Last year the Beloved Amouage launch begat the questions about this fragrance pair's scent. Beloved Man arrived a year later and now this couple deserves a review devoted to both “enamored” perfumes.
Amouage Creative Director Christopher Chong created both scents as a tribute to a beautiful past. To be more precise, this is the tribute to the 80s particularity of these fragrances, as well as an explanation for their launching indifferent years, with the help of the film Somewhere in Time, 1980.
If you haven’t seen this sentimental fantasy based on the novel by Richard Matheson, try to watch it. Two people—a playwright and an actress—are living in different times but they arrive to meet each other, because Love can overcome Time. Several days or even hours spent with a beloved person cost more than an entire life with an unloved one.
BELOVED MAN
Regardless of the trendy opening—grapefruit and black pepper tied by lemon-spicy elemi resin—Beloved Man fragrance is taken for an old acquaintance. We have definitely met him somewhere! The easiest way to understand it is to remember familiar notes. Saffron with pink-spicy geranium we have met with Montale, Xerjoff, Arabian Oud, Boadicea, Mancera, Tom Ford and many others who wanted to translate Oriental richness and generosity into the scent. The long woody-ambery drydown slide that you follow, from the stuffy accord of a new leather bag filled with flowers and Tonka beans to the gray notes of musk and guaiacwood, is also well known. It’s either the Arabian homages of Xerjoff or a European production of Arabian Oud.
But not only familiar appearance counts when we recognize “our” person! Certain movements, like a head rotation, certain words, common habits, commonly shared values or commonly appreciated citations—every minor detail can become a base for deep affection. Sometimes you see a person and you know what he or she will do in the next moment and this predictability makes him/her so famliar! Beloved Man recalls an old friend even twice. First at the beginning, when it recalls The Aoud Mancera, and at the drydown a remembrance comes about one of the Shooting Stars Collection fragrances by Xerjoff (Modoc The Falling Stars, with its “paper” drydown).
Beloved Man nicely translates a sincere astonishment of meeting—it naively expresses its joyful emotions with the help of elemi resin, either peppery or lemony. A woody-spicy explosion of emotions, black with bright yellow, spices, zest and flower petals are flying up to the air! The nose refuses to perceive, temporarily shocked by the contrast of spicy leather, blacking and flowers. A moment comes when you start thinking that the only note in this aroma is Tonka beans accord, which is definitely not true. And then the scent suddenly calms down, leaving just a warm suede-woody smoke rambling through. A gray smoke of pleasant memories consists of vetiver dryness and leather and guaiacwood fattiness, whitened with fresh soap, olibanum, iris and musk. Several hours after this emotion explosion there is just a light melancholy, sweat and the papery rustle of iris on the musk. And at the very moment—the moment of remembering the past—other black and smoky scents come to mind: an old Or Black Pascal Morabito and new Comme De Garcons Black. The restitution of really black fragrances is always beautiful.
Beloved Man Amouage:
Head notes:
Black Pepper, Cardamom, Orange,
Grapefruit, Neroli, Cypress, Clove and Elemi;
Heart notes:
Geranium, Jasmine, Saffron, Iris,
Cumin, Olibanum, Cistus, Nutmeg.
Base notes:
Atlas cedar, Guaiac, Leather,
Patchouli, Vetiver, Musk.
BELOVED WOMAN
Beloved Amouage for Women launched in 2012 can be also called a classic scent. Floral chypres, first appearing in 1917, were appreciated for a long time. The last renaissance of chypre fragrances, the floral perfumes with strong character, happened in the 70s-80s of the 20th century. Now they are associated with the generation of our Mums and our happy childhood.
2012 brought us new chic chypres. Oriental luxury Coco Noir Chanel, though it may appear slightly weak for a chypre. Cedary-severe and animalic Chypre Palatin MDCI Parfums is a real chypre-Emperor in gold plate armour. Deep red hysterical chypre Mad Madame Juliette Has a Gun recalls loony red-lipped Minerva from the film Hudson Hawk. Fruity-floral aristocratic chypre Stilettos on Lex Jul et Mad wears a heliotrope coat. Renewed and refreshed chypre legends—Empreinte Courreges, Diorling Christian Dior and Golden Chypre Grossmith London returned from non-existence. As usual, Roja Dove offered new interpretations of classic chypre traditions in Risque, Fetish, Neroli, Vetiver.
So, 2012 was very fruitful for floral chypres. What is Beloved Amouage, then? This is a surprisingly persistent fragrance, created to last long and survive any anticipation, like a tree planted by a great-great-grand father and growing for centuries.
Remember the film Somewhere in Time from 1980? The main idea of the Beloved fragrant pair—an enamored theater actress was waiting all her life for her beloved to come back after their first meeting. To incarnate such faithful love the aroma must be not only bright but also very persistent, with a long-lasting drydown full of memories.
The metallic acid and acrid (because of clove) beginning slightly pushes you away, to attract later with the bread-y air of rose oil and jasmine and ylang-ylang sweetness. Aldehydic powder gives some crispy freshness. This fragrance doesn’t intrigue and doesn’t flirt. It appears as real love must—it comes out of the blue. And later either memories or fantasies called by a fatal meeting are lasting in the rich drydown. Real patchouli oil's bitterness and the imagined sweetness of maltol and musk are interweaving in these illusions, as well as resinously sad immortelle and cistus note with the calm strength of cedar and sandalwood. At the warm and powdery drydown Beloved Amouage is still dry and gentle, but the closer you come, the more bitter it becomes, seeming to say “Don’t touch me! Keep away from me!” It’s a scent for living in the memories of the past.
Beloved Amouage:
Head notes:
Lavender, Jasmine, Rose, Clary,
Chamomile, Clove, Cardamom;
Heart notes:
Immortelle, Labdanum, Ylang-ylang,
Patchouli, Benzoin, Olibanum, Violet;
Base notes:
Musk, Sandalwood, Cedar, Vanilla,
Castoreum, Civet, Leather and Ambergris.
PS: Beloved Amouage and Beloved Man Amouage really are a beautiful couple. This is Amouage's attempt to step twice into the river of classical floral chypres, now with Christopher Chong as Creative Director. A worthy effort, though it’s not Amouage Gold and not because of cost-cutting at all. To compare it with modern popular cinema: budgets did not become smaller but now the money is spent not on the screenplay or sincere feelings but for visual and sound effects.
