AMOUAGE PRESENTS THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE ODYSSEY COLLECTION: DECISION AND EXISTENCE
words NATALIE GAL
Dear reader, today I invite you into a very special story. We found ourselves at the enchanting Fontenay Hotel in Hamburg, where Amouage unveiled its latest creations, a collection told in chapters, like a book containing a long-lost story. And now, I bring this tale to you, unfolding true to Amouage style, chapter by chapter.
images courtesy of AMOUAGEChapter One: The Origins, the “Gift of Kings” and the Odyssey Collection
First of all, let’s clarify what is Amouage and their ethos. We are in Muscat, Oman in the 1980s, where Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said creates a perfume brand. Amouage today refers to themselves as the “gift of kings”, how right they are. The brand has a distinctive closeness to royalty. It was never a commercial product, never a fleeting perfume to pick up and forget.
They also do not want to be that, a brand that is proud of its heritage. They are here to represent their history, and I truly believe they have created something very special and true to this. East meets West in these scents. There is the smoky, opulent, intoxicating grandeur of the Orient, but there is also the Occident, with many of the perfumers coming from Paris, New York and Geneva.
The Odyssey Collection is why we gathered in Hamburg, a great journey told in chapters, like Homer’s grand story. Chapter I was Renaissance: a light, soft collection with fragrances of Crimson Rocks, Ashore, Meander and Enclave, a theme of not only rebirth, but birth itself. The start of something.
This was followed by Chapter III, Escape: a spiritual exploration, that is life. Scents Lineage, Search, Guidance and Purpose speak of phases of life itself, where we come from and where we are going, and how we derail numerous times from a purpose that is not only divine but also secretive.
Now we opened a new chapter, the final one: Eternity.
Chapter Two: The New Collection, Eternity: Decision and Existence
It is not easy to reach the summit of Jebel Shams, nearly 3,000 meters above the Omani landscape. The track to the peak is exhausting, rugged, and challenging. The road is lined with juniper trees, scarred, broken by storms, yet beautiful. They may appear dry, without flowers, but does that mean they are not alive?
As you climb higher, the clouds thicken. Below you no longer see how the hikers gather with excitement or fear to begin the path, a long road that you are now completing. You are alone in a land that feels a bit scary, but also calm. It is nothing like they say, nor as the Renaissance masters painted it, nor as the great composers imagined it, nor as the poets ever truly captured it. Only in one essence does it remain: an endless whiteness, shrouded in fog, it is immeasurably grand and vast. But it is not death, nor heaven, it is eternity.
images courtesy of AMOUAGEChief Creative Officer Renaud Salmon described his journey:
“It was an experience I can never begin to put into words. I knew I was connected to the earth, and yet I also felt as though I was floating. The disorientation was profound, and curiously serene and liberating.”
From this experience came the inspiration for the final chapter. Eternity is not about death as an ending, but about life as an entry point into something endless. Death fascinates us more than anything else, it is feared, adored, obsessed over. It is the great silence that every culture has tried to name and the wisest philosophers and poets have only circled around.
“The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns”
— says Hamlet in the iconic Act 3, Scene 1. We adore death while fearing it, a twisted love story of obsession and terror, while reaching acceptance without holding grudges.
Decision: The Expression of a Transformative Moment
You feel the scents of the mountain, bergamot, juniper berries, frankincense and myrrh. The decision is a conscious choice, to climb knowing it will be difficult, but hoping for it to be rewarding. And at the top, when you finish, you sense something strange is waiting for you.
The scent has a faint citrusy background, with a hint of vanilla. It is perfectly balanced, one of the best perfumes I have ever had the privilege to try. The scent by perfumer Quentin Bisch went through two weeks of aging, something rarely done today, and a sign of how deeply they stick to heritage and tradition.
The flacons of Decision and Existence are inspired by Oman’s landscapes, seagull grey and faint green, recalling clouds and juniper trees. The design, by Belgian artist Louise Mertens, is as much artwork as bottle.
images courtesy of AMOUAGEExistence: The Serenity of Endlessness
Existence follows Decision. Linearity ceases, and what is left is a wide, free, formless space where we all fit. You can spot the scents of rose, tender frankincense, aldehyde and benzoin, but most especially the lily of the valley. Arnaud told us this flower carries nostalgia for him, he collected it as a child, gifting it to someone to wish good luck.
I like this thought. I believe death is us going back to our childhood. In our eternity we will be closest to those scents, lights, beams we once saw as a child and long ago forgot as they passed into oblivion. Death could be one of those car rides where we slowly fell asleep in the back, listening to mom and dad chatting in the front and the radio playing faintly.
Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog was a great inspiration for this scent. The figure is at peace, completely at peace. There is no rush, no busy thought, just appreciation, as he looks at a land that is mystical to us, but to him, a home.
images courtesy of AMOUAGELast Chapter: What’s the Next Chapter?
And so, we reach the end of the Odyssey Collection. But it feels less like a closing, and more like the beginning of something new. Amouage is carving out a singular voice in a fiercely competitive market. They are proving that perfumery can once again be slow, thoughtful, and profound, an art form, not just a product of fast consumption. Moreover, this special collection is available from today at selected SKINS Cosmetics stores in the Netherlands, so be sure to grab yours while supplies last.
Perfume, for me, is lineage. Every woman in my family collected fragrances. I carry them with me: the scent my grand mother wore in the 1960s, the one my mother wore in the 1990s, and my own, bought just two years ago. But in our family there is one rule: never re-buy a perfume. Each is meant to define one era of life. Once the bottle is finished, it becomes memory. A scent should transform you when you revisit it, take you back in time. This magic is lost if you mix and match carelessly.
Trust me, dear reader: I take perfume seriously. This is why I adore Amouage. They understand what even my great-grandmother knew, that perfumes are chapters of our lives. Not passing fancies, but stories.
images courtesy of AMOUAGE