Top Notes 
Lily of the valley
Rose
Heart Notes 
Frankincense
Mystikal®
Labdanum
Base Notes 
White musk
Ambergris
Benzoin
06/20/2025
NicheOnly
101 Reviews
NicheOnly
5
One of Amouage's many recent tragedies
Ugh - here we go again. It feels like in the last 5 years (aptly summed as the post-COVID perfume market) there has been no bigger decline in brand image than for Amouage and for good reason too. However, I feel like Amouage's recent tragedy is tied to the choices being made in Oman by creative director Renaud Salmon with the biggest problem being perfumer Quentin Bisch: the fragrance world's flavor of the month (or decade) who is quoting 6 figures to make the same useless product time and time again.
Review off 3 wears, both indoors and outdoors - a proper full experience.
If you're surprised to hear that Existence has a synthetic opening then you clearly haven't kept up with Bisch's journey which kicked into 5th gear after the commercial success of Marc-Antoine Barrois' Ganymede Eau de Parfum. While not structured like Ganymede, Existence leans into the implied feeling of akigalawood and the scent opens synthetic-fresh-floral, meaning it is adjacent to products like Fleur Narcotique Eau de Parfum, Valaya Eau de Parfum, Tilia and many others. Overall, it is a struggle to place Existence in that continuum of products inspired by Fleur Narcotique as Existence also features a mild rose, the same one featured in Guidance Eau de Parfum, with the note being easier to detect on the strip.
While being in that continuum on its own isn't the biggest issue (outside of the lack of originality), this product features several other shortfalls. Time after time, I notice a bitter citrus-style note that adds a prominent chemical-like feel to the on-skin experience. On the first wear, I found that feel closer to champagne and with a mild touch of pear, the scent could've been in the realm of Vilhelm's Sparkling Jo. On this final wear as I am writing the review, the combination of musks & florals with that synthetic blend takes me closer to mustard (ouch). Outside of that, a lot of the pyramid never features in the scent's evolution. The combination of white florals & rose contrasting against the dominant synthetic structure are never opposed by any ambers nor smoky notes. The first wears had some sweetness in the heart, in the final wear that accord is more mild with the scent's main accords being floral-synthetic-fresh, but I'd assume that the rose is the key driver for the sweetness in Existence's composition.
The performance ratings on this are outrageously inflated as Existence is average on both longevity and sillage, I'd even argue that both are below the median 5/10 rating. The current ratings imply that the loud blast of synth fresh florals that Existence opens with remain throughout and that could not be further from the truth. True longevity on this trends closer to 6 hours than the 12-14 implies by those who have rated it thus far as the gap between this and others in the genre is noteworthy. The value on this is obviously below average: the scent competes in a genre that has north of a dozen alternatives with almost all of them being cheaper.
As Amouage launches more and more poor-to-mediocre product into the market with the goal of growing revenues at the mid-to-high teens (this means 15-20% per year for those not in finance), one has to wonder at what point the market punishes them for this. The brand's constant affiliate marketing (read: PR) might give off the impression that they are dropping top-of-the-market product, yet in all honesty, Amouage hasn't been a top 10 niche house product wise for years and with launches like Existence, I wouldn't be surprised if they drop out of the top 15 or even 20 in the near future.
Review off 3 wears, both indoors and outdoors - a proper full experience.
If you're surprised to hear that Existence has a synthetic opening then you clearly haven't kept up with Bisch's journey which kicked into 5th gear after the commercial success of Marc-Antoine Barrois' Ganymede Eau de Parfum. While not structured like Ganymede, Existence leans into the implied feeling of akigalawood and the scent opens synthetic-fresh-floral, meaning it is adjacent to products like Fleur Narcotique Eau de Parfum, Valaya Eau de Parfum, Tilia and many others. Overall, it is a struggle to place Existence in that continuum of products inspired by Fleur Narcotique as Existence also features a mild rose, the same one featured in Guidance Eau de Parfum, with the note being easier to detect on the strip.
While being in that continuum on its own isn't the biggest issue (outside of the lack of originality), this product features several other shortfalls. Time after time, I notice a bitter citrus-style note that adds a prominent chemical-like feel to the on-skin experience. On the first wear, I found that feel closer to champagne and with a mild touch of pear, the scent could've been in the realm of Vilhelm's Sparkling Jo. On this final wear as I am writing the review, the combination of musks & florals with that synthetic blend takes me closer to mustard (ouch). Outside of that, a lot of the pyramid never features in the scent's evolution. The combination of white florals & rose contrasting against the dominant synthetic structure are never opposed by any ambers nor smoky notes. The first wears had some sweetness in the heart, in the final wear that accord is more mild with the scent's main accords being floral-synthetic-fresh, but I'd assume that the rose is the key driver for the sweetness in Existence's composition.
The performance ratings on this are outrageously inflated as Existence is average on both longevity and sillage, I'd even argue that both are below the median 5/10 rating. The current ratings imply that the loud blast of synth fresh florals that Existence opens with remain throughout and that could not be further from the truth. True longevity on this trends closer to 6 hours than the 12-14 implies by those who have rated it thus far as the gap between this and others in the genre is noteworthy. The value on this is obviously below average: the scent competes in a genre that has north of a dozen alternatives with almost all of them being cheaper.
As Amouage launches more and more poor-to-mediocre product into the market with the goal of growing revenues at the mid-to-high teens (this means 15-20% per year for those not in finance), one has to wonder at what point the market punishes them for this. The brand's constant affiliate marketing (read: PR) might give off the impression that they are dropping top-of-the-market product, yet in all honesty, Amouage hasn't been a top 10 niche house product wise for years and with launches like Existence, I wouldn't be surprised if they drop out of the top 15 or even 20 in the near future.
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