Everything
Tapping into a centuries-old tradition, Oman-based fragrance house Amouage has revived one of the industry’s most opulent perfumery techniques with their new collection of attars. Already a staple offering within the Amouage line in Oman, this is the first time that the attars will be available to an Australian audience.
To create the collection, Chief Experience Officer Renaud Salmon called on the talents of three incredible and revered perfumers to interpret the essence of Oman in fragrant form: Cécile Zarokian, Dominique Ropion and Julien Rasquinet. Six scents in total were produced, celebrating some of the most coveted cornerstone ingredients of perfumery that Oman is famous for. Heady and sumptuous, the results are a throwback to the days when perfumery was full of detail rather than the minimalist, linear trend that has occupied current styles.
The collection consists of Rose Aqor, Saffron Hamra, Oud Ulya, Orris Wakan, Incense Rori and Vanilla Barka. This tapestry of scent, explains Salmon, is more of a sensory map that traces the various villages and locations throughout Oman that are home to the precious ingredients. “Rare, precious, and unique, they are at once modern and ancestral, rooted in a truly Omani tradition and heritage,” says Salmon. “Derived from natural ingredients and radiating ethereal beauty, they are much more than simple fragrance, they are an intimate, authentic and ritualistic custom; a signature scent of connoisseurs, and a way of self-expression that has transcended civilisations.”
Made with a higher concentration of precious and natural materials, attars are both more potent yet infinitely more subtle in their olfactive journeys. Slowly revealing their nuances over time, attars represent the true artistry of perfumery – notes are carefully balanced to ensure that each phase, or chapter, unfurls over time without losing any of its opening potency.
Amouage has always been known for their uncompromising approach when it comes to quality of materials used to create their scents and the attars are a new benchmark even for them. Not only for the sillage or power of the scent, but the reintroduction of fragrance as part of a daily ritual. Attars differ from your traditional perfumes by requiring a little extra attention in their application – dabbed on at pulse points, they need to be activated by gently rubbing your wrists together. They’re also designed to be layered. This kind of personalisation would give the wearer a unique scent to accompany their day – a morning ritual that requires a sense of mindfulness to tailor your fragrant wardrobe for the day. They also don’t come cheap. Due to the preciousness of the materials and the concentration, a 12ml bottle costs way of $759. But unlike eau de toilette or even parfums, only the smallest amount is required to achieve maximum results.
Since joining Amouage, Salmon has carefully curating the Amouage image and its scent profile into a new direction – one that feels more like the Amouage of old (the brand has been in existence since the 1980s) that was known for bold, complex scents that found inspiration from the rich landscape of Oman.
“We are proud to be able to extend our Attars beyond Oman and share them with the world. Our ambition was to stay true to the Attars’ noble and precious reputation, taking advantage of their history while infusing them with Amouage’s own innovative creative approach. It is the Attars strength and their resonance that has allowed us to reinvent them for a changing olfactory landscape without denying their identity,” said Salmon.
