From palace corridors to an Omani fragrance house

Learning the material before presenting it

After the passing of Sultan Qaboos bin Said, Al Hakmani recalls that quantities of precious oud oils and aromatic oils associated with the royal palaces reached the market. He began acquiring them, but knowing an oil’s name or origin was not enough: he smelled it, observed its development and tried to understand its layers before presenting it to anyone.

Early in this journey he met a sheikh and camel herder who shared his interest in rare oud oils. What began as a relationship between seller and collector developed, in Al Hakmani’s account, into a bond built on trust and a shared interest in the material.

Source, age, purity and extraction

From this mentor he learned that the value of oud is not defined by name or price alone. Source, age, purity, extraction method and the way the oil develops on skin all affect its character. Over the years, the mentor also gave him rare oils that helped form a personal aromatic library.

Collecting and evaluating oils led to a larger question: could he compose a scent that carried his own point of view?

Repetition became a craft

He began composing and recomposing. Some trials stopped after the first evaluation; others required many revisions before reaching the balance he wanted. Each iteration clarified how oud moves through a formula, how frankincense adds light, how amber changes depth and how a small note can reshape an entire fragrance.

Over time, interest became knowledge, knowledge became craft, and craft became an identity. Nour Al Oud emerged from that process: an Omani niche perfume house drawing on the culture of oud, frankincense, incense and fine oils, expressed in a contemporary olfactory language.

When Al Hakmani places his name on a Nour Al Oud fragrance, he describes it not as a standalone product, but as a continuation of the first oil he studied, the lessons in selection, the library he built and the many trials that preceded the finished composition.