Fate Man Amouage 2013

Quote from Christopher Chong, Creative Director of Amouage, from this interview:

http://stylem.ag/YDIvZM

I chose this quote because I usually react exactly like he does.
You often read quotes like this in forums and Facebook groups. And well, a polarizing perfume is usually a demanding perfume. It is true that the opening of Fate Man is a bit overloaded with cumin, but those who have patience with this fragrance will discover its beautiful facets.

In my other two comments on Reflection Man and Beloved Man, I mentioned that these two are actually quite "unconventional" Amouages, that they are rather uncomplicated for what Amouage does.

In any case, I think it's good that Amouage as a perfume house has a good balance between uncomplicated and easy-to-wear fragrances as well as demanding and artistic ones.
Fate Man definitely belongs to the latter category. The marketing around this fragrance, the packaging, and the bottle design somehow suggested to me a bright, radiant incense scent, perhaps a bit with aldehydes in the top note (as I believe I smell in the women's version).
Instead, there is initially a good dose of cumin - but once you give the fragrance a bit more time, other components like licorice, incense, and something balsamic, which I cannot define further (maybe that's exactly this Copahu balsam?), unfold.

In any case, the cumin recedes for me to the point that it becomes more of an element that emulates this impression of burning incense. At the same time, Fate Man somehow feels clean and clear, just exactly as I had imagined it.

To me, Fate Man smells like a beautiful, clean-burning incense that somehow calms but also keeps you awake and alert. This cumin element partly reminds me of Black Afgano, where there is also some cumin, but in a pleasant dose and volume. Through this parallel, I would describe Fate Man as a kind of brighter and clearer Black Afgano.

Because Fate Man somehow has soft facets despite all the spices and woods (a slight sweetness from licorice and perhaps this Copahu balsam?), it feels "clean," as if you had smoked your fresh laundry with incense and thus perfumed it.

I am a fan of strong contrasts, and in Fate Man, you definitely find many contrasts. And well, Fate Man is a fragrance that makes me want to sit down and dissect it, simply because clearly more is at play here than cumin. The comparison with curry, however, is crazy; my mother cooks super delicious Chinese curry, and the scent of that has nothing to do with this. I imagine Fate Man conceptually like the idea behind L'Air Du Desert Marocain: it is a dry desert wind that carries a hint of the souk - the market where all sorts of things are sold, incense, spices, carpets - along with sand and dust.

I would even go so far as to say that Fate Man is probably the flagship scent for the house "Amouage." And that despite being one of the youngest creations.