Amouage Badr Al Badour & Molook Attars

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Kafkaesque

“Scheherazade” by Alberto Vargas, 1921. Source: cataxe.com

Sensual secrets inspired by Scheherazade in The Thousand and One Nights, and a King who speaks of passion through tender roses and oud — those are the inspirations for Amouage’s Badr Al Badour and Molook. At the heart of one of them is a rose note that might as well be a signature of Amouage’s attars, a rose like no other, a rose that somehow manages to improve on Nature in a way that feels almost heretical. Amouage’s attars take perfumery to dizzying heights, but all of them have now been discontinued. As I wrote a while back, I want to pay homage to these lost masterpieces, much as one would write a tribute to Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper, covering as many as I can out of the samples I have left. And I’m happy to say that I’ve found a few places that still carry a rare bottle or two of the attars which will be the focus of today’s review.

Amouage’s attars. Source: adjiumi.it

BADR AL BADOUR:

Amouage has no official description or note list for Badr Al Badour on its website, but one of the few stores that still carries the attar, Profumeria Pepos in Italy, has the old text:

Scheherazade by Leon Bakst (1866 – 1924). Source: imgarcade.com

Bard Al Badour is inspired by the beauty of a woman told in a famous story “The Thousand and One Nights.” Full of sensuality, its species were selected to evoke unnerving and secret pleasures. Drops of Rosa Damascena and tears of Ambergris are the prelude to a dream-erotic aroma that magnetizes the head notes. A fluctuating moment of vibrant intensity that explodes in a heart filled with three types of wood, Oudh, Burmese and Cambodian. A visceral love tribute to the aroma that most of all recounts the east.

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Amouage Sunshine (Woman)

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Kafkaesque

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Generic white flowers, tinged with darkness, before their light is blanketed by a solar eclipse of chemical smokiness. That’s one way to see Sunshine, the latest fragrance from Amouage. Or, as Luca Turin put it in his negative One-Star review for Sunshine, a “Chemical Floral” that you should “Avoid.” The other camp consists of those who think the fragrance represents sunshine, joyous brightness, and happiness. I am not one of their number.

Source: elle.ru

Sunshine is the debut fragrance in Amouage’s new Midnight Flower Collection, and is an eau de parfum that CaFleureBon says was created by Sidonie Lancesseur under the direction of Christopher Chong. It was initially released in limited fashion in 2014, primarily in the Middle East and then later in parts of Europe and Australia. On March 2nd, it became available in America and worldwide.

On its website, Amouage describes Sunshine and its notes as follows:

Sunshine for Woman, a magical moment of joy is like a ray of sunshine smiling upon a bouquet of white floral.

Top Notes: Blackcurrant Liquor, Almond, Davana.
Heart Notes: Osmanthus Absolute, Jasmine, Vanilla, Magnolia.
Base Notes: Cade, Patchouli, Blond Tobacco, Papyrus.

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Best New Releases of 2014

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Source: 1ms.net

This has been a good year for perfume releases. For all that I sometimes grumble about the generic nature of fragrances put out these days, 2014 actually had a number of scents that really impressed me. Last year, I could not find a full 10 new releases for my list, and refused to simply include things for the sake of round numbers. This year, I have 15 scents that I actually think are good representations of their genre and were done very well, along with a few Honourable Mentions.

Violettes du Czar. Photo: Roberto Greco for Oriza L. Legrand.

As I always emphasize, perfume reviewing is subjective and personal by its very nature, so winnowing fragrances down to some favorites is even more so. My criteria for selection varied. A number of the fragrances were not really for me, personally, for various reasons (a particular note or genre that I struggle with, discreet sillage, or something else), but were chosen nevertheless because something about the particular scent was either interesting, luxurious, evocative, complex and/or, as noted above, an extremely good example of its genre that also happened to be done in a very elegant manner. A handful of perfumes are on the list for the most subjective reason of all: I either bought full bottles for myself, plan to get them, or would love to do so if their price were not a consideration.

Ranking things is an utter nightmare, but the Top Five are firmly placed in accordance with my feelings. The remainder of the scents are ranked within one to three slots, plus or minus, of where they are in my estimation at the present time, though keep in mind that perfumistas are a fickle bunch who can change their mind from one month to the next, and I’m no exception. All of these fragrances were released in 2014. The problem is that some of the names that I would love to have on this list (like SHL 777‘s O Hira and Black Gemstone) technically debuted in very limited fashion in 2013, before being released globally this year. As a result, what I’ve decided to do is to write a separate list of my 30 personal favorites of 2014, things that I’ve covered this year but without regard to their official launch date. I’ll update this post with a link when I do. There is some overlap between the two lists, but not a lot.

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Mid-2014 Best & Favorites List

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Photo: my own.

We’re more than half way through 2014, so I thought it would be a nice time for a mid-year look at some of the perfumes that caught my attention. I used to do a list of favorite things that I had tried after every 100 posts, but that practice has fallen by the wayside due to the demands of my schedule. A few weeks ago, I was thinking of some of the fragrances I have covered since the beginning of the year, and the ones on my personal list of things to buy, so it seemed like a good time for an updated list.

Perfume reviewing is subjective and personal by its very nature, so winnowing fragrances down to a list like this is even more so. My criteria for selection varied. Some of the fragrances were not really for me, but I think they’re good examples of their genre and done very well. Others are on the list for the most subjective reason of all: I either bought full bottles for myself, plan to get them, or would love to do so, if their high price were not a consideration. Ranking things is an utter nightmare, but the Top Four are firmly placed in accordance with my feelings. The remainder of the perfumes are generally ranked within one to two slots, plus or minus, of where they are in my wholly subjective estimation. None of the 25 fragrances on this list are based on their date of official release, but on what I’ve covered since January 1st through to the end of June. And all of them are current releases, not vintage fragrances. Continue reading →