Amouage
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The first spray is a green, almost aggressive assault—galbanum's bitter stemmy quality clashes magnificently with fenugreek's maple-syrup sweetness, whilst cardamom and pink pepper create a prickling, almost numbing heat across the skin. It's disorienting and intentionally uncomfortable, like walking into a Moroccan spice souk through the back entrance, past the rubbish bins and into the raw ingredient stores.
The leather emerges gradually, not as a clean note but as a smoky, ambery presence constructed from oud and patchouli, with frankincense providing unexpected brightness—sharp, piney, almost camphoraceous. The ambergris adds a saline quality that prevents the composition from turning too sweet, whilst the cypriol introduces an earthy, almost fungal undertone that suggests aged wood and damp cellars rather than pristine tanneries.
What remains is surprisingly soft: muscone's fuzzy animal warmth melds with sandalwood's creaminess, whilst costus root adds a persistent, slightly medicinal edge that never quite disappears. The leather has become a phantom presence, more memory than material, with the amber accord providing a gentle, resinous glow that finally makes peace with all that earlier chaos.
Reckless Leather doesn't announce itself with the expected crack of a riding crop; instead, Alberto Morillas opens with an almost medicinal snarl of galbanum and fenugreek—bitter, green, and peculiarly savoury, like crushed methi leaves meeting the resinous snap of pink pepper. The cardamom and nutmeg provide warmth, but it's an uneasy warmth, edged with something feral. This is leather as concept rather than literal hide: the oud and patchouli conspire to create a dark, smoky impression of animal skin, whilst the ambergris and ambrox lend a salty, almost marine minerality that keeps the composition from collapsing into conventional orientalia. Frankincense weaves through the heart with its lemon-pine brightness, cutting through the density, whilst cypriol adds an earthy, vetiver-adjacent rootiness that grounds the more volatile top notes.
What's striking is how the leather accord never dominates—it's more suggestion than statement, constantly shape-shifting between woody, resinous, and animalic facets. The muscone in the base provides a soft, skin-like warmth that finally tames the initial wildness, whilst sandalwood offers creamy respite from the costus root's almost medicinal intensity. This is a fragrance for those who find conventional leather scents too literal, too polished. It's for late nights in spaces where the central heating has failed, for people who appreciate discord as much as harmony, who want their leather not buffed to a shine but left to weather in the elements.
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4.5/5 (107)