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A Conversation on Arabie

A More Affordable Olfactionary

Amouage Dia (pour femme)

Amouage Epic Woman

Amouage Gold

Amouage Jubilation 25

Amouage Lyric Woman

Amouage Tribute

Amouage Ubar

Aroma M Geisha Rouge

Ava Luxe Café Noir

Best of 2009

Bond No. 9 Brooklyn

Bond No. 9 New Haarlem

Capote, Truman & Evening in Paris

Caron French Cancan

Caron Parfum Sacre

Caron Tabac Blond

Caron Tubereuse

Caron Yatagan

Chanel 31 Rue Cambon

Chanel Bel Respiro

Chanel Chance

Chanel Coromandel

Chanel Egoiste

Chanel No. 5 (vintage)

Chanel No. 22

Chantilly Dusting Powder

Comme des Garcons LUXE Champaca

Comme des Garcons Series 7 Sweet Nomad Tea

Coty Ambre Antique

Coty Chypre

Creed Acqua Fiorentina

Creed Fleurs de Bulgarie

DSH Perfumes Quinacridone Violet

Deneuve

Donna Karan Black Cashmere

Estee Lauder Private Collection

Estee Lauder Private Collection Jasmine White Moss

Favorite Fall Fragrances

Fragrances for Sweden

Frederic Malle Angeliques Sous La Pluie

Frederic Malle Bigarade Concentrée

Frederic Malle Carnal Flower

Frederic Malle Geranium Pour Monsieur

Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese

Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose

Frederic Malle Une Fleur de Cassie

Frederic Malle Une Rose

Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel

Gucci L'Arte di Gucci

Guerlain Jicky

Guerlain Parure

Guerlain Vega

Happy Solstice

Hermes 24, Faubourg

Hermes Caleche (vintage)

Hermes Eau des Merveilles

Hermes Hiris

Histoires de Parfums 1740

Histoires de Parfums 1828

Histoires de Parfums Blanc Violette

Histoires de Parfums Vert Pivoine

How I Store Decants

In Memory (w/mention of Lanvin Arpege)

Jean Desprez Bal a Versailles

Jean Patou 1000

Juliet by Juliet Stewart

Kenzo Jungle l’Elephant

L'Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubereuse

L'Artisan Parfumeur Orchidee Blanche

L’Artisan Parfumeur Passage d’Enfer

L’Artisan Parfumeur Tea for Two

La Via del Profumo Balsamo Della Mecca

Le Labo Patchouli 24

Little Lists

Lorenzo Villoresi Yerbamate

Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Eau des Iles

Message In A Bottle 

Miscellany 

Molinard Habanita

Mona Di Orio Nuit Noire

Montale Black Aoud

Montale Boise Vanille

Montale Intense Tiare

Montale Patchouli Leaves

More Roses (rose cookie recipe)

My Heart Has Skipped A Beat (summer smells)

My Perfumes Have Theme Songs

Nasomatto China White

Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline

Ormonde Jayne Frangipani

Ormonde Jayne Perfumery Ormonde Woman

Oscar de la Renta Oscar for Men

Parfum d'Empire 3 Fleurs

Parfumerie Generale Bois de Copaiba

Parfums de Nicolai Sacrebleu

Parfums DelRae Amoureuse

Parfums Karl Lagerfeld Sun Moon Stars

Pascal Morabito Or Black 

Perfume Quotes - The English Patient

Profumum Roma Acqua Viva

Profumum Roma D'Ambrosia

Puredistance I

Recipe for Socca

Robert Piguet Fracas

Robert Piguet Visa

Sarah Horowitz Parfums' Joy Comes From Within & Beauty Comes From Within

Scented Reading

Scentuous Reading: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Serge Lutens Arabie

Serge Lutens Chêne

Serge Lutens Chergui

Serge Lutens Five O’Clock Au Gingembre

Serge Lutens Miel de Bois

Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle

Serge Lutens Un Lys

Snow Days

Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure

Sonoma Scent Studio Jour Ensoleille

S-Perfume 100% Love {More}

Sweden Is For Lovers

T is for Taxes

Tauer Perfumes: Incense Extrême, Incense Rosé, Lonestar Memories, & Reverie au Jardin

Tauer Perfumes Vetiver Dance

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The Intimacy of Scent

Thoughts of a Perfume Collector

Tightly

Unlocking an Unknown: Webber Parfum 6T

Vero Profumo Kiki, Onda, and Rubj

Viktor & Rolfe Flowerbomb

What I’m Lovin’ Now

Yves Saint Laurent Nu

Dancin’ where the stars go blue

Dancin’ where the evening fell

Dancin’ in your wooden shoes

In a wedding gown

 

            --lyrics from Ryan Adams’ song, When The Stars Go Blue

 


EVENING STAR: AMOUAGE EPIC WOMAN

 

REVIEW & PRIZE DRAWING

 

The last time I reviewed a fragrance from the über-luxury brand Amouage, it was the beautifully reformulated Ubar, which I said created “the feeling of twilight settling over the open walls of a warm city” somewhere in the Middle East. Now here I find myself once again with that same word—twilight—on the tip of my tongue as I try to describe Amouage’s latest scent, Epic Woman. They are entirely different fragrances, and yet, of all the women’s fragrances in the line thus far (absenting the attars, most of which haven’t yet been made available in the West), these two seem most reflective of the brand’s Omani heritage, meaning, both have a distinctly Middle Eastern sensibility, as opposed to earlier scents in the line—the superb Gold, Dia, and Jubilation 25, for instance—that take a page (or two or three) from classic French perfumery.

 

Personally I’m an ardent fan of both styles and would like to blow a huge kiss to the Amouage company—letting them know that they can play on whatever side of the perfume fence they’d like to (so long as they keep up their greatest tradition…that of using the finest aromatic materials and hiring the very best perfumers). If all Amouage chose to do was create scents in the classic French style for the western market, I would remain a glad and faithful customer. But that the company has begun charting a path across the Arabian Peninsula with the scents they’ve introduced here recently, well, I find that incredibly exciting and one more reason to so heartily applaud them.

 

However, enough with the cooing and kisses, let’s move onto the fragrance. Epic Woman is a floral-oriental perfume with notes that evocatively convey the sense of a journey along the Silk Road. Spices, the woody-resinous smell of oud, and the mint-like coolness of geranium are among the perfume’s opening notes, and they conspire to create an Oriental scent that is much gentler in terms of its spiciness than what one frequently encounters in the genre. At its start, the perfume offers profuse whiffs of cinnamon, cloves and red pepper, but they have a driftiness to them rather than a sharpness, smelling as if they are spices on the move, floating up from packages stuffed into saddle bags on a camel caravan. Very soon they commingle with the sweet scent of roses—languorous roses that have lazed under a hot sun and are now being stirred by the cool breezes of evening. Roses that caress you with their smell, that are voluptuous and, at the same time, pillowy soft.

 

Just when you think it couldn’t get any better than this, enter the scent of tea. The combination of black tea and roses is a marriage made in heaven, and perhaps because I associate tea with the late afternoon and evening hours, the addition of it here further adds to the contemplative, twilight-character of Epic Woman. This feeling deepens as the basenotes gather in strength, adding their smoky beauty to the mix, for they include a forest-dry gathering of frankincense, patchouli, and sandalwood, as well as leathery orris. The amount and quality of frankincense employed in this fragrance is pitch perfect: it adds smolder to the fragrance while, at the same time, magically expanding it.

 

At this point, the fragrance reaches an apex of sorts, such that it’s easy to understand why the name “Epic” is attached to it. It’s the perfect fragrance to have on your wrists as you step outside into the quietly mysterious and breathtaking hour we call twilight: when the stars go blue and, looking up at them, we leave the sometimes lonely, workaday world behind us and find ourselves swept up in something infinitely larger.
                                                        _______________

 

Amouage Epic Woman eau de parfum is available from a number of online perfume boutiques. $265 for 50 ml, or $300 for 100 ml.  I bought my bottle from ParfumsRaffy.com.

PRIZE DRAWING: If you live in the United States and would like to enter to win a 5-ml decant of Amouage Epic Woman, send me an email.  Drawing closes at midnight, eastern standard time, on Tuesday, December 15, 2009.  Drawing is now closed; the winner was Chris G. 

Image: This astonishingly gorgeous photo, "He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven" is from zedzap (Nicholas Kenrick) at Flickr.com: 



Posted by Suzanne Keller, 12/11/2009.