Pakistan changed regulation to stop the export of the salt to India because they were reaping the most profits whilst Pakistan (where the salt is native to) was not seeing as much profit.
This documentary does highlight pretty well how capitalism is driving our sacred scents into extinction. If we aren’t more cautious about the products we consume they won’t be around much longer. As a pagan, this has given me some insight and reason to re-examine what materials I use in my practice.
Agar grew abundantly in South India and is mentioned in ancient Tamil literature which is more than 2000years old. It was abundantly exported to Europe via Arabian trade routes and it is recorded in Tamil literature. I hope some credit is given to wide use of Agar in every household in ancient days, in day to day perfuming of households and went to North India from here so got mentioned in Sanskrit literature 1600 years back, if it is verifiable!
I had a sandalwood tree that grew on its own in my "wadi"(huge backyard with lots of fruit and coconut trees). We had to literally spend $1000 to get it registered and legal to grow. We had to take special care of the tree so it doesn't die, and could not sell it to private companies or gov until gov said so. It was a headache, same is the story with Teak wood tree in india both are highly protected.
I was cutting out a bunch of honeysuckle and burning it, some of it had the blue infection that lumber sometimes has. The infected wood was very fragrant when burned, I wonder if it's something like agarwood.
It's crazy to me that these trees just make this incredibly complex chemical - making it in the lab is super difficult, but just make a tree sick and bam you've got it
Awesome video. But Tom Ford Oud Wood has synthetic oud according to the sources. It is one of the earliest fragrance from a mainstream designer brand to have an "oud" note in it and to make it popular
So artificial agarwood is not actually artificial, right?... or did I misunderstand? The tree is still producing the resin to fight the infection, but the infection is caused by hand
Synthetic agarwood would be made in a lab from multiple aromachemicals. Real agarwood is formed in nature both through natural infection and infection by men (the result is the same)
There’s wild oud (the most expensive), plantation oud (like the Vietnamese one in the video), and synthetic oud, produced by oil companies, and most frequently found in perfumes. In the video, artificial oud is most likely referring to plantation oud. I wish they’d do a better job researching their topics. None of the examples given (perfume examples) are good examples
25:00 it's easy to spot the will be bloomed buds. Typically whiter in color and bigger, while unripe buds are greenish-yellowish and smaller. But those ripe buds will start blooming in the evening, and fully bloomed at night. And start to wither the next day. Agarwood (gaharu), sandalwood (cendana) and jasmine sambac (melati) , we had those in indonesia. Wild agarwood are hard to find, even the man made are still expensive. Sandalwood itself are protected by law, if you chop 1, you'll be fined heavily. And yes jasmine sambac are one of the most fragrance flowers in Indonesia.. Being accustomed with flowers with strong scent, It makes Roses smells like paper for me.
@@AltafHussain-nz6nz the species is Jasminum sambac. Also known as Arabian jasmine for the westerners/European, but it was actually native to indomalayan region as far as i know. In Indonesia it is called "melati putih" and is one of three national flowers
3:46 so which is it?? Are the tree endangered or are this specific tree that are not infected is the one going endangered.... Because i can tell you my village has a lot this tree, we mostly use for wood chipping..
This video really opened my eyes. We don't stop to realize what having certain things might be costing us - the world! When these natural resources are gone, there are no replacements. I don't know how cloning plants work, but it cannot be easy, and I bet it may be close to impossible in some circumstances. Like gum-wood trees requiring injury to produce the sap needed to grow agarwood - I did not know how destructive it is to the trees and the forests. A way must be found to replenish these trees. I am sure there is a way, but it will take big tech, time, and boatloads of money to figure it out before the species die out completely. When you have poor people and poor villages that try to capitalize on the market, they unwittingly help kill the very things that make them money. Maybe if there were teachers who could go out in the villages and teach people the correct way of harvesting, the loss of these wonderful trees could be overcome, or, at least slowed.
It's definitely not these hard workers fault that they are going extinct, it's the market, capitalism, the commodification of life, etc. They earn the least in this whole chain, work the longest hours and in difficult conditions, and have sometimes their whole local economy based on one product due to the pressure of its high demand by luxury brands.
One of many reasons why the natural infection rate is so low is because of the mass use of pesticides being used throughout the world. This is one of the reasons why it’s difficult to farm Agarwood through natural infection
5:52 Insha-Allah can someone please verify that narration? I looked it up in Sahih al-Bukhari with the reference number and can't find it. Jazakallah Khayran
missing the scent of this flower "Michelia Alba". When partially bloomed, they smell heavenly. I would tie a flower to my hair and it never goes out of style. One of my coolest experience in South East Asia...that lovely Аромат ❤
I have maybe 4 or 5 bottles of oud from different regions. The smell of high quality oud is unlike any other. If I had the money, I would easily spend thousands on it. If ever you are interested in what the price tags look like, go look up ensar oud
I understand people need livelihood but then the trees are endangered. It's not important to have smell. Though it smells amazing the artificial method makes sense in today's world.
Was watching your vi de o, and reading some comments. I can't remember where I read about a flower named "MAGNOLIA GLANDIVORA" - it has its own excellent, soothing smell. Not sure if any company has any product from this flower. If anyone knows, please let me know. Moreover, I thank you for your great video to viewers. Wish you all the best. 👍👍👍
I think it's Magnolia grandiflora,and not grandivora And it is grown here in India,and most of the Magnolia(family)flowers have very strong,unique and good smell,and ya lot of local and branded company produces perfume from its oil and it's expensive
Just Friday I was pondering on what's the costliest perfume I could afford and then I asked myself why not reconnect with chemistry and create my own scent??? 🤔
@@johnmartin1721 there's plenty of resources online for making diy scents, if you have the cash get a beginner chemistry set and learn the basics through Khan academy
Hey, I'm a hobby perfumer. If you want to create something that would match the quality of departement store perfume expect to invest $1000 for aromachemicals and oils, $50-2000 dollar in equipement. And be patient, perfumery is much harder than painting/playing piano etc. Be CAREFUL. Most ingredients in perfume are highly toxic in their pure concentration (undiluted) Some popular citric oils can bite through glass, and also through skin of course. If you want to save money I highly suggest you do not pick up this craft. If you're truly passionate about scent and have enough money, go for it! Side note: If you're looking for a specific type of fragrance maybe I can help. I smelt at least 800 in my life.
Somalia 🇸🇴 is the biggest producer of frankincense in the world. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church still buys their frankincense exclusively from Somalia 🇸🇴 to this day.
myrrh and olibanum (frankincense) are NOT the same. Olibanum kind of smells like white incense...while myrrh i don't know how to describe it but it's really nice
This perfectly explains the demand-value paradox, just a piece of wood costs so much because the demand is way higher than the availability, there's many things that I think smell better but are way cheaper, bergamot and vanilla for example
None of the fragrances shown in the video use real Oud. There are only maybe a dozen fragrances that still use real Oud. The rest use synthetic aroma chemicals.
the only brand I could think of that uses real oud is strangelove NYC. I heard it's quite potent and doesn't smell like the regular oud fragrances sold in the market
Second best time to plant a tree is today. . Best time to plant a tree is yesterday. . Plant a tree people, any tree. A nut tree or a fruit tree only lives on average for about 10 to 20 years . . They do not live for ever and only take about 3 years to mature fully. Plant 7 trees in your life and you barely break even your carbon footprint. TGC Blessings :)
Thank you for educating me about these ingredients. I was about to buy one of these very fragrances for my husband. I will not. I do not want to contribute to the abuse of natural resources, nor do I feel morally comfortable risking peoples’ lives while hunting down and / or processing these raw materials.
I have all these absolutes and essential oils heavily diluted in jojoba oil as I make my own skincare and perfume for personal use and to gift to people. I try my best to source my oils from sustainable sources, but I can only go by what the companies I purchase from tell me. The sandalwood I'm using at the moment comes from New Caledonia. Australian sandalwood has an unpleasant fragrance at least to me and it's very expensive so I don't buy it. I think it's more for medicinal use. I bought a small amount of oud as I have never smelt it before, so if I didn't like it, I wouldn't be wasting my money. Of course, sniffing a single scent means nothing. It's when they're combined with other scents that you get the rounded perfume. I used only a tiny amount of oud in my last perfume combining it with other bases and middle notes such as jasmine. The oud grounded the fragrance and gave it long lasting properties. It smells divine, even if I say so myself. Most commercial perfumers use synthetics or a combination of natural and synthetic, but you can't improve on nature. I might sound like I know what I'm doing but I'm a real novice. Rather than snorting cocaine, these natural essences are my drug of choice.
Hey really amazing what u do , do u actually extract perfume from flowers idk how that works , so can you please explain, I want to start selling oils and making massage and skincare mixes myself but idk where to start nor where to begin
I came across a satisfying video about the preparation of incense, so the huge brown bark that the lady is scrapping to produce the powder for the incense is an agar tree.
God bless you and you family’s ! May you prosper in life and get everything you desire ! Times are tough but the power of love can rejoice in all of us ! Cheers
Tropical zones of the world have these environments for the plants, trees and in flowers to develop these characteristic scents through evolutionary process to attract insects and to an extent humans to propagate themselves.
during the jasmine portion, i appreciate the emphasis on the agricultural labour being performed as highly skilled. too often, we see agricultural labour falsely described as “unskilled labour” as an excuse for starvation wages. these workers often have to endure extreme work conditions and deserve a living wage, same as everyone.
100%. Most people wouldn’t be able to do what those “unskilled” workers can.
People always liable farmers as stupid man, its so annoying, they are much smarter than any of us
@Adam Fontenet adam… my brother in christ… “agricultural labor is super chill and not at all back breaking” is a DELUSIONAL take.
It’s not used to determine low wages. When it’s a job anyone can do, anyone does it and there’s no end to available workers. Thus the low pay
@@demeter-the-greatwanna bet?
I went to Egypt in 2021 and became OBSESSED with oud. Now I wear it daily. What a beautiful scent. Love it
Do u use the artificial, I have used both and undoubtedly the natural one is better, but the artificial one is very close, so I rather use that to preserve natural one for the next generation
Insane how I came across oud at egypt too. If only I didn't get scammed for it, I'd probably get obsessed for it too. The piece of clothing that get in touch with the real oud oil retains the fragance for days, but sadly what I got after I paid $60 for a small vial was a cheap imitation that pales in comparison to the real stuff.
@@kueapel911 bastards , ripping off tourists
The sandalwood story is sad one in south India , those who know the real story can relate , the government banned private growers from growing the tree , so the wood became very scarce, this caused the price to rise and the illegal smuggling industry grew . today the illegal industry is so big and dangerous that private growers don't want to risk their lives growing this tree. If you search the net even well protected goverment buildings are not able to protect this tree from smugglers. Recently the government has opened the market for private growers ,but it's too late now . No one want to risk it and security is a problem .
So this is how the Indian government killed an entire industry and will drive the tree to extinction.
Thank you for that information.
even the police are arresting people with some other wood and say it's smuggling of sandelwood and arrest them. Happend to a middleman i knew who used to sell birch wood and and alot of other wood which are legal and inexpensive.
@underground leaks 101 Hindus are not supposed to be vegetarians, you need to get your basics right. Some sects of hinduism do want the followers to follow satvic diet. Even Jainism and Buddhism promote strict vegetarian diet.
@underground leaks 101 wait I don't get it, how is this relevant when they're talking about state laws
@underground leaks 101 what are you trying to say?
These "they are so expensive because a lot of work and care go into it" series is so satisfying to watch
Well sandalwood is not expensive we drink its juice here in pakistan . Its cheaper than a 2.5 litre coca cola bottle.
@@VICTOR-uj1lz you're talking about sandal sharbat, the juice is not entirely made out of sandalwood, genius. It just a sugar syrup boiled with few grams of sandalwood in it for flavour
Also because these things are getting harder and harder to get because the entire species of plants and who knows what else relys on those plants are dying or getting endangered due to over harvesting
@@VICTOR-uj1lzhow are things in Pakistan right now by the way? Lol
Are they Booming???
Why are the same people who claim to be into sustainability and "all natural" so invested in essential oils? It's not "natural" and production is incredibly damaging to the environment. From unsustainable harvesting threatening extinction of species to the amount of heat and water needed for extraction and ending in even more impact from transport there's negatives in every aspect.
Like a lot of things, the majority of people will only support the causes that are convenient for them or have clear ulterior motives
Cuz they're fuckin Hippocrates
init
Hypocrisy
really depends on where you’re getting them from
$80000 for a litre of oud oil is a gross understatement. I own a bottle of 1gm of cultivated (not wild) oud oil which was $130 and this was one of the cheaper offerings of this seller. Priciest wild ones go for around to $5000 for 3 gms.
The lady spent so much time to delicately pick each individual bud and look at the treatment the buds get at the market and the factory.
And the fact they get stepped on barefoot by the workers makes it worse
@@damianmedina6375it makes it PERSONAL
All my child hood I have seen Jasmine plants in EVERY house. Everyone grows their own and it smells darn good. Also its a trope for seduction in movies and novels lol.
3:15 there is no oud in most perfumes, including Tom Ford's Oud Wood.
Correct they use oud accords basically the smell of oud made with other aroma chemicals and naturals
Still smells good.
😮
'Now that we've killed all the trees, I am certain that this industry will never fail, and will double in production in the next few years' - Ernest P Worrell and Wile-E-Coyote
industry destroy nature to make money
The Agar story saddened me deeply.
Seeing the abuse and over harvesting of these trees really is just depressing.
As much as I love such natural scents, I am also grieved at man's treatment of trees worldwide. We need things, but how much?
It’s for Jesus. The stabbing of the bark represents the Jew that stabbed Jesus on the cross and the collecting of the oil represents Jews drinking the blood of Jesus.
@@mkseed9188weird
I really enjoyed this video. It was very informative. Thank you.
I'm Vietnamese and im quite proud that my country is the first one to appear on the list, thanks Insider Business.
12:19 being paid to look at trees everyday seems like such a chill job
This video is very informative because it documents the processes how the essential oils are obtained. It is fascinating. However, I am saddened by the fact that human’s need for self satisfaction and greed as well as a way of finding ways to sustain one’s livelihood may in turn cause the demise of some of these precious trees.
No it's not, it sucked, I'm not even going to watch it.
@@JeffreyAllanBackowski then skip lol, why comment here 🤣
@@arc8218 well...😋 I'm so awesome, ask anyone, I knew for an absolute fact that this video is bad in a malicious deceitful way, without having to watch it. TH-cam recommended this video of lies, basically shoved it down my throat, so I clicked on it, and I commented on it, now the TH-cam algorithm thinks I have a hardon for expensive incense videos.
@@JeffreyAllanBackowski tell me what part of this video have "malicious deceitful way" ? Look like you just a troll that dislike everything
@@JeffreyAllanBackowski The algorithm is not that specific, trust me I know. Common plebian mitake
So Sandalwood is basically the tenderloin of the tree
Tenderloin is expensive for it's quality.
Sandalwood is expensive because the nonsensical high demand 😛
Only if you're obsessed by food.
@@laus7080 n,
@@laus7080 nnnnuazgn
And so agarwood is basically the scent of burning life. 😂
Any thing is expensive when there is less supply and more demand . So that is applicable to all products
Ok boomer.
look, bottling my farts takes time
@@paddington1670 Can u reserve an order for me
31:00 The way he describes Mon Guerlain makes me want to spend the $100/oz just to smell it for myself.
it's marvelous 🎉
perfumes cause cancer
There is another fragrant flower Shenbagam (tamil) OR champaka which is from the tree of the same name. I don't know whether it is used in scents. Read that they are used in scents of luxury brands like Chanel, Dior etc.
There are so many naturally fragrant tropical flowers. Sambangi is one too.
Frangipani - yes, it's used in perfumes
yes and the largest producer of champaka is Malaysia.
Yes it is.
Tom Ford Champaca Absolute is probably the most popular fragrance to use Champaca note.
@@mlg1279no it’s not frangipani but magnolia
@@savithrivenugopal Champa in Hindi is frangipani or Plumeria
I guess in Tamil it's shanbagam - Magnolia?
Nice thematic blend of older episodes, good idea.
The first tree we can also find it in Kalimantan. We call it Gaharu.
It's from India ....even the name Kalimantan is Indian
Gaharu is a colloquial or corrupt version of the Sanskrit word Agaru
Sup G I’m 20, grinding hard to get out the hood, I can’t be 30 with nothing to show for so i smoke weed on my youtube channel 👀👀xc
@@tamilthevdiya8993 Agarwood is also in malaysia...is the malaysia name from india too 😂
Indonesian and its quest to claim everything
I deeply appreciate info blogs like this. It is both shockingly representative of underappreciated and crucially, remarkable cultures and people, who I am too distant of from the US. These folks are real leaders and keepsaker managers of unique and valuable resource wealth. Thanks for the story and for providing a spotlight for people @BusinessInsider
and they dont put the blame on someone else. I can watch this
I've had a bottle of Oud Wood for several years. I rarely wear it because it's such a special scent. It's also rare that people know and understand why a smell is so important or desirable
u talkin about Tom Ford's Oud Wood? If yes, there's hardly any Oud in that if at all.
@@lettuce1305 indeed. Modern fragrances are just chemical concoctions brewed in a lab.
colognes only have a 3 year life span they don't last forever or age like wine they don't get better over time
@@luiscarrillo8178 expiration on perfume is generally stated to be 5 years but this is a known fallacy. Vintage perfume collection is real. Most perfumes if kept in the right conditions, ie dark and room temp, can last decades. Like wine occasionally you will have one spoil.
I tried a sample of Tom Fords, literally it’s a high I’ve been chasing. The smell is unreal.
I'm surprised Ambergris wasn't one of the 4. They probably should have replaced Sandalwood or Jasmine Oil with Ambergris, as I would said it's more rare and expensive. For those who don't know, Ambergris is Sperm Whale vomit, and it's very rare and expensive but used in many fragrances. Particularly men's fragrances, and it's a note that's in some of the most popular men's fragrances in the world, such as Dior Sauvage and also niche fragrances like Creed Aventus. To be fair, although the note is used in many fragrances. It's not always genuine Ambergris, and in many of the less expensive fragrances it's a synthetic form of Ambergris such as Ambroxen. A small piece of Ambergris collected from a beach can fetch thousands of dollars. Because it's Sperm Whale vomit, it can't be harvested in a more controlled manner such as planting and treating a tree to harvest it's wood. I believe these things make it more worthy of being on this list.
Ambergris is not used in Sauvage. It is ambroxan, a synthetic chemical.
@@JustysFrank You mean, exactly as I said in my comment? Lol. Read it again, my friend. When mentioning Sauvage, I specifically said that to be fair, the less expensive fragrances use Ambroxen which is a synthetic form. There is also another synthetic called Fermenich's Cetakox, although Ambroxen is more commonly used in fragrances, they are the two most similar to Ambergris. It's funny how you call it a "chemical" as is countless fragrances don't use certain synthetic notes. If no synthetic notes were used in the fragrance world, nearly all fragrances would cost hundreds of dollars per 100ml bottle. Many use some genuine extract and oils as well as certain synthetics. Some all genuine, and some all synthetic. It really depends on the fragrance, it's notes, and it's price point.
@@closinginonclosure My fault bro haha
@@JustysFrank It's all good man
@@closinginonclosurewhy adulterate the genuine ingredients with synthetic? Synthetics are carcinogenic.
The frankincense and myrrh segment reminds me of the production of maple syrup, where they insert a tap into the trunk of the trees and then collect the sap to turn into the sweet stuff.
Isn't it interesting that in a these 3 cases, it is only when the west gain interest in a product, that it becomes an unsustainable and threatened plant and production. Like with so many other things.
That said all 3 of these plants aren't just there for beautiful scents. They offer extremely powerful healing properties, especially frankincense. It is of course for the scent that South East Asia produced and consumed them, but it is very much also for their healing properties that they were harvested, produced and used. These are a part of old knowledge.
Four cases, not three. Agarwood, Frankincense/Myrr, then Sandalwood, and lastly Jasmine flours. But otherwise, I agree with you.
dont blame others for demand, blame locals for unsustainable supply.
@@anastasiab9506 The wouldn't be unsustainable supply, if there wasn't an ever increasing demand for these items. Before any of the presented scents became world renown and highly sought after, the supply was enough to match the demand.
It’s not a matter of “the West”. Because these products had religious and class connotations the majority of the people in South Asia would never have had the opportunity to possess them.
Sandalwood, Oud and Jasmine oils were prohibitively expensive or outright prohibited to those of “low birth”.
All the West has done is industrialise the process and make it available to a wide variety of people in different forms and that naturally disrupts the natural cycle as we are harvesting more of it.
The problem is the quantity harvested not “the West”. If India had taken initiative to sell its sandalwood on its own in massive quantities then they would be to blame instead.
@@anastasiab9506without locals there would be no demand.
It's sad how all of these are native to India but the fragrance industry in this part of the world is so small, historically it was one of our most favoured exports and look at it today. We need to start branding and stop exporting mere raw material.
Branding might actually make it worse. Monopolies can be very destructive and cause more slavery and child labor especially in vulnerable countries such as India.
Unfortunately withd emand and price compared to creating alternatives, it's a lose-lose situation. Where artificial creations lower demand for the real stuff which while yes can save the plants (has also caused eradications of plants in the past too) also puts people out of a job.
Limiting the use of the real stuff and banning artificial versions actually can give people a job until that plant no longer exists because of over harvesting and unsustainable practices caused by high demand. Then they're out of a job because why work for something that doesn't exist that doesn't produce anything.
@@rivitraven I don't mean we need big companies with monopolies, that isn't possible in most of India anyways - land is too fragmented and no one will sell it to companies because we're primarily agrarian (this is also why we don't already have big brand native companies and only sell raw material), what I'm talking about is a cooperative company like Amul where all farmers growing the raw materials come together to build their own brand. Local people usually make sure not to abuse the resources (or themselves) for excess profit.
Frankincense and myrrh is native to Somalia.
@@falischika6221 yeah myrrh is but frankincense is native to multiple regions including India
Similar to the Himalayan salt video, where it was being mined in Pakistan then exported to India for processing and selling. Pakistan changed regulation to stop the export of the salt to India because they were reaping the most profits whilst Pakistan (where the salt is native to) was not seeing as much profit.
This documentary does highlight pretty well how capitalism is driving our sacred scents into extinction. If we aren’t more cautious about the products we consume they won’t be around much longer. As a pagan, this has given me some insight and reason to re-examine what materials I use in my practice.
Agar grew abundantly in South India and is mentioned in ancient Tamil literature which is more than 2000years old. It was abundantly exported to Europe via Arabian trade routes and it is recorded in Tamil literature. I hope some credit is given to wide use of Agar in every household in ancient days, in day to day perfuming of households and went to North India from here so got mentioned in Sanskrit literature 1600 years back, if it is verifiable!
Which tamil literature specifically?
What about the gold?
They couldnt have every single one coming from India haha but yeah it is the hub of incense worldwide
@@TheSecondInitiate what? Don't be an ignorant ass.
so what?
I love these videos thanks Business Insider for making such fantastic content ❤️❤️. Much love to everybody as well!.
I had a sandalwood tree that grew on its own in my "wadi"(huge backyard with lots of fruit and coconut trees).
We had to literally spend $1000 to get it registered and legal to grow.
We had to take special care of the tree so it doesn't die, and could not sell it to private companies or gov until gov said so.
It was a headache, same is the story with Teak wood tree in india both are highly protected.
I hope they grow the resource as fast as they harvest them.
I like the smell of sweet grass being burned the most... I also like the smell of weed, that's pretty pricy incense...
love form India here. Always been proud of this rich country that has thrived aesthetically, intellectually, and economically ...
As well you should be. 😊❤️🙏💞
In Pakistan we call it Agar Bati, it a stick when burnt it release beautiful aroma. Mainly people use it on sacred occasions.
Same in India. It's used during religious ceremonies
I was cutting out a bunch of honeysuckle and burning it, some of it had the blue infection that lumber sometimes has. The infected wood was very fragrant when burned, I wonder if it's something like agarwood.
It's crazy to me that these trees just make this incredibly complex chemical - making it in the lab is super difficult, but just make a tree sick and bam you've got it
Awesome video.
But Tom Ford Oud Wood has synthetic oud according to the sources.
It is one of the earliest fragrance from a mainstream designer brand to have an "oud" note in it and to make it popular
So artificial agarwood is not actually artificial, right?... or did I misunderstand? The tree is still producing the resin to fight the infection, but the infection is caused by hand
Synthetic agarwood would be made in a lab from multiple aromachemicals.
Real agarwood is formed in nature both through natural infection and infection by men (the result is the same)
Similar to the lab made diamonds. Yes that thing is diamond but it won't fetch high price. Similar is the case with artificially produced pearls.
For synthetic oud, they usually mix patchouli with cypriol oil and synthetic woody molecules
There’s wild oud (the most expensive), plantation oud (like the Vietnamese one in the video), and synthetic oud, produced by oil companies, and most frequently found in perfumes. In the video, artificial oud is most likely referring to plantation oud. I wish they’d do a better job researching their topics. None of the examples given (perfume examples) are good examples
Very Informative video.
25:00 it's easy to spot the will be bloomed buds. Typically whiter in color and bigger, while unripe buds are greenish-yellowish and smaller. But those ripe buds will start blooming in the evening, and fully bloomed at night. And start to wither the next day.
Agarwood (gaharu), sandalwood (cendana) and jasmine sambac (melati) , we had those in indonesia. Wild agarwood are hard to find, even the man made are still expensive. Sandalwood itself are protected by law, if you chop 1, you'll be fined heavily.
And yes jasmine sambac are one of the most fragrance flowers in Indonesia.. Being accustomed with flowers with strong scent, It makes Roses smells like paper for me.
Sir what is the name of this variety of jasmine that you mentioned In your comment
@@AltafHussain-nz6nz the species is Jasminum sambac. Also known as Arabian jasmine for the westerners/European, but it was actually native to indomalayan region as far as i know. In Indonesia it is called "melati putih" and is one of three national flowers
3:46 so which is it?? Are the tree endangered or are this specific tree that are not infected is the one going endangered.... Because i can tell you my village has a lot this tree, we mostly use for wood chipping..
in philippines specifically in mindanao agarwood is so natural... we just throw it, coz it cant be used as firewood..
Business insider is my favorite youtube channel
I wonder what solvent is used initially with the jasmine flowers and how it is disposed of after use?
Cat urine
Vodka can be used as a solvent
It was said in the video. Alcohol
3:21
they show those ouds, but not maison francis kurkdjian oud smh one of the best imo
This video really opened my eyes. We don't stop to realize what having certain things might be costing us - the world! When these natural resources are gone, there are no replacements. I don't know how cloning plants work, but it cannot be easy, and I bet it may be close to impossible in some circumstances. Like gum-wood trees requiring injury to produce the sap needed to grow agarwood - I did not know how destructive it is to the trees and the forests. A way must be found to replenish these trees. I am sure there is a way, but it will take big tech, time, and boatloads of money to figure it out before the species die out completely. When you have poor people and poor villages that try to capitalize on the market, they unwittingly help kill the very things that make them money. Maybe if there were teachers who could go out in the villages and teach people the correct way of harvesting, the loss of these wonderful trees could be overcome, or, at least slowed.
Sensible comments won't get likes, sigh!
Human greed and ego is a problem; with a population of 8billion doesnt make it easy on nature
So go and spent your life trying to fix this problem, instead of crying
Greed n Money rule
It's definitely not these hard workers fault that they are going extinct, it's the market, capitalism, the commodification of life, etc. They earn the least in this whole chain, work the longest hours and in difficult conditions, and have sometimes their whole local economy based on one product due to the pressure of its high demand by luxury brands.
One of many reasons why the natural infection rate is so low is because of the mass use of pesticides being used throughout the world. This is one of the reasons why it’s difficult to farm Agarwood through natural infection
Another one that's rare is Ambergri or whale vomit which is used in very expensive perfumes.
But as far as I understand ambergris has no (or little smell). It is used to "Fix" the oils in the essential oils.
5:52 Insha-Allah can someone please verify that narration? I looked it up in Sahih al-Bukhari with the reference number and can't find it. Jazakallah Khayran
missing the scent of this flower "Michelia Alba". When partially bloomed, they smell heavenly. I would tie a flower to my hair and it never goes out of style. One of my coolest experience in South East Asia...that lovely Аромат ❤
Also the scent of Frangipani. When i first smelled the flowers at a friends house i was hooked. Would love to grow a plant at my home.
Very fascinating documentary. I love fragrance and collect perfume bottles from various eras and houses.
I have maybe 4 or 5 bottles of oud from different regions.
The smell of high quality oud is unlike any other.
If I had the money, I would easily spend thousands on it.
If ever you are interested in what the price tags look like, go look up ensar oud
Self Business Advertisement.
@@junaidtanoli1 probably fake
@@Mr.S_BuildsThings why are you advertising it? You must be the perfumer behind ensar oud
Excellent thank YOU share with my children for knowledge information informing only,! Thank YOU
Some of these endangered trees sound like the perfect trees to reforest parts of America not to mention the financial value theyd bring.
Terrible idea it would be a invasive species we tried the same using the koi that are such a problem
Koi a problem?
Ooohhh thas is nice
Your contents are impressive 💖🙌💖
Jasmine looks like sampaguita here in the Philippines. A national flower of our country. A very fragrant flower.
They are the same.
I understand people need livelihood but then the trees are endangered. It's not important to have smell. Though it smells amazing the artificial method makes sense in today's world.
Watch puspha.
@@Satyam1010-N already did. 1 and 2.
Amazing ❤️
Omg, this is fun to watch. 😆 cause im selling authentic agarwood bracelet and the burn. Btw aquilaria malaccensis is originated from Indonesia.
Was watching your vi de o, and reading some comments. I can't remember where I read about a flower named "MAGNOLIA GLANDIVORA" - it has its own excellent, soothing smell. Not sure if any company has any product from this flower. If anyone knows, please let me know. Moreover, I thank you for your great video to viewers. Wish you all the best. 👍👍👍
Grandiflora?
Magnolia champaka or the Indian shenbagam is the most fragrant flowers of the magnolia species..
I think it's Magnolia grandiflora,and not grandivora
And it is grown here in India,and most of the Magnolia(family)flowers have very strong,unique and good smell,and ya lot of local and branded company produces perfume from its oil and it's expensive
All of my favourite smells in one video. Love it.
Red Sandalwood is the final boss after you've gone through these 😹
All of these materials are frequently used in Arabic traditional perfumes such as Oud. Never knew they’re that expensive
Oud is my favorite scent. Makes sense that it’s so expensive & hard to achieve
I really love this whole series ❤
Just Friday I was pondering on what's the costliest perfume I could afford and then I asked myself why not reconnect with chemistry and create my own scent??? 🤔
There are already a couple of companies that actually do that! But you should 100% give it a shot, chemistry is a super fun hobby
please make a video of the process 👍
@@johnmartin1721 there's plenty of resources online for making diy scents, if you have the cash get a beginner chemistry set and learn the basics through Khan academy
Hey, I'm a hobby perfumer. If you want to create something that would match the quality of departement store perfume expect to invest $1000 for aromachemicals and oils, $50-2000 dollar in equipement. And be patient, perfumery is much harder than painting/playing piano etc.
Be CAREFUL. Most ingredients in perfume are highly toxic in their pure concentration (undiluted)
Some popular citric oils can bite through glass, and also through skin of course.
If you want to save money I highly suggest you do not pick up this craft.
If you're truly passionate about scent and have enough money, go for it!
Side note: If you're looking for a specific type of fragrance maybe I can help. I smelt at least 800 in my life.
@@laus7080super cool !
When I sold plants from a van, indian people were only thing interested in the jasmine but really preferred a specific variety
Somalia 🇸🇴 is the biggest producer of frankincense in the world. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church still buys their frankincense exclusively from Somalia 🇸🇴 to this day.
This is very interesting. I loved this.
That sandle wood factory is a bit of a shame, but must smell amazing omg!!
I prefer sandalwood I just don't use it as much.
There's heaps of them in Papua New Guinea. Many thanks for all the explanations and a wonderful visit.
Can't explain more.
I'm surprised the fragrance houses have not gone fully synthetic on ingredients.
The designers surely ate 100% synthetic.
Dang it, it’s 2022!! Where is my smellovission??
Unending greed of human beings is what makes other species extinct.
This is amazing. Thank you for the video.
This video made a lot of scents 👍🏽
Sandalwood is very important to Indian culture as well, notwithstanding it has Indian origins.
myrrh and olibanum (frankincense) are NOT the same. Olibanum kind of smells like white incense...while myrrh i don't know how to describe it but it's really nice
Where l live in the northern part of Kenya we have both myrrh and olibunam. Myrrh is stronger in scent and more expensive than olibanium.
This perfectly explains the demand-value paradox, just a piece of wood costs so much because the demand is way higher than the availability, there's many things that I think smell better but are way cheaper, bergamot and vanilla for example
I love sandalwood but don’t see it as much as in the 60’s.
My favorites. Been using mysore soap for years now, great for every skin type
None of the fragrances shown in the video use real Oud. There are only maybe a dozen fragrances that still use real Oud. The rest use synthetic aroma chemicals.
Yes they are Oudh inspired only
the only brand I could think of that uses real oud is strangelove NYC. I heard it's quite potent and doesn't smell like the regular oud fragrances sold in the market
@@citranellaaChopards Garden of the Kings Series
Second best time to plant a tree is today. .
Best time to plant a tree is yesterday. .
Plant a tree people, any tree. A nut tree or a fruit tree only lives on average for about 10 to 20 years . .
They do not live for ever and only take about 3 years to mature fully.
Plant 7 trees in your life and you barely break even your carbon footprint.
TGC
Blessings :)
Thank you for educating me about these ingredients. I was about to buy one of these very fragrances for my husband. I will not. I do not want to contribute to the abuse of natural resources, nor do I feel morally comfortable risking peoples’ lives while hunting down and / or processing these raw materials.
Enjoyed your video and so I gave it a Thumbs Up
Everyone should grow a sandalwood tree!
We used to pick Jasmine flowers from our garden and made it into fragrant flower crowns or bracelets.
Agarwood Also available in India Assam it's Natural not Artificial
Excellent video , very informative
I have all these absolutes and essential oils heavily diluted in jojoba oil as I make my own skincare and perfume for personal use and to gift to people. I try my best to source my oils from sustainable sources, but I can only go by what the companies I purchase from tell me. The sandalwood I'm using at the moment comes from New Caledonia. Australian sandalwood has an unpleasant fragrance at least to me and it's very expensive so I don't buy it. I think it's more for medicinal use. I bought a small amount of oud as I have never smelt it before, so if I didn't like it, I wouldn't be wasting my money. Of course, sniffing a single scent means nothing. It's when they're combined with other scents that you get the rounded perfume. I used only a tiny amount of oud in my last perfume combining it with other bases and middle notes such as jasmine. The oud grounded the fragrance and gave it long lasting properties. It smells divine, even if I say so myself. Most commercial perfumers use synthetics or a combination of natural and synthetic, but you can't improve on nature. I might sound like I know what I'm doing but I'm a real novice. Rather than snorting cocaine, these natural essences are my drug of choice.
Hey really amazing what u do , do u actually extract perfume from flowers idk how that works , so can you please explain, I want to start selling oils and making massage and skincare mixes myself but idk where to start nor where to begin
I came across a satisfying video about the preparation of incense, so the huge brown bark that the lady is scrapping to produce the powder for the incense is an agar tree.
It’s a shame that the people who do all the work, get paid hardly anything.
Those days are history. Nowadays all get paid very well.
Nice video!
God bless you and you family’s ! May you prosper in life and get everything you desire ! Times are tough but the power of love can rejoice in all of us !
Cheers
Best video thanks 🙏👍💕
Tropical zones of the world have these environments for the plants, trees and in flowers to develop these characteristic scents through evolutionary process to attract insects and to an extent humans to propagate themselves.
I literally just got finished pulling buckets full of invasive sandalwood plants out of the ground to be thrown away here in Hawaii.
The Jasmine story is a beautiful one. It is also great to see the luxury industry cast the spotlight on it, thus creating commerce.
Which will lead to over-harvesting like in the three previous examples, if nothing is done to curb exploitive practices early on.
Great insight Thanks!