What’s the story, what’s the layering behind the fragrance, that leads to the story. Fanny Adams, Paris, tells this story.
November is also a month to celebrate for Middle Eastern perfume company Amouage, which launches two new fragrances this month in honor of its 25th anniversary. Jubilation XXV and Jubilation 25 represent the new generation of Amouage fragrances, with simplified and sophisticated crystal bottles and packaging.
Founded by the Omani royal family, the company strives to keep alive the ancient tradition of Arabian perfume making. Their first perfume, Gold, created in 1983 by super nose Guy Robert, is still known as the most expensive in the world, selling for upwards of $2,000 in custom made gold flasks, created by London jeweler Aspreys.
According to Christopher Chong, creative director of Amouage, has expressed that every “scent should tell a story while transforming the wearer to another time.” Instead of using the conventional modeling of celebrity endorsement, “Amouage relies on the powers of story telling, music and history to sell their fragrances.”
Each scent is a complex mix of the rich and storied ingredients found in the Omani countryside, the classical base note scent of frankincense as well as musk, the spirit of the attar of rose, the mystery of myrrh, the distillation of patchouli and musk. According to Price’s overview — the notion of cost of development is “never an issue when it comes to creating any Amouage scent, the fruit of thousands of prototypes.”
These scents are sophisticated, yet densely floral in the character of other middle eastern classical fragrances — rose being the base note formulation. Middle eastern perfumers, from ancient times, created the distillation process for capturing the essential quality of the flower.
These scents are rich and luxuriant, with a price tag to match. They can be purchased at Harrods in London at 125 pounds, or $260, for 50 ml of Jubilation 25 and 115 pounds, or $240, for 50 ml of Jubilation XXV.
And to the telling of the story, from 25 years past, to yet another millennia into the misted reach of time in the making of scent, the Omani tradition carries on.
The story is a form of containment. It’s a vessel. It’s about holding, what people will hold in their hearts, what memories are recalled, what dreams might be dreamt.
It works. As it has for thousands of years.