The tree is a visual metaphor for what the perfume expresses on an olfactory level, playing on the contrast and duality between smoky, resinous, warm, and woody notes and other fresher ones
Amouage Purpose by Quentin Bisch
Amouage Purpose is the latest fragrance in the Escape chapter and, along with Guidance, was created by the nose of Quentin Bisch, a Givaudan perfumer from Strasbourg.
As Quentin Bisch himself says in a video interview for Amouage, the idea for this fragrance came from the view of a frankincense tree, a not-very-large tree that can grow in the arid rocky desert because of its shallow roots that allow it to intercept drops of moisture from the soil, turning them into frankincense.
The tree is a visual metaphor for what the perfume expresses on an olfactory level, playing on the contrast and duality between smoky, resinous, warm, and woody notes and other fresher ones.
Frankincense, in fact, once transformed into essential oil brings with it multiple facets, which can be emphasized depending on the other ingredients juxtaposed.
For this fragrance, frankincense, featured in the top notes, is combined with bergamot, pink pepper and allspice berries which enhance the freshness, meanwhile for the heart notes, Quentin Bisch chooses a particular type of vetiver, called Vetiver des Sables, which grow in the sand rather than in the soil, and this changes its olfactory profile with facets that are less earthy and dry, but almost oud, seedy and orrisy. Another heart note in the composition is Cypriol, a type of papyrus that releases woody notes.
As Quentin Bisch himself affirms, the incense tree fully represents this fragrance that is something simple, and at the same time complex as nature itself.
Amouage: the story of The Gift of Kings
Amouage was founded in 1983 in Muscat by the Sultan Qaboos bin Said who had the desire to restore the ancient perfumery tradition of Oman. For this reason, Amouage perfumes are also called The Gift of Kings.
The word Amouage comes from combining the French word amour (meaning love) with the Arabic word Amwaj (wave) and literally stands for a wave of emotions. The meeting of Middle Eastern and Western cultures underlies the philosophy of the brand, which, from its origins, has entrusted international perfumers to create fragrances with most precious Omani ingredients: frankincense from the islands, Rock Rose from the mountains, and ambergris from the beaches. This is how in 1983 Guy Robert, an affirmed perfumer from the city of Grasse, signed the first fragrance, Gold: a perfume in male and female versions, presented in Asprey’s golden crystal bottles, inspired respectively by the khanjar dagger, Oman’s national symbol, and the dome of the Middle East.
Today Amouage has six collections and more than one hundred fragrances.
Amouage: the brand evolution
From 2007 to 2019, Christopher Chong’s creative direction marked a period of international growth for Amouage through the launch of new fragrances.
In 2008, the two eau de parfume Jubilation 25 for women and Jubilation XXV for men, created in collaboration with the noses Bertrand Duchaufour and Lucas Sieuzac, celebrated the brand’s 25th anniversary. The traditional ingredients of frankincense, rock rose, and ambergris were combined with notes of blackberry, davana and immortelle. In the same year, the logo was redesigned as an image of the sun with the word Amouage inscribed in the Sultan’s seal. Christopher Chong also launched The Library and The Secret Garden Collections and fragrances such as Epic, Lyric, Honor, Interlude, now part of the Main Collection. As from 2019, Amouage is under the creative direction of Renaud Salmon.
Among the new products, he has introduced the Exceptional Extraits line, made through two additional aging steps, maturation, and maceration, which allow a high percentage of pure perfume oils (between 43% and 56%). In addition, Renaud Salmon asked perfumers and the manufacture to make The Attars in their purest form. Attar is in fact an essential flower oil, originating in India and produced by a very ancient method of extraction, the earliest records of which date back to about 3,000 B.C. Today, the collection features six different fragrances named after villages in Oman: Orris Wakan, Rose Aqor, Vanilla Barka, Incense Rori, Saffron Hamra, and Oud Ulya.
The Odyssey Collection by Amouage
The Odyssey Collection is one of the novelties launched as of 2019 by the creative director Renaud Salmon. Just as the name suggests, the fragrance line represents a journey through the phases of life, from childhood to eternity, taking inspiration from the colors and the scents of the unspoiled landscapes of the Sultanate of Oman, and is currently composed of three chapters: Renaissance, Liberation and Escape.
Chapter I: Renaissance
Renaissance is the first chapter of a not-yet-completed journey (two more launches are planned for 2024). With its four fragrances, each dedicated to a different landscape of Oman, Renaissance aims to express a sense of rebirth, also seen as the ability to experience pure joy.
Enclave is the fragrance conceived by the nose of Julien Rasquinet to depict the landscape of the fjords of Musandam, in the Arabian Gulf, where the mountainous desert plunges straight down to the sea. The desert is suggested through the notes of amber, vetiver, labdanum, saffiano and cinnamon oil, mixed with top notes of cardamom and spearmint oil.
Crimson Rocks, on the other hand, created by Domitille Michalon-Bertier, transforms into scent the mountains of Al Hajar, in northern Oman. Heart notes of rose and jujube honey mingle with base notes of oak and cedarwood.
The last two fragrances, Ashore and Meander, are the product of Mackenzie Reilly’s sensibility.
Ashore is a white floral fragrance of jasmine, ambergris, and sandalwood, offering an olfactory interpretation of the coast of Ras Al Jinz, on the eastern shores of the Arabian Peninsula, while Meander is inspired by the southernmost Governorate of the Sultanate during the monsoon season, thanks to frankincense and smoked vetiver, cypriol and jonquille, and the earthy notes of sandalwood, carrot heart, and orris root.
The packaging of this collection was curated by British designer Bill Radzinowicz, while the flacon palette was selected by the French art director Jerome Faillant-Dumas.
Chapter II: Liberation
The second chapter, Liberation, was conceived during the pandemic and, with its two fragrances, Material and Boundless, aims to express the simple joys of life.
The core for both scents is vanilla absolute.
For Boundless, Vinchon-Spehner was inspired by the image of a dense jungle full of all kinds of woody essences, illuminated by the sun. At the olfactory level, it is translated with vetiver, patchouli oil and guaiac wood as base notes and vanilla, cardamom, and ginger, which recall the warmth of the sun’s rays, as top notes.
Meanwhile Material, created from the nose of Cécile Zarokian, enhances the vanilla absolute with top notes of elemi, patchouli, and base notes of guaiac wood oil, osmanthus, oud, frankincense, labdanum, and tonka bean.
Again, the falcons were curated by Radzinowicz and the palette by the artistic director Jérôme Faillant-Dumas.
Chapter III: Escape
Escape, inspired by the landscapes of Masirah Island on the east coast of Oman, tells the story of an introspective journey in search of a new sense of life.
Four fragrances, four stages of a journey of discovery: Lineage (Karine Vinchon), Search (Alexis Grugeon), Guidance and Purpose (Quentin Bisch).
Lineage, Search and Guidance
The first step on this journey is Lineage, crafted thanks to the olfactory sensibility of Karine Vinchon- Sephner, a perfumer born in Normandy and trained first at ISIPCA, a prestigious perfumery school in Versailles, and then under the guidance of Michel Almairac.
In this case, Karine Vinchon- Sephner brings to life a perfume reminiscent of the beaches of Masirah Island, with mineral and spicy notes. Among the top notes, the Sichuan pepper highlights the frankincense in the heart notes and recalls the scent of the sea, while myrrh accentuates the resinousness of the frankincense, which remains the protagonist of the fragrance.
Search, on the other hand, stands for a search made up of courage. The fragrance was created by the nose of Alexis Grugeon, who was inspired by a cocktail tasted in New York that combined lemon, lime, and mezcal. Lemon, lime, mandarin are used for the top notes, made more lasting by the frankincense, present in the heart notes. The smoky accent, instead, is given by vetiver and guaiac wood in the base notes.
Guidance is the third and penultimate stage of the journey, when the road to the destination is found. The scent, created by Quentin Bisch, features frankincense in the top notes along with hazelnut and pear; Heart Notes saffron, rose, jasmine sambac, osmanthus in the heart notes and cistus, sandalwood, akigalawood, ambergris, vanilla in the base notes.
Amouage
Currently, Amouage is present in more than 80 countries around the world and continues to create its fragrances with the same values that have characterized it since 1983: the importance of cherishing a heritage that is expressed in the connection to its roots, its history and its land; love and passion for both its fragrances and its customers; a sense of responsibility from a production standpoint through highly specialized local manufacturing and a sense of awareness of environmental impact; innovation, loyalty and craftmanship in the choice of raw materials and the creation of fragrances.
Values that can be experienced firsthand by going to the Visitor’s Center in Muscat, where visitors can retrace the company’s story among never-before-displayed treasures and temporary exhibitions.
