From A Sick Tree To A $1.3 Million Bottle: The Real Story Of Oud

SHŌ ITO — my own perfume brand, made in limited batches: https://shoitotokyo.com/?utm_source=y... Videos going around say the world's most expensive perfume starts with a sick tree. I make perfume, so I looked at the real numbers: reports, studies, trade data. Oud isn't expensive because of a factory. It's expensive because of the tree. Here is the real path — the tree, the oil, the forests, the oud in your perfume, why the Middle East and Japan love this wood, and the math on that million-dollar bottle. Chapters 0:00 A sick tree and the most expensive perfume 1:03 The tree: how oud forms 2:36 Why oud is so expensive 4:04 Is this destroying forests? 5:22 The oud in your perfume 6:55 The Middle East and Japan 8:22 The math: the $1.3 million bottle 10:28 The answer: because of the tree My cost video (what a $100 designer perfume really costs to make):    • Is Perfume Really Only $5 To Make? I Own A...   Sources Main report — Thompson, Lim and Turjaman (2022), "Expensive, Exploited and Endangered", ITTO Technical Series 51 (ITTO / CITES): https://cites-tsp.org/sites/default/f... From this report: under 10% of wild trees have oud; about 0.1–2 kg per wild tree; about 144 kg of wild chips for one litre of oil; top-grade wood up to US$100,000/kg; oil about US$40,500/litre in 2021; all species on CITES Appendix II; the most common species critically endangered (IUCN); over 90% of big trees gone in Peninsular Malaysia, 1993–2013 (Chua et al. 2016); maybe over 60 million plantation trees by 2022; more plantation than wild oud in trade records since 2017; bio-oud at about a tenth of the price; "black magic wood" at about US$400/kg; the main importers. The fungus question, and wounding alone: Zhang et al. (2014), Int. J. Mol. Sci. — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Healthy trees don't make it; the wood turns dark and heavier: Naziz, Das and Sen (2019), Front. Plant Sci. — https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/... 20 years or more in the wild: "Agarwood — The Fragrant Molecules of a Wounded Tree", Molecules (2022) — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Soaking the wood for up to 90 days (Assam, India): Naziz, Das and Sen (2024), Indian J. Microbiol. — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Shumukh (US$1.295 million; 1.97 m with its pedestal; 3 litres): The Spirit of Dubai — https://www.thespiritofdubai.com/shumukh The record (most diamonds set on a perfume bottle, 3,571): Guinness World Records — https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/... Bukhoor in Qatar: Visit Qatar — https://visitqatar.com/intl-en/about-... "Listening" to incense: Nippon Kodo — https://www.nipponkodo.com/ceremony/ A.D. 595, Awaji: Nihon Shoki (Nihongi), trans. W. G. Aston — https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nihong... M7 (2002) and Oud Wood (2007): Fragrantica The $5–$20 math is my own estimate: oil at US$80 per gram, a 50 ml bottle at 25% concentrate, 0.5–2% oud in the concentrate. Music (Uppbeat): 'Prismaflow' by VOLO · 'Still Hope' by Hemlock · 'Kaleidoscope' by Jeff Kaale · 'Another Story Ends' by Sky Toes · 'Soulful Soiree' by Pecan Pie · 'Amanhã Longe' by Good Vibes Only · 'Average' by Pryces · 'Alone Time' by SENSHO Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons unless noted; some cropped or cut out) CC BY-SA 4.0: 藤谷良秀, Gryffindor, Shinoryu, TaurusEmerald, Toyiaoers Sdoremiren, পাপৰি বৰা, Harmxiuyaeh, Ashfaq77, Shauboasiwui CAILIUO, Krzysztof Golik, Muhd Amirul Rasdey Abdullah, Kalechnizar CC BY-SA 3.0: Libaibai808, Realterm, Hafizmuar, Chong Fat, Blaise Droz (viensdanslajungle.ch) CC BY 4.0: Sinedi Matt; Dr. Nasser Halaweh (iNaturalist); figures from Naziz, Das and Sen (2019, Front. Plant Sci. 10:840), Zhang et al. (2021, BMC Plant Biol. 21:591), Zhang et al. (2022, PLoS ONE 17(11): e0277136), Chen et al. (2025, PLoS ONE) and Reid et al. (2026, Forensic Sci. Int.: Synergy) CC BY 3.0: Dana Club Doha (YouTube) · CC BY 2.0: Christopher Michel Nihon Shoki manuscript: Kyoto National Museum, via ColBase (https://colbase.nich.go.jp) Pexels: Tima Miroshnichenko, Ibrahim Bennett, Aurelijus U., Mahmoud Atashi, San Photography, aboodi vesakaran, Tito Zzzz, Omkar Jadhav Shumukh images © Nabeel Perfumes / The Spirit of Dubai; M7 © Yves Saint Laurent Beauté; Oud Wood © Tom Ford Beauty — shown for commentary. Other brands' products and pages belong to their owners. Disclosure: I'm the founder of SHŌ ITO, so the link above is my own brand. This video is not sponsored and contains no affiliate links. Contact: info@shoitotokyo.com