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Manipur Oud Oil Pure Extraction (Source Container)
Manipur agarwood — sweet wood, warm spice. Direct from the distiller.
Size
Only 5 left in stock
Quantity
Free US shipping on $150+ · $29.95 international · All sales final
Pure Manipur oud oil — dehn al oudh, the trade's own name for a neat distilled oud — bought direct from the distiller, with no middleman between the still and this bottle. The fragrance is the scar. Agarwood is not a wood the tree grows; it is oleoresin an Aquilaria floods into its own wound after a borer opens the trunk and fungi follow it in. We know who distilled this oil, and where.
Ten bottles exist — five at 1 ml, five at 3 ml, and no more from this lot. Shipped from Houston, Texas. All sales are final: no returns, opened or unopened.
We buy this oil direct from the distiller in Manipur — no trader, no broker. The video and photographs on this page are our own, shot in Manipur among the trees the material came from; they are not a stock library's, and they are the one thing a reseller cannot borrow. What is in the vial is pure Manipur oud oil: a single origin and a single distillation, unblended and undiluted. Nothing added, nothing cut.
That chain matters more here than in almost any other category. The standard field survey of the agarwood trade (TRAFFIC/IUCN, Barden et al., 2000) records oil routinely extended with sandalwood, lodh and sesame, and little consistency between batches. Against that, a line you can follow back to one person is worth more than any assurance we could write.
One dab at the wrist — dabbed, never rubbed, and one dab is a full wearing. This is our own account of these bottles, not a specification.
We will not sell you longevity as a grade. Distillers and collectors both say tenacity does not track quality, and the finest oils are often the quieter ones. This one rewards proximity.
Cambodi reads jammy, honeyed and fruit-forward; this is drier and woodier — sweet in a resinous way rather than a fruity one, with a little warm spice at the top. Closer in spirit than a heavy animalic Hindi would be, but its own thing. Most department-store "oud" contains no agarwood whatsoever, so it is no guide either. Expect a dark, slow-moving liquid — no alcohol, no sprayer, no bright top accord.
If this is your first Indian oud, take the 1 ml. One dab is a full wearing, so a millilitre goes further than the number suggests, and $150 is the honest price of finding out.
The 3 ml is a different decision, and not a discount one. At $399 the arithmetic is $133 a millilitre against $150 — worth knowing, not worth deciding on. Take it because you already know this profile, and because a single distillation does not come back: five exist, roughly half a kilo to a kilo and a third of resinous wood stands behind each millilitre, and there is no reordering this oil in March.
Ten bottles: five at 1 ml, five at 3 ml, and no more than two to any one customer so the lot reaches more than a few hands. When they are gone, they are gone — there is no reordering this oil. Shipped from Houston, Texas. All sales are final — we accept no returns, opened or unopened. A millilitre that has left our hands can never again be shown to be unadulterated, so it can never be resold.
If you want to ask anything before you commit — about the oil, the sourcing, or the terms — write to us first. On a bottle that cannot come back, we would rather answer the question than have you guess.
Assam is where India's agarwood industry actually lives. Hojai — Islamnagar in particular — is the country's trading and distilling capital, and Assam notified a state agarwood policy in 2020, Tripura in 2021. Manipur has no equivalent town, and as of 2026 no comparable state agarwood policy has been reported there. That absence, not folklore, is why a Manipur distillation is difficult to buy.
The scale is a matter of public record. India's export framework, set out in DGFT Notification No. 52/2024-25 of 20 January 2025, allocates Manipur 200 kg of agar oil a year against Assam's 5,560 kg — under three percent of the national figure, and roughly a twenty-eighth of Assam's.
Manipur is 75.46% forest (Forest Survey of India, ISFR 2019), but Aquilaria malaccensis grows only up to about 1,000 metres, and only about half the state's forest sits in that band. Rain across the state runs 1,200 to 2,700 mm a year. The tree that makes this resin belongs to the warm, wet, lower slopes — a narrow ribbon of an already small state.
Distillers interviewed for the TRAFFIC/IUCN survey put one litre of agarwood oil at 500 to 1,000 kg of resinous wood, and published hydrodistillation yields for the species agree with that range. A single naturally resinated tree in Assam gives an average of 4 kg (Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, 2023).
So roughly half a kilo to a kilo and a third of resinous wood stands behind one millilitre, and a 3 ml bottle is on the order of one infected tree's entire resinous output. Only a small fraction of Aquilaria trees ever resinate at all — published estimates range from one or two percent up to seven or ten — and an infected tree cannot be told from the outside. Decades in the tree. Weeks in the soak. Days in the still. Millilitres at the end.
None of that is what makes this particular lot worth buying. We bought it from the man who distilled it, in Manipur, with no trader between us — which is why the video and photographs on this page are ours and not a stock library's, and why we can tell you where this oil came from at all. Ten bottles came of it: five at 1 ml, five at 3 ml. There will be no more from this lot.
Our assessment
How do I know this oil is what you say it is?
Because there is nobody between us and the man who distilled it. We bought this lot direct from the distiller in Manipur — no trader, no broker — which is why the video and photographs on this page are our own, shot among the trees the material came from, and not a stock library's. What we offer is a chain you can follow back to one person, and one origin and one distillation in the vial: unblended, undiluted, nothing added and nothing cut. Judge it the way the trade does — by the colour, the viscosity, and how the scent shifts over hours on your skin.
When will my order ship?
Your bottle ships from Houston, Texas, and you will have an email with tracking the day it leaves us. Please read the dispatch notice at the top of the site before you order, so the current timing is clear — that is where we keep it up to date. Your card is charged at checkout in the ordinary way: no deposit, no instalment. If anything about the timing changes we will write to you, rather than leave you guessing.
Are all sales final?
Yes. All sales are final: we accept no returns, opened or unopened, and no cancellation once your bottle has shipped. A millilitre of oud that has left our hands can never again be shown to be unadulterated, so it can never be resold, and ten bottles is the entire lot. If you have any question at all about the oil, the sourcing or these terms, write to us before you order — on a bottle that cannot come back, we would far rather answer the question than have you guess.
What does it actually smell like?
A little spice over sweet wood at first — warm, not sharp, and without the barnyard some Indian ouds open on. Within the first half hour the spice softens and the wood turns sweeter and rounder, resinous underneath. It settles into a sweet, woody warmth that sits close to the skin and keeps going, quiet and clean. That is our own account of these bottles, not a specification, and your skin may read it a little differently.
How do I wear it? I have only ever used sprays.
There is no sprayer and no alcohol — this is neat oil, dark and slow-moving. Tip the wand or a glass rod against the inside of one wrist and lay down a single dab. Do not rub: rubbing shears the top and flattens the opening you paid for. One dab is a full wearing. If you want more presence, add a second point at the base of the throat rather than a heavier dose in one place. Give it thirty minutes before you judge it, and let it sit close rather than expecting a room to know.
My reference point is Cambodi. Will I like this?
Quite possibly, yes. Cambodi reads jammy, honeyed and fruit-forward; this is drier and woodier — sweet in a resinous way rather than a fruity one, with a little warm spice at the top and none of the farmyard edge some Indian ouds carry. It sits closer to an approachable profile than to a challenging one. Most department-store "oud" contains no agarwood whatsoever, so it is no guide either. If this is your first Indian oil, start at 1 ml and find out for $150.
Should I take the 1 ml or the 3 ml?
If this is your first Indian oud, the 1 ml. One dab is a full wearing, so a millilitre goes much further than the number suggests, and $150 is the honest price of finding out whether the profile is yours. The 3 ml is a different decision and not a discount one: $133 a millilitre against $150 is worth knowing but not worth deciding on. Take it because you already know this profile and want depth of supply, and because a single distillation does not come back — five exist, and there is no reordering this oil in March.
Why are there only ten bottles?
Because that is what the lot yielded. Distillers interviewed for the standard TRAFFIC/IUCN field survey put one litre of agarwood oil at 500 to 1,000 kg of resinous wood, and a single naturally resinated tree in Assam averages about 4 kg. Roughly half a kilo to a kilo and a third of resinous wood therefore stands behind each millilitre here. Five at 1 ml and five at 3 ml is the whole of it, and we cap orders at two bottles per customer so the lot reaches more than a couple of buyers. When they are gone, they are gone, and nothing from this distillation comes back.
What if the parcel is damaged or never arrives?
That is a separate matter from the final-sale terms, and we treat it as one. Bottles go out double-boxed and cushioned, tracked, and with signature on delivery. If a parcel arrives crushed or leaking, photograph the outer box before you open anything, then email us the same day with your order number and those photographs. If tracking stalls or the carrier records a delivery you never received, tell us and we will open the claim with them and work it through with you directly.
How should I store it, and will it change?
Upright, capped tight, out of sunlight and away from heat — a drawer or a closed box is ideal, and a bathroom shelf is the one place to avoid. Do not refrigerate it. Neat oud oil has no water and no alcohol in it, so it does not spoil the way an eau de parfum does; left alone in a dark place it is generally held to settle and deepen with age rather than fade. Expect it to thicken slightly in a cold room. Warm the vial in your hand for a minute and it will pour normally again.
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