Top Notes 
Heart Notes 
Base Notes 
07/14/2012
jtd
484 Reviews
jtd
3
Niche Pursues Designer
Amouage asks you to consider gender with its paired man/woman releases, the Golds, the Jubilations, the Dias, etc.. I don’t know all the Amouages, but I’m always leary of the boy/girl thing. It seems so rote, so perfunctory. Like dressing babies exclusively in blue or pink. The quality of the perfumes, though, has always won me over (at least the three noted above), and the gender pairing becomes less important. But with each new matched-pair release, the issue comes up again.
For the Honours, it is the man who suffers. There is a progression from start to finish of HM, but due to its composition of mostly woody or resinous elements, all quite durable over time, there is a lingering feel. A peppery start moves slowly to a sour wood heart, and eventually to a not unpleasant, but murky base combining vetiver, incense and tonka.
The operatic concept hints at emotionalism and heavy theatrical symbolism. Unmet expectation of drama and comparison to operatic scale make Honour Man seem insignificant. My real problem with HM, though, is that in a reversal of a recent trend, niche attempts to imitate designer. For all the opera, for all the narrative, HM reads like an attempt to squeeze a boatload of (likely) high quality botanicals into the shape of Iso E Super. Perhaps interesting as an exercise, but to my nose, unsuccessful as a costly product.
For the Honours, it is the man who suffers. There is a progression from start to finish of HM, but due to its composition of mostly woody or resinous elements, all quite durable over time, there is a lingering feel. A peppery start moves slowly to a sour wood heart, and eventually to a not unpleasant, but murky base combining vetiver, incense and tonka.
The operatic concept hints at emotionalism and heavy theatrical symbolism. Unmet expectation of drama and comparison to operatic scale make Honour Man seem insignificant. My real problem with HM, though, is that in a reversal of a recent trend, niche attempts to imitate designer. For all the opera, for all the narrative, HM reads like an attempt to squeeze a boatload of (likely) high quality botanicals into the shape of Iso E Super. Perhaps interesting as an exercise, but to my nose, unsuccessful as a costly product.
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