Amouage
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The absinth and bay leaf arrive with herbal severity, cutting and slightly medicinal, whilst pink pepper adds a sharp, almost culinary snap that makes you pause before the florals even register. It's bracing—deliberately so—like inhaling the steam from an aromatic infusion.
The cardamom and cinnamon emerge as distinct personalities rather than a blended whole, trading warmth between the jasmine and rose, which now reveal darker, almost anisic undertones. The composition settles into an aromatic-spicy groove that feels neither sweet nor austere, simply elegant in its restraint and compositional balance.
Frankincense and cedarwood dominate, creating a dry, slightly ecclesiastical base that never turns gourmand despite the amber's presence. The musk and patchouli create a subtle second skin effect, lingering as whispered warmth rather than projection, leaving traces of incense and dried herbs that evolve toward subtle, almost woody-leather impressions.
Opus II reads as a meditation on spice filtered through aromatic herbs and resinous shadows—a fragrance that feels less like a linear narrative and more like stepping into a library's leather-bound silence. Michele Saramito constructs something deliberately herbaceous at its bones: the absinth and bay leaf create a bitter-green opening that recalls apéritif rituals rather than floral sweetness, whilst the pink pepper snaps with an almost peppercorn sharpness that prevents any cloying softness.
Where this becomes genuinely compelling is the cardamom-cinnamon interplay in the heart. Rather than blending into generic "spice accord" territory, these notes maintain distinct personalities—the cardamom's almost mentholated warmth alongside the cinnamon's dry, bark-like texture creates friction, a sensory tension that keeps the composition alert. The jasmine and rose, rather than sweetening matters, seem to absorb the spice into themselves, becoming darker, almost animalic florals rather than romantic ones.
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4.0/5 (165)