NicheOnly

Here I go again, ranting about the state of niche perfumery. I'm not even entirely sure where I'm going to take this review right now, so lets start with Oudous Lux Solis itself. I, for one, feel fortunate that I managed to source a 2ml of this and Reception, but that fortune only goes as far as the opportunity, not the content itself. With Oudous Lux Solis, cosplay perfumer Jordi Fernández is taking some (!) inspiration from his work under both Maison Crivelli as well as Ex Nihilo with their hero franchises, those being Oud Maracujá and Blue Talisman Eau de Parfum. Beyond that, it's hard to express where this hodge-podge of notes and accords actually ends up at.

With Oudous Lux Solis, we have a fresh-fruity-sweet and synthetic open. The initial feeling is that Fernández has taken the tropical fruity accord from Oud Maracujá and aligned with both a synthetic-aquatic accord (designer-like calone quality) and a synthetic-woody accord (akigalawood). The structure of the scent, given the fresh-fruity-synthetic opening, features significant overlap with the manner in which Blue Talisman Eau de Parfum is shaped. There is a prominent candied sweet fruitiness in the initial few moments alongside that tropical fruity accord which is likely the reason why I am seeing comparisons to Le Gemme - Tygar and/or Vibrato, but this is clearly (!) not a scent in that realm. When I first smelled it up-close, the structure itself reminds me of other fruity interpretations of akigalawood that we have in the market, most notably Blue Talisman Eau de Parfum and Castley. Relative to the PDM, there is a lack of fresh spiciness and the fruitiness features more prominently in this scent.

Somewhere in the first 5 minutes, I do pick up on mild Ani X type qualities, offering some of those melon & vanilla-like nuances. The first red flags start to appear thereafter as the tropical fruity accord begins to break into various parts. The fruitiness goes in various directions and the listed patchouli note begins to pop more. Similarly to Hacivat Oud, the execution of the patchouli is poor as it comes off a bit like paint remover. In the ultimate dry-down with no fruitiness remaining, we arrive at a very underwhelming product. While this scent is not meant to be inspired by Xerjoff's Erba Pura and scents in that family, the ultimate composition ending at white musk and mild fruity tones isn't doing it any favors. That is to say the scent ends up somewhat barebones after the first hour or so and most of the notes/accords shielding this poor blending fade away. I think one relevant comparison here could be Tropiques from Fragrance du Bois which has some of that Erba Pura-style, but in a more tropical fruity direction than the Xerjoff. In the final stages of this scent's evolution, I think it's fair to say that this is among the worst products I've ever put on my skin (and by almost any objective measure, it's worse than the any of the aforementioned comparables). For what it's worth, this scent never smells of oud and I have to assume people are voting for "woody" as an accord strictly because of the akigalawood, albeit that note's actual main accord is just synthetic.

Final accords: synthetic-fruity-sweet-fresh

So where did we end up at? Unlike some others, I don't want to imply that many of the problems plaguing niche perfumery today are strictly applicable to today's scene. In the past, there was a time when Alberto Morillas would drop the same garbage aquatic fragrance for more than a decade straight and people thought he was a genius. Yet to me, this type of behavior in the niche market feels egregious. For the last couple of years, one-trick-pony perfumer Quentin Bisch has been at the forefront of this with takes of both Ganymede as well as Guidance and Fernández' recent lack of originality isn't that far from Bisch's, building on the success of existing IPs such as Oud Maracuja and Blue Talisman in his catalogue (and London, Gris Charnel, Town & Country and others outside of it). But in most cases, the perfumers aren't the ones deciding the creative direction of the product(s) they're working on. The ones at fault are the brands who feel like they are competing for finite resources, whether it be customer spending, views, engagements, you name it. It's a lot easier to generate revenue with IP that already has some recognition in the market, meaning all the perfumer is asked to do is to make a quality take of it. But this obviously raises the question as to how Nishane ever signed off on this absolute trash that Fernández put together. It's going to take a lot for this to not end up as the worst of 2025.

Before Kilian released Old Fashioned, the decently executed product adjacent to the discontinued London exclusive Single Malt London, Kilian had already been selling Apple Brandy on the Rocks (AB OTR) for years. Similarly to Old Fashioned, AB OTR came as a worldwide alternative to Kilian's New York exclusive Apple Brandy New York, yet in a way, I'm not sure there even was sufficient demand to remaster this.

These are some of my thoughts on my first wear of a recent 50ml full display blind-buy.

With 4 sprays on my left hand, Apple Brandy New York opens sweet-fruity-boozy. Within milliseconds you can spot the resemblance to Apple Brandy on the Rocks as it has that exact same sweet-crisp Apfelschorle type smell. AB NY's top smells spicier and boozier than the fruity-fresh ambroxan-driven profile of the On The Rocks version.

However, it is in the transition where the differences between the 2 products really begin to distance themselves. Very much like the dry-down of Single Malt London, there is a present amber tonality incorporated into Apple Brandy New York as it features the same style of medicinal-smelling labdanum, albeit in lower quantities than with Single Malt. The key aspect of AB NY's dry-down, however, is the dominating presence of woodiness. I would dare to say that the woodiness featured here is even more prevalent than in the re-released version of Single Malt, i.e. Old Fashioned, as you get a hefty dose of oak with a moderate amount of cedar and a mild accompanying feel of booziness.

Ultimately, that's where Apple Brandy New York ends up at: in this very woody dry-down with moderate medicinal ambers and that bitter-boozy touch. The re-released version, i.e. Apple Brandy on the Rocks, retains the opening of the original version and takes the scent in a fresh-fruity direction with zero ambers and mild-to-moderate woodiness, losing out on performance (which isn't great to begin with) in the process. I'd rate the performance here to be subpar much like with many of the other scents mentioned in this review: I'd give it around 6 hours of longevity on soft sillage.

As a somewhat unexpected takeaway from this review; I would dare to say that Old Fashioned, the relaunch of Single Malt London, actually smells more like Apple Brandy New York than it does like Single Malt as the wood-dominant base tones and the bitter-boozy touches offer strong overlap between the two, esp. on-skin. Unfortunately, even with that overlap, AB NY has fewer nuances in its execution, making it inferior to Old Fashioned and miles off the highs of Single Malt. I would conclude by saying that this is discontinued for a good reason.

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.

Do you remember the Amouage before COVID? It might feel like a distant memory, but in the aftermath of the pandemic as Amouage's house direction continues to go more and more mainstream, the gap between what the Omani brand does now relative to where they were under Chong or even in Renaud's first few years has never been bigger. Decision is yet another example of that gap widening.

Review written off 1 wear with an official sample I got from Jovoy.

One aspect that I dislike about contemporary Amouage's creative direction (or the lack thereof) is the heavy cross-application of notes/accords from product to product. If you were to read my review of Reasons which came out in 2024, you'd see me highlight how the scent uses many of the raw ingredients from scents like Lineage and Jubilation XXV Man. The same was true of Lustre and the same is also true with Decision.

On my first time smelling Decision, the initial notes that I wrote down state that Decision features the same sweet licorice-like opening of Opus XIV - Royal Tobacco, the same spicy notes like Lineage, the same aromatic-synthetic woody structure like Purpose with a very clear reference to one-trick-pony Quentin Bisch's akigalawood DNA. The actual transition of the scent is smokier and when I first smell the scent up-close, there is a prominent woody tonality contrasted by moderate smokiness. Decision smells a bit like woods charring next to a live campfire with the atlas cedar having a light leathery quality to it as well. In the ultimate dry-down around ~1.5-2 hours in, the scent leans more heavily into the various notes & accords visible in both Lineage and Purpose as the smokiness/depth dissipates into a mild spicy-woody scent with aromatic quality.

Overall, there's just nothing special about Decision overall as the composition is very simple in nature once all the other notes fade away after the top. The various parts of Lineage and Lustre that I can smell in the dry-down are mild-to-moderate with the core scent being a one-two of atlas cedar and incense. I'd say this scent is woody-smoky-spicy with some resinous/leathery qualities. Performance wise it feels average: I am not getting anything more than average sillage, but I'd expect this to be in the 7-8 hour range for longevity (which I'd rate as a 6). The blending and execution are the only things pushing this above a median ranking, but besides that there really isn't anything else here.

I would assume that for most people, the first idea re: Pacific Rock Flower was to associate it with the brand's hero franchise Pacific Rock Moss. However, that association doesn't come to fruition and the overall delivery leaves a lot to be desired.

Without looking at the scent pyramid or accords, the opening smells sweet & aquatic to me, giving the scent a very prominent designer edge. These accords are followed by nuances of the tropical solar floral, but unlike everybody voting, I don't get a single floral in this profile - there is a noteworthy coconut note opposing the sweet-aquatic opening. Initially, the notes I would expect this scent to include are ambroxan, tonka/vanilla and coconut or coconut milk. It smells sweet, tropical, aquatic, slightly lactonic/creamy and mildly synthetic.

After observing the scent pyramid and voted-for accords, I don't feel like I'd shift anything. However, in the dry-down I notice the same style of salt note that Goldfield & Banks used in Pacific Rock Moss visible in the base. Outside of that, I feel like there's little evolution to this scent. This style of profile is likely a mainstay among designer brands and low-cost (and sometimes low-quality) niche houses like Zaharoff and Carner, with the strong comparability to a scent like Signature Seraphim Blue and mild comparability to a scent like Helix. I would also assume this is similar to JPG's Le Beau, a scent that I (luckily) have not smelled.

The scent leans light on the sillage and longevity appears to be below average in the ~4-5 hour range. The scent's designer quality and structure, led by the synthetic-aquatic base and opposed by the tonka as well as the coconut, is a significant problem. I'd definitely describe Pacific Rock Flower as unoriginal and as a profile not even worthy of being launched by a niche house, but when you think about it, G&B is selling this scent at €167/100ml which isn't that much higher than many designers these days. By most measures, this is a poor product deserving of the low rating.