Copyright 2008 Amouage 08 Sep 2010 22:12:56 +0100 08 Sep 2010 22:12:56 +0100 http://www.amouage.com/ News stories from amouage.com http://www.amouage.com/ en Perfumes, fragrance 60 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=13 THE LIBRARY COLLECTION The House of Amouage is delighted to announce the launch of The Library Collection, a trio of remarkable, precious fragrances that celebrate integrity, originality and virtuosity. Devised by the House’s Creative director, Christopher Chong, the three fragrances were inspired by the recollections and fragments we each acquire on our journey; the fragments that collectively represent a tome of memories. The name of the collection is drawn from the notion of the hidden treasures in a library; a notion that kindles our desire to discover, to learn. Collectively, the Library Collection is poetic homage to the art of living. Each fragrance has been given a ‘code’, an Opus number, reflecting its status as a completed work within a greater collection. The three fragrances defy categorization, transcend gender and allow the wearer to create their own unique narrative. These are timeless classics, born of the age-old art of haute parfumerie. OPUS I. A glorious Chypre fragrance, built around a warm, floral heart of Ylang-Ylang, Jasmine, Rose, Lily of the Valley and Tuberose. Top notes of Bigarade, Plum and Cardamom add spice and individuality, whilst woody base notes of Guaiac, Cedar and Sandalwood, along with Tonka Bean, Vetiver and the House’s signature note of Frankincense provide an epic and bold losing chapter. The narrative, olfactory evolution of this fragrance was inspired by the start of a pilgrimage in search of knowledge. OPUS II. A majestic Fougère inspired by the heady and evocative fragrances of old books, dark wooden shelves and antique leather armchairs. Opus II opens with a rare and magical combination of Pepper, Pink Bay, Absinth and Lavender in the top notes. These notes unfurl to reveal a heart of Jasmine, Rose, Cinnamon and Cardamom. The base of Cedarwood, Amber, Frankincense and Patchouli conclude the fragrance with a soft, smoky, masculinity that contrast beautifully with the floral heart notes. OPUS III was inspired by the art and science of the creative process, from the darkest moments of frustration, to the brightness of enlightenment and discovery. This radiant Floral Oriental fragrance is built around daring heart notes of Violet, Jasmine, Orange Blossom and Ylang-Ylang. These are introduced perfectly by top notes of Carnation, Broom, Mimosa, Nutmeg and Thyme. The vibrancy of the fragrance is anchored by earthy notes of Ambrette Seed, Papyrus, Benzoin, Frankincense and a trilogy of woods in the base. 22 Jul 2010 21:15:03 +0100 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=13 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=12 The House of Amouage is delighted to announce the opening of its London flagship store on Lowndes Street, Knightsbridge. This first stand-alone store in Europe houses the ever-expanding Amouage product range which now includes collections for Home, Bath & Body and the recently introduced range of fine leather goods and accessories, as well as their repertoire of hand-crafted fragrances and attars. Each Amouage store and concession around the world draws inspiration from its surroundings. For the London store, Creative Director Christopher Chong, has reinterpreted the character of the traditional Georgian townhouse in which the store is located. Amouage products can also be found at London’s most prestigious stores, which include Fortnum & Mason, Harrods, Selfridges and Les Senteurs. Regional outlets such as Hoopers of Harrogate also stock the Amouage range. International shipping is available from their website www.amouage.com. 14 Lowndes Street +44 20 7235 3345 Monday – Saturday 10a.m to 6p.m 21 Jul 2010 06:27:12 +0100 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=12 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=11 “I remember years ago seeing an iMax movie at the Air and Space Museum in DC: it started out with a grainy black and white film of a biplane taking off, and just when you thought you were beginning to wonder why you'd shelled out twenty bucks, the screen turned to colour, widened to a huge hollow sphere and you were flying above a forest in turning-leaf colors above a Pitts S2 painted in shiny red and white. Even the sound was gorgeous. Everyone went “aaaah” and I shed 40 years of age in 10 milliseconds. After smelling several dozen pigeon-toed, rickety modern fragrances designed by depressive accountants, encountering Ubar is a similarly joyful experience. This thing is so huge, gleaming, overengineered and chock-full of counterrotating planetary gears that you feel all you can do is let it tower over you while you walk around it and kick the huge tires. Ubar is technically a floral-oriental but the flowers are 3XL in size and the Orient has been scaled accordingly. If the old Dioressence had an illegitimate child with the first Rush, it would smell like this: a huge, purple romantic rose in the manner of the lamented Nombre Noir, a ton of creamy lactones, a whale's worth of animalic amber. Ubar joins the small club of nuclear-tipped fragrances: Poison, Giorgio, Angel, Amarige. Use it carefully, for once you spray it on there's no going back. LT” This review originally appeared in Perfumes: The Guide Spring 2009 21 Apr 2009 08:34:25 +0100 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=11 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=10 Niche luxury fragrance house Amouage has reintroduced 'Ubar' for Woman, a sophisticated and mystical perfume inspired by the rediscovery of the long lost ancient Arabian frankincense trading city of Ubar, called the 'Atlantis of the Sands' by Lawrence of Arabia and which was rediscovered in 1992 in the South of Oman. The evocative fragrance infuses reference points from Ubar's mystery and splendour and the bottle is designed therefore to resemble a city rising from the sands. 'Ubar' opens with a fresh and citrus aroma of Bergamot, Lemon and Lily-of-the-Valley in the top notes which then harmoniously pervades to a soft and romantically floral blend of Damascene Rose and Jasmine in the heart note. The fragrance is rounded off with sweet and velvety notes of Civet and Vanilla in the rich base. Originally launched in 1995 and highly acclaimed by fragrance connoisseurs, 'Ubar' is crafted with and adheres to the House of Amouage's exquisitely simple philosophy of producing fragrances representing the ultimate quality of ingredients and true luxury. 'Ubar' for Woman is created for Amouage's discerning international clientele and is available in 50ml and 100ml Eau de Parfum. The iconic Amouage bottle has been sprayed with a graduation from solid gold at the base to clear at the top to reflect the formerly hugely wealthy City's wondrous architecture built of soft pink sandstone and pillars of gold. The dome-inspired cap is crystallized with a single Swarovski smoked topaz crystal. 11 Mar 2009 03:34:18 +0000 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=10 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=9 Amouage is a niche house — and a very expensive one, at that — that is run out of London but has its roots in the Middle East. The Amouage character has been evolving, however, and its new creative director, Christopher Chong, has been choosing excellent scent artists like Mark Buxton, Maurice Roucel and Bertrand Duchaufour. The result is the house's two latest launches, Lyric Woman and Man, which are not just technically excellent but also smell like lighter-than-air, Jules Verne-like machines silvering through the sky. Both are strong yet almost weightless, a marvelous combination. And the creativity: amid the flood of castrated, clichéd launches, the Lyrics are quanta of solace, solid and sleek as his-and-hers Aston Martins. If there is not a product placement in which a naked Daniel Craig briskly sprays Man on a Rolexed wrist, the Omani royal family is seriously off its feed; Chong may have overseen the creation of these two, but it smells like they were co-directed by Marc Forster. The perfumer Daniel Visentin created Man, and he's done a smart job. The scent is like titanium, a metal of incredible strength that is also incredibly light. It goes from 0 to 60 in (get this) a breathtaking chocolate floral gourmand punch, then cruises over the thousand metallic fresh knock-offs of Cool Water. Craig may be just slightly disappointed with Man's staying power (there are various olfactory Viagra that help keep the effect up), but then again, Bond can simply reapply. For a good hour this is a startling concoction of a block of bittersweet Peruvian cocoa cut to ribbons with a polished high-tech MI6 knife. Woman is one star better. The perfumer Daniel Maurel has conjured a chimera of citrus, flowers and spice, and the genius of it is that if you narrow your eyes, you can smell each piece moving inside. Mouthwatering warm spices with cream and bergamot zest. And then, when the swirling top clears away after 20 minutes or so, wood and incense, but playing subtle roles. This is Opium's violet-eyed granddaughter and the more playful niece of Comme des Garçons 2. The bitter orange effect will either turn you on or off. Some like their florals and spices straight. Personally I find it lifts the machine and makes it hover low to the ground over its own shadow. It is a lovely machine, and a lovely shadow, and it is possible that once you start wearing it, you will never be able to feel truly naked without it.Lyric Woman by Amouage(Four stars; Excellent) | $300 for 100 ml; available at luckyscent.comThis is an extract from the review that originally appeared in http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com on 29th January 2009 04 Mar 2009 07:28:37 +0000 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=9 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=8 Lyric Man and Woman recommended in Perfumes: The Guide 2"..Our ten favorite new scents of 2008 were Azzaro Couture, Breath of God, CuirPleine Fleur, Donna Karan Signature, Homage, Insolence EDP, Lyric Woman, No 5 Eau Première, Scent 79 Man, and Sycomore.""Lyric Men (Amouage) woody rose One of the few things I remember from taking tai chi lessons many years ago was when my instructor asked me to push hard on his chest. I did, andit was like pushing gauze, so perfectly did his movement mirror mine. Similarly, Lyric is a fragrance that opens before you as you smell it to give you the feeling of falling forward into a space, a dark, still air of transparent rose, slightly sourwet wood, and powdery persimmon. A daring yet unassuming fragrance that carries a charge of mystery and silence. Recommended. LT""Lyric Woman (Amouage) dark floralGreat fragrances move me (and, I imagine, many others) to a sort of musical resonance. And in perfume as in music, progress largely consists in getting used to one novel dissonance a?er another. In this context, I can safely say that I have never smelled anything like the chord at Lyric's core before. It is a rose, to be sure, cleverly extended at one end by a dry, dusty woody accord in the manner of Lyric's land of origin, Oman. What happens at the other end is a complete surprise. Where one expects a spicy, earthy upli? in the contemporary manner, there comes instead a plangent, overripe note, the exhalation of forgotten fruit in a sealed room. The effect is initially almost unpleasant, but soon becomes celestial. Thelonious Monk would have understood thisfragrance instantly. LT" 04 Mar 2009 07:23:35 +0000 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=8 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=5 Muscat, November 2008 - Twenty five years since its debut, leading international fragrance house Amouage is paying tribute to “Gold” with the introduction of the iconic and highly-acclaimed fragrance in specially designed bottles. The original Amouage classic is artistically crafted using the rarest and most valuable ingredients in the world and is reminiscent of the great couture fragrances of the 1930s. “Gold will continue to hold a very special place in the Amouage fragrance family as it marked the birth of a luxury brand rich in wonderful heritage with a distinctive flair,” expressed David Crickmore, Amouage CEO. “With the introduction of the exquisite new livery, we have reincarnated one of our most celebrated fragrances into the 21st century, unfolding a new chapter in its incredibly successful history.” Gold woman is a complex and highly sophisticated floral fragrance which opens to aromatic notes of Frankincense, Rose and Lily of the Valley. The bitter-sweet heart notes of Orris, Myrrh and Jasmine perfectly harmonize the warmth of Sandalwood, Cedarwood, Musk and Ambergris in the base to create a truly memorable and completely unique scent. A deeply luxurious and elegant Chypre, Gold Man complements the sophistication and depth of Gold Woman with sumptuous masculine woody notes of Patchouli and Oak Moss in the base. Traditionally, the two Gold fragrances have been considered “evening” fragrances due to their lavish and intense compositions of more than one hundred essences in perfect proportion. Both fragrances are housed in majestic gold covered glass bottles with a specular finish paired with gold platted embellishments and caps crystallized by a single white opal Swarovski jewel. 12 Nov 2008 13:11:20 +0000 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=5 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=2 Amouage is proud to announce the launch of Lyric Man and Woman, Lyric Man is a deep, hypnotic scent that explores the darker side of the rose. Lyric's powerful elegance is achieved through the use of the traditionally feminine ingredient of rose, artfully combined with the warm masculinity of woods, ginger and frankincense.Lyric Man continues the narrative that the house of Amouage began with last years' launch of Jubilation. Creative Director Christopher Chong has worked to develop a dark and musical fragrance that 'evokes the sombre sound of eternity' and recounts the myth of a beautiful young woman and a powerful, mysterious man who seeks to immortalize the beauty of her voice.Lyric Man opens with the freshness of bergamot and lime that quickly reveal complex middle notes of saffron, angelica, orange blossom and nutmeg, governed by a heart of smoky unusual rose. Base notes of pine, sandalwood and frankincense lend a depth and seriousness to the fragrance, combined with the warmth and dryness of vanilla and musk.Lyric Woman is a deliciously dramatic fragrance, inspired by the poetic beauty of that most iconic of fragrance notes - the rose.Creative Director Christopher Chong has carefully crafted Lyric Woman to continue the music-inspired narrative that started with the launch of Amouage's Jubilation last year. He explains, “Beyond the transient beauty and purity of Lyric lingers a poignant song without beginning or end.” During the creative process, Chong found inspiration in the beauty and drama of the lyric-spinto voice. From this, the story of Lyric Woman was born: a fragile beauty with a rare, other-worldly talent and her quest for perfection andimmortality. Through this story, we are reminded that there is a subliminal beauty in every imperfection.The fragrance has a complex and sophisticated structure, in which deep, smoky rose takes center-stage in the heart, complimented by dry, floral notes of geranium, jasmine and orris. The spiciness of cinnamon, cardamom and ginger in the top notes lifts the fragrance, while depth is provided by frankincense and wood notes in the base. In its structure, Lyric is a floral fragrance, but one that introduces a dark intensity and modernity not normally associated with this genre - a perfect illustration of femininity, strength and passion. 02 Oct 2008 10:32:55 +0100 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=2 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=1 Luca Turin gives Homage a 5 star review. "At the impossibly swank launch in Muscat of Amouage's two Jubilation scents, guests found, upon arrival in their hotel room, a limited-edition bottle in a plain white box labeled simply Attar, i.e. fragrance. When sampled, this anonymous thing turned out to be breathtakingly beautiful, at once lofty, tremendously radiant, and dizzyingly rich. Faced with such an apparition, most of us immediately look around for someone to share our impressions, and the more witnesses the better. I felt the usual mixture of pride and frustration at being in possession of a thing of beauty that few others could share. For company, I gave some to my eight-year old daughter who wears it on big occasions. Thankfully, this mysterious Attar, renamed Homage, is now available in limited distribution. The firm tells me it was composed in house, chiefly of Cambodian oud, Taif rose and Omani silver frankincense, which is to say, the best and most expensive stuff around. Oman was making perfumes when Europeans only bathed once a year on doctor's orders. While there, I had occasion to sample, both in shops and in the wake of passing Omanis, the local style of oud, a fiercely elegant accord of rose and wood that radiates aquiline beauty. For Homage, the firm has gone one better on the usual composition and added not only frankincense, which fills the composition with stratospheric light and ice, but apparently some citrus oils to make it more pleasing to Western noses. Mine finds it irresistible." This review originally appeared in Perfumes: The Guide Fall 2008 newsletter. 01 Oct 2008 09:42:59 +0100 http://www.amouage.com/news.php?ID=1