Amouage
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Tart blackcurrant and blackberry collide with labdanum's sticky warmth and davana's peculiar, almost fermented sweetness, whilst rosemary adds an unexpected herbal bite. The effect is dense, dark, and immediately resinous – amber announces itself from the first moment, but with a fruit-stained complexity that feels baroque rather than linear.
Bay rum's spiced leather quality emerges alongside proper frankincense smoke, whilst clove and cinnamon weave through rose and scotch broom's honeyed, hay-like sweetness. The celery seed adds an earthy, slightly bitter undertone that grounds the composition, preventing the spices from tipping into mulled wine territory whilst opoponax builds its myrrh-honey richness beneath.
What remains is a skin-warmed meditation on amber and wood: patchouli and cedarwood provide structure whilst ambergris lends its subtle salinity, gaiac adds creamy smokiness, and moss brings a dusty, old-world texture. The resins – myrrh, opoponax, cistus – meld into one cohesive, slightly animalic base that feels ancient and lived-in, like the wooden pews of a centuries-old church.
Bertrand Duchaufour's reimagining of Jubilation 40 reads like an incense ceremony conducted in a medieval fruit larder, where candied blackberries macerate alongside Omani frankincense and labdanum tears. The opening salvo pairs davana's oddly vinous, almost fermenting apricot character with tart blackcurrant and bitter orange peel, creating a dark, syrupy fruitiness that refuses to be pretty or polite. This isn't your typical fruity amber – there's an herbal, almost medicinal sharpness from the rosemary that cuts through the richness like a blade, whilst labdanum adds its leathery, cistus-thick sweetness from the very first spray.
As the composition unfolds, Duchaufour layers resinous complexity upon complexity: opoponax's sweet myrrh honey mingles with proper frankincense smoke, whilst clove and cinnamon avoid Christmas cliché by nestling into dry, woody patchouli and the subtle marine whisper of ambergris. The celery seed is a stroke of genius – it adds an earthy, almost bitter green facet that prevents the amber accord from becoming cloying. There's oud here too, but it's woven into the tapestry rather than shouting its presence, adding depth and a subtle animalic warmth.
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3.8/5 (152)