Oud is the resinous product produced by agarwood trees after they have sustained an infection. Only a handful of trees will have enough oud to be harvested, after which it is cut up and graded with the highest grades being used as incense chips for burning on coal and the lower grade going towards products such as oil, incense sticks and bakhoor.
Oud oil is what is used in spray perfumes and as pure oil applied to the skin as a fragrance, it is made by distilling oud chips and shavings (think whiskey) in a painstaking process lasting weeks. The yield for such distillations is typically low (between 1-2%), it takes kilos and kilos of oud wood for mere millilitres of oud oil. This is why oud oil is impeccably rare and not suited for mass produced designer perfumes. Real oud is rare and most “oud” you see in commercial products is not in fact oud, but rather marketing dribble utilising the great reputation of oud.
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