Amouage
Amouage
242 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The frankincense hits immediately, but it's sharpened by black pepper's bite and laurel's slightly bitter, camphoraceous edge—think crushed green leaves mixed with resin still warm from the censer. The spice accord is assertive without being aggressive, creating an austere, almost ascetic opening that smells expensive in its refusal to please.
As the top notes recede, patchouli and nagarmotha (cypriol) emerge with their shared earthiness, adding a damp, woody darkness that grounds the incense in soil rather than sky. The composition becomes denser here, almost muddy in the best possible way, as if the frankincense has been buried and exhumed with roots clinging to it.
What remains is a triptych of ambranum's salty warmth, sandalwood's creamy dryness, and labdanum's leathery resinousness—a base that's cohesive yet complex, smoky without being sooty. The whole settles close to the skin as a woody-ambery haze that still carries the ghost of that opening frankincense, now softened and made intimate.
Opus VI is a study in high-church incense filtered through an unexpectedly earthy lens. The frankincense arrives laden with pepper and laurel's medicinal greenness, creating an opening that's less 'devotional cathedral' and more 'apothecary preparing sacred oils'. This is resinous perfumery stripped of sweetness—no vanilla cushion, no fruit to soften the blow. Instead, the patchouli and nagarmotha in the heart introduce a rooty, almost fungal darkness that pulls the composition away from the spiritual and towards something more primal. The ambranum and sandalwood base provides warmth without creaminess, whilst the gum rockrose (labdanum) adds a leathery, animalic edge that hovers in the background like incense smoke clinging to wool vestments. This isn't a fragrance for those seeking comfort or easy beauty; it's for the perfume obsessive who wants to smell the actual resins, not a perfumer's idealised version of them. Wear this when you want to occupy space with gravitas—it's the olfactory equivalent of wearing dark, heavy fabrics in summer simply because you can. It suits those who appreciate that not all beauty needs to be approachable, and who find the smell of frankincense resin more compelling than its spiritual associations. This is Amouage doing what they do best: taking traditional Middle Eastern materials and rendering them in a way that feels both ancient and uncompromisingly modern.
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3.8/5 (87)