Polyantha

In the prelude bangs me a surge of solvent-like smell, almost like that of nitro-containing paints or adhesives. After a few seconds, a chypre-like scent unfolds. I detect chamomile and clary sage, also rose geranium, amid a cloud of flowers of jasmine, rose, lavender and clove.

Oddly enough, at this stage Beloved Woman reminds me a lot of Aromatics Elixir EdT, which was my one-and-only perfume for decades. There is also some overlap between the two perfumes in the fragrance pyramid: Clary sage, chamomile, jasmine, rose, incense, sandalwood, and ylang-ylang are common to both. Even if many here describe the Amouage fragrance as very intense, it comes for my sensation but far from the intensity, sillage and durability of Aromatics Elixir and so many other 80s Chypres approach.

Then, after that floral cloud recedes fairly quickly, there's a brief period where Beloved Woman develops a strangely sour note. I smell something bready and feel reminded of sourdough. It's not unpleasant to me, but falls distinctly outside the accord.

This sourness stays pleasantly only very briefly, to then make room for the darker and resinous notes. Patchouli, benzoin, incense, benzoin are very nicely interwoven. For me, however, the fragrance then also becomes quite quiet and has little to do with the expansive floral beginning. Developed a fragrance suitable for everyday use without sticky sweetness, without sultry swathes of flowers, quite dignified and classic, with slightly oriental hints.

Beloved Woman is a pretty fragrance for me, but, even measured against my former love for Aromatics Elixir, it still seems a bit too pale and smooth. The feel-good factor, which Beloved Woman has quite, you can get m. E. with quite a few other fragrances cheaper. The certain something, the esprit and the peculiarity are unfortunately missing for me. I find him on me simply too well-behaved and am therefore not sad that this fragrance will not tear a hole in my wallet.

(With many thanks to MiniGBIC for the exchange)

After application, there is a long olfactory silence: no water, no spice, no flower.... nothing. I search the sprayed area on my arm with my nose, but no scent emerges.

After about 30 minutes something glows up: it surrounds me slightly sweet. Maybe it's floral? Maybe green? In any case, it's quite pleasant. Hopefully, I point my nose at the spot I sprayed and sniff. Again, I smell nothing!

For me, this delicate fragrance can not be located at the sprayed spot, does not become more intense when I smell at this spot. The scent doesn't behave at all like I'm used to from perfumes. Instead, I feel as if I have to feel my way forward laboriously in a pitch-black basement and have lost olfactory completely the ground under my feet.

I can't identify any of the individual components: Fenugreek? I take my jar of fenugreek from the spice rack and sniff: No, it's much sweeter and much spicier and not so narrow-chested and generally just different.

Texas cedar? Well, maybe the cedars smell like that in Texas. I was there once, but unfortunately missed it there a cedar olfactory under the magnifying glass to take. Oh no, wrong track, 'Texas cedar' is probably the essential oil of the so-called alligator juniper. Do I smell juniper? Hmm, might be getting there, at least I don't want to completely deny it.

After an hour and a half, a sweet fruity wave suddenly appears, liqueur-like rum pot scent, and I think, ok, now it finally starts! But no, after a few minutes the wave collapses and leaves the field again to the weak Texas cedar aka alligator juniper. The dry cedar has probably gotten engaged with the Peru balsam by now, because at least now it's smoldering a tiny bit warmer and more incense-y.

But where is the vanilla? The has not yet arrived in my nose after 4 hours.

Instead, I get a dry throat. And the place where I sprayed the fragrance, briefly burns a bit.

Conclusion: actually, it could be a nice, spicy, slightly bitter fragrance that I could like. What I perceive, awakens faint associations with the Badedas foam bath from my childhood. But flower? Well, rather not. Or if it is, it's really very well hidden.

Because I can not locate the fragrance on my body, and because it thus gives the impression that it is not actually there, this perfume, however, makes the attribute 'caché' all honor. For me, it's like walking on thin ice in the dark. Everything about this fragrance feels very synthetic to me. Nothing is tangible, the scent is irritatingly oscillating and leaves a burning and dry feeling at the same time.

Even though I find this perfume rather unpleasant overall, it was a very interesting experience to sniff after its undulating appearance, and I thank button nose for the sample.

In a raffle here I won a lot of beautiful perfume samples, and am very happy that I may now train my beginner's nose (a big thank you for it to Knopfnase!).
Now I can blindly reach into the box and just try where chance takes me. Today I landed at Timbuktu.

In the first moment, when I sprayed this fragrance on my forearm, I thought still, slightly horrified, "What is this now for a cologne?". A few moments later, the aftershave stereotype then but gave way to another perception: "...Hmmm... that has but a delicious undertone....".

There is a very nice scent development here. The slight freshness in the top notes, which I can't identify as mango so, lingers for a long time. Here at last is a vetiver scent that doesn't collapse into citrus. Vetiver combines with myrrh here and the two make a great and unusual team, subtly taking the frankincense into its midst. Patchouli also does not push itself forward.
Unobtrusively, the benzoin contributes a slight spicy sweetness, which pleasantly underpins the fragrance and intercepts the metallic and somewhat musty sharpness of the vetiver.

The result is a multi-layered and complex fragrance that brings out each of its components beautifully and harmoniously. Nothing slips here into the banal, and there is no cheap showmanship. This fragrance relies on the sophistication with which the individual elements of its structure are interwoven, has depth and seems natural.

It is not a classic, even if it seems so in the first approach and it is quite suitable for the office. While little noisy, its composition seems to me but still too peculiar and special to classify it as a classic.

Even if he is designated by the manufacturer as a men's fragrance, I can see him just as on a woman. Liebstentauglich I find him all the time