# Bortnikoff — Lao Oud

> Lao Oud is Dmitry Bortnikoff's most oud-forward and animalic composition. By his own account, the oud in his work "had never been so powerful and animalic" before this 2021 extrait. Built around a rar

## Essence
Lao Oud is Dmitry Bortnikoff's most oud-forward and animalic composition. By his own account, the oud in his work "had never been so powerful and animalic" before this 2021 extrait. Built around a rare Laotian oud oil that Bortnikoff says smells "extremely close to Indian, but much softer," it pairs feral agarwood with dark Lao coffee and cacao, beeswax-honey, frangipani-style florals, spice, and birch-tar smoke. The shorthand it has earned is a "gourmand with balls" - a mocha-cappuccino-and-barnyard oud that is challenging and, paradoxically, among his more addictive and wearable ouds.
## Scent Profile
The opening divides wearers exactly along their oud experience. To the uninitiated it is a shock - rubbery, humid, fermented, with an agricultural tinge that has been compared to a barn or fertilizer, or bluntly to "manure" on first encounter. To oud-heads it is a beautiful fermented Laotian agarwood: funky, animalic, slightly cheesy and lactonic, but not as fecal as its reputation suggests. Several people braced for worse found it completely wearable.
Within minutes the funk recedes and the signature accord blooms. Very dark, unsweetened cacao powder fuses with Lao coffee - described not as fresh-roasted beans but as "the darkest coffee syrup aged in wooden barrels with spices" - threaded with honeyed beeswax and soft magnolia and frangipani florals that lay a sweet, powdery bed under the bitter components. Birch tar and guaiac add smoke and leather depth.
Tonka and vanilla absolute round the drydown into something warm and almost buttery. Despite the cacao and coffee, this is emphatically not a gourmand: wearers stress it is "the furthest thing from a chocolate cake," more a dark, mysterious, semi-gourmand animalic woody. The drydown is the most-loved phase - sultry, woody, mysterious, and warm.
## Performance
Bortnikoff and several wearers describe it as intense and dense, with above-average longevity. Reports are not uniform: some note that longevity and projection could be better and find it a touch quiet, while others get strong, long wear. The synthesis is that it opens powerfully and settles closer to the skin over time, giving good-but-not-monstrous longevity and moderate projection. At extrait strength a little goes a long way, so apply conservatively.
## Wearing Context
This is a cold-weather, evening, connoisseur's scent. The darkness, animalic oud, and coffee-cacao depth make it a fall and winter, nighttime proposition rather than an office or hot-weather casual. It is unisex by the house and genuinely worn by both, though one woman who wears it happily noted that it does lean male. It rewards wearers with some Southeast Asian scent vocabulary and an appetite for real, funky oud - the mood is sitting inside a dark woody cloud rather than chasing compliments in a crowd.
## Comparisons & DNA
The most useful references are almost all in-house. Lao Oud is repeatedly framed as a heavier, darker, more aggressive, better-balanced Oud Monarch: both are Bortnikoff cacao-and-agarwood creations, but Oud Monarch is floral-first with strong frangipani and rose, while Lao Oud lets the oud and coffee lead. Against Sayat Nova Extrait it has been summed up as "Sayat Nova without the apricot" - the same Laotian oud, but without that scent's overpowering apricot sweetness, leaving the agarwood stronger yet more wearable. One wearer triangulates it as Oud Monarch with hints of Oud Maximus. No mainstream designer oud really compares, which is the point: it belongs in the conversation with artisanal real-oud work rather than designer releases.
## Reception
Among those who seek it out, reception is exceptionally high, including a very rare top mark and a verdict calling it the pinnacle of Bortnikoff's work, something even seasoned oud-heads would enjoy. The recurring praise is the masterful balancing of difficult materials, the addictive coffee-cacao-oud accord, and the restraint relative to other indie perfumers who use such materials with a heavy hand. The recurring caveats are that it polarizes newcomers with its fermented, barnyard opening, that performance could be stronger, and that it is expensive. The framing is "you either get it or you don't" - devotees call it their favourite Bortnikoff and most-loved oud, while skeptics find it decent oud dressed with small cocoa and balsam details and a touch incomplete. Notably, several people who feared it would be unbearably fecal reported it far more wearable than its reputation, and the consistent advice is to sample before buying.
## Versions & Reformulation
This is a story of concentrations and variants rather than reformulation. There is the original 2021 Extrait de Parfum, a 2022 Attar Lao Oud that reads denser and drier with coffee, birch tar, and woods more prominent, and a 2025 Lao Oud Elixir at 45% concentration - a 30-bottle exclusive for the AGRABA Boutique, separate from the 2023 Elixirs line. No reformulation of the core extrait is documented.
## Acquisition Notes
This is artisanal-extrait pricing with small-batch availability. The house sells direct from its own site in 9 ml, 30 ml, and 50 ml extrait formats, plus the separate attar, and it is also carried at Luckyscent at around $350 for 50 ml. Decants and samples circulate widely, and given the divisive, expensive character of the scent, sampling first is the near-universal recommendation. Counterfeiting is not a documented concern at this tier.
## Notable Facts & Lore
- Bortnikoff's stated inspiration is autobiographical: "I've visited Laos more than twenty times. It is a serene and hospitable land, where time seems to have slowed to a 19th-century rhythm."
- The scent is framed as "a fragrant walk through Vientiane," the Mekong capital, evoking ancient monasteries, misty mornings, and temple incense.
- The whole composition was built around a single rare Laotian oud oil described as carrying "the scent of honey and blossoms, layered with an unmistakable feral depth."
- Bortnikoff calls it the point where his oud became more powerful and animalic than in any earlier work.
- It is grouped with Sayat Nova, Oud Loukoum, and Triad as one of his four more challenging ouds.
- No celebrity associations or viral moments are documented.