6
2024 album release "The Best Of", starring: Cécile Zarokian
My last review of Amouage's latest collection "The Essences". Review written off one in-doors test off samples purchased directly from Amouage.
Unlike both Lustre and Reasons, Amouage appears to not be borrowing notes nor accords from their existing catalogue with Outlands. However, the issue is that they're now "borrowing" from Nishane instead as perfumer Cécile Zarokian has essentially taken Nishane's hero franchise Ani Extrait de Parfum and re-released it under Amouage with moderate twists. However, this product isn't just Ani - it's actually a hodge-podge of Zarokian's top products incl. aspects from scents like Material, Vanilla Edesia and others. It's equivalent to when an artist releases a "Best Of" album.
Outlands opens with a very smooth creamy-citrusy tone in the top, this DNA is INSTANTLY recognizable as inspired by Ani Extrait de Parfum. There is a moderate difference in the top in that it opens rather gourmand, making me think of lemon cookies. It's obviously not as sweet as scents like "Casamorati - Lira (Eau de Parfum) | XerJoff" and Love & Crime, but it sits between the spicy-sweet-citrus profile of the Nishane and the gourmand-sweet-citrus profiles of the Casamorati/Ex Idolo.
Once we exit the initial 5-10 minutes, various other aspects begin to appear that one would associate with Amouage. Primarily, the scent begins to intensify in its spiciness and resinous qualities, but as previously mentioned, these same accords are also visible in another Zarokian scent released under British house Electimuss, that being Vanilla Edesia. Separating the notes is somewhat difficult, but I assume it's some mix of the frankincense, labdanum and elemi/caraway. The deeper into the drydown you go, the more the scent brings complexity, but the tones of a more gourmand Ani do not entirely fade until the 3rd hour. I would say after the first hour, the nuances of Ani begin their transition to nuances of Material as it's no longer decipherable whether the sweet tone is vanilla or benzoin/amber. At certain stages, I do notice a mild breakdown in the on-skin scent quality as the various spicy-resinous tones need that sweet accord to balance it out, making me revise the scent down by 0.5.
Ultimate accords: spicy-resinous-sweet-creamy-citrusy
The scent has good-to-great longevity with above average, potentially good sillage. For the time, Amouage is selling this at €420/100ml which is more than the €345/100ml that Nishane is charging for Ani. It should be viewed as a direct competitor to Ani with minimal differences in utility/use cases (spring-fall daily) as well as performance. The bottle is still ugly, but the product speaks for itself here. With that said, given this is the final product in this collection, I can now unequivocally state that all that chatter about oak barrels and double infusion was an empty marketing gimmick since it leads to nothing noteworthy in the structures of these scents. I almost feel like people are voting for "Woody" as an accord because of the empty marketing, there's essentially nothing woody about this scent.
Unlike both Lustre and Reasons, Amouage appears to not be borrowing notes nor accords from their existing catalogue with Outlands. However, the issue is that they're now "borrowing" from Nishane instead as perfumer Cécile Zarokian has essentially taken Nishane's hero franchise Ani Extrait de Parfum and re-released it under Amouage with moderate twists. However, this product isn't just Ani - it's actually a hodge-podge of Zarokian's top products incl. aspects from scents like Material, Vanilla Edesia and others. It's equivalent to when an artist releases a "Best Of" album.
Outlands opens with a very smooth creamy-citrusy tone in the top, this DNA is INSTANTLY recognizable as inspired by Ani Extrait de Parfum. There is a moderate difference in the top in that it opens rather gourmand, making me think of lemon cookies. It's obviously not as sweet as scents like "Casamorati - Lira (Eau de Parfum) | XerJoff" and Love & Crime, but it sits between the spicy-sweet-citrus profile of the Nishane and the gourmand-sweet-citrus profiles of the Casamorati/Ex Idolo.
Once we exit the initial 5-10 minutes, various other aspects begin to appear that one would associate with Amouage. Primarily, the scent begins to intensify in its spiciness and resinous qualities, but as previously mentioned, these same accords are also visible in another Zarokian scent released under British house Electimuss, that being Vanilla Edesia. Separating the notes is somewhat difficult, but I assume it's some mix of the frankincense, labdanum and elemi/caraway. The deeper into the drydown you go, the more the scent brings complexity, but the tones of a more gourmand Ani do not entirely fade until the 3rd hour. I would say after the first hour, the nuances of Ani begin their transition to nuances of Material as it's no longer decipherable whether the sweet tone is vanilla or benzoin/amber. At certain stages, I do notice a mild breakdown in the on-skin scent quality as the various spicy-resinous tones need that sweet accord to balance it out, making me revise the scent down by 0.5.
Ultimate accords: spicy-resinous-sweet-creamy-citrusy
The scent has good-to-great longevity with above average, potentially good sillage. For the time, Amouage is selling this at €420/100ml which is more than the €345/100ml that Nishane is charging for Ani. It should be viewed as a direct competitor to Ani with minimal differences in utility/use cases (spring-fall daily) as well as performance. The bottle is still ugly, but the product speaks for itself here. With that said, given this is the final product in this collection, I can now unequivocally state that all that chatter about oak barrels and double infusion was an empty marketing gimmick since it leads to nothing noteworthy in the structures of these scents. I almost feel like people are voting for "Woody" as an accord because of the empty marketing, there's essentially nothing woody about this scent.
3 Comments
Assuming folks noses are getting duped by marketing is pretty insulting. There is a strong woody presence here. They’ve included the naturals used in the ingredients listing, and there seems to be a significant amount of patchouli oil, for one, as well as the ACs pinene and santalol.