Sniffing Koh Samui from the dipstick is like being transported into a tropical garden filled with fruit trees — ripe mangoes, soft guava, banana on the verge of overripening. It is a wonderful first impression, and it sets the wearer up for the kind of olfactory journey that the very best Trang oils have always been capable of delivering. Despite the name, this oil is from Trang, in southern Thailand. From the dipstick, a beautiful marzipan and sweet-almond note emerges and announces itself immediately. On the skin, the composition opens into pure marzipan and almond, layered with tropical fruit — guava, melon, ripe banana — and the note simply continues to unfold. There is no rush in this oil. It does not change quickly. This is wild material from a region that produces a strikingly different scent profile from the better-known northern Thai areas. The DNA is genuinely distinct: Trang Crassna does not behave like Trat Crassna, despite being officially the same species. The terroir does what it does. And the price, for a wild Trang oil of this quality, is remarkably accessible. We see it as one of the genuine bargains in our current Thai selection — not because we have under-priced it relative to the work, but because the wearer who buys it will, we believe, recognise that they have got more than they paid for. Trang, Thailand. 2019 Available in a 2.5g bottle only
