Viet is an extraordinary oil, and a genuinely useful reference point for anyone trying to understand Vietnamese oud at the level immediately below the great vintage flagships. From the dipstick, it gives off hints of the legendary Fiet Atiq — that far more expensive oil from the early 1980s — with a warm caramel-tea note that immediately commands attention.
On the skin, it is unmistakably wild Vietnamese oud, with a beautiful earthy caramel character at its centre. Think of Viet as a milder, less intense version of the Al Hashimi Fiet Atiq family: sugar, molasses, and a thread of green running through the composition, but rendered with somewhat lighter brushstrokes than the flagship would use. The Fiet Atiq was sold for over $5000 per 3g last year.
There is also the beautiful tangy Crassna note that defines the very best Vietnamese material — a unique sweet-tea quality that is thoroughly delightful and that, in our experience, is one of the genuine signatures of the regional terroir. We have seen it nowhere else.
This is a fantastic oil and a very fine example of its provenance. For wearers who have read about the great Vietnamese vintages and wanted to taste the lineage without paying the flagship prices, Viet is, we think, one of the most honest answers available.
Mekong, Vietnam, 2014
Available in a 2.5g bottle
At Kinana, artisanal fragrance means perfumery made by hand, in small batches, by makers who answer to their materials rather than to a production schedule. Where an industrial scent is engineered for consistency and scale — built to smell identical across millions of bottles, to a tightly controlled cost, favouring synthetic bases and standardised accords — an artisanal one is composed with care around genuine naturals and well-chosen isolates, accepting the small variations that come with real ingredients rather than smoothing them away. It favours quality and provenance over yield: real oud rather than an oud-like accord, materials chosen for their character, and compositions given time to rest and mature. Our purpose at Kinana is to bring that craft within reach — fragrance with depth and individuality, revealing itself gradually on the skin and carrying the character of what it was made from, rather than a uniform impression produced at scale.
Shop with Confidence and Convenience
Enjoy a seamless shopping experience with flexible payment options and express delivery. And if you are a subscriber, receive your items with free samples with every order. Note that subscriber places are limited and if we are fully subscribed, you may be placed on a waiting list until a place becomes available.