Al Haramain – Bukhoor Cambodi

Like all the other bakhoors, this sample comes from my friend Povilas, who sent me a generous selection of samples out of his collection.

Al Haramain give the following fragrance notes:

The raw scent of Bukhoor Cambodi is a rose-like floral with a heady freshness reminiscent of bergamot.

The tart-citrusy note is very present shortly after placing the bakhoor on the warmer, but then fades further and further into the background where it keeps the intense rose smell from being too sweet and cloying for my nose.
I hardly get the saffron mentioned in the description. I can only sense it when I burn Bukhoor Cambodi in my bathroom and allow the fragrance to spread into the hallway. There, I can smell a subdued, leathery note with some spiciness attached to it. However, that reminds me rather of dune pepper than saffron.

After a few minutes, the smell gains softness; not only from the rose but also from something balsamic. Possibly, it’s the guaiac wood, even if I can’t claim that it distinctly smells of guaiac.
Further, I occasionally pick up a subtle fruitiness that could also come from guaiac wood, but perhaps it’s from the cedarwood mentioned as a base note.

Povilas wrote to me: “fruity sweet and balsamic is a kind of a signature of cambodi oudh, or its supposed to be, that’s why a lot of ‘Cambodi Oudh’ perfumes have fruity notes added”.
He also mentioned that he can smell an oudhy note in this bakhoor when it has already spent quite a while on the warmer.

I have to say that I hardly find a noteworthy oudh note in Bukhoor Cambodi. Only when I hold one of the relatively spent pieces directly in a flame and briefly bring it to glow, I pick up an idea of it.

After I had noticed that, I tested burning this bakhoor on charcoal (with open windows):
The citrusy, tart top note comes across even more pungent on charcoal and turns almost soapy.
There’s quickly a lot of smoke, in which I find an ashy off-note.
The rose fragrance has considerably less clarity than when heating on the warmer, but in the developing room note it comes out similarly strongly.
After the smoke abruptly stops (the piece of bakhoor has started to smoulder at the bottom at that point), I also get a charcoal smell alongside the ashy note, like that of a cold campfire.
I find no trace of oudh or agarwood. It’s astonishing that this fragrance comes out best with the ‘used-up’ pieces where the perfume was evaporated off.

Bukhoor Cambodi doesn’t quite live up to my expectation after reading the fragrance description. However, if you like bold rose/geranium fragrances, it can be quite attractive.