Right so… Hope. I’m not sure if the name is ironic or what because if anything was to crush any hope of originality in perfumery then this is it. I don’t know if my expectations are unfair now? I mean Pink Floyd couldn’t keep making Dark side of the Moon’s now could they? This is a boring perfume, opulent yes, powerful… reasonably… a modern oud which if you want to say has a kind of plastic, translucency, and a good mixture of spicy, resinous, animalic etc… then okay. But it smells like many other ‘opulent’ oud/oud rose perfumes (okay so no rose officially but…) I’m not sure why you’d drop FM gem money for this, I’m curious as to any excited interview from Dominique Ropion stating that he’s done anything here but create something which exists elsewhere in perfumery for a fraction of the price. Yes it’s nice and wearable and modern and I can even concede smells expensive & may contain real oud and some other nice naturals, but it doesn’t justify the price nor does it stand with the others in this line which although even more outrageously priced (in some cases) at least have a bit of something about them. Even Promise which is the most genetically similar and market pleasing has something of a unique balance to it.
Hope, from Frederic Malle was released in 2024. The perfumer behind this creation is Dominique Ropion. It has the top notes of Juniper and Pink Pepper, middle notes of Agarwood (Oud), Smoke, and Vetiver, and base notes of Amber and Leather.
Right so… Hope. I’m not sure if the name is ironic or what because if anything was to crush any hope of originality in perfumery then this is it. I don’t know if my expectations are unfair now? I mean Pink Floyd couldn’t keep making Dark side of the Moon’s now could they? This is a boring perfume, opulent yes, powerful… reasonably… a modern oud which if you want to say has a kind of plastic, translucency, and a good mixture of spicy, resinous, animalic etc… then okay. But it smells like many other ‘opulent’ oud/oud rose perfumes (okay so no rose officially but…) I’m not sure why you’d drop FM gem money for this, I’m curious as to any excited interview from Dominique Ropion stating that he’s done anything here but create something which exists elsewhere in perfumery for a fraction of the price. Yes it’s nice and wearable and modern and I can even concede smells expensive & may contain real oud and some other nice naturals, but it doesn’t justify the price nor does it stand with the others in this line which although even more outrageously priced (in some cases) at least have a bit of something about them. Even Promise which is the most genetically similar and market pleasing has something of a unique balance to it.