Amouage's whole mojo has been lost for me. The output of their fragrances hasn't completely 'gone to shit' under Salmon, as some would argue but despite liking a couple of recent releases there's definitely less excitement and anticipation about them for me personally now. There's an insipid, homogenization which feels commercially driven rather than passionate. The whole colour palate and concepts the pastel (and in this case beige) bottles a telling indication of exactly what I'm grasping at. I personally like Bertrand's work, could and would easily wear this perfume, it's fine, (SPOILER ALERT:) it just doesn't excite me. It's milky lactone body is pebble smooth and actually has much more going on than you'd think, I bet Berty used a million materials to make this but the average person (or even avid enthusiast) would dismiss it as boring, woody dross. So I get a tickle of spice in the top, potentially that marriage of pink pepper and cinnamon, very Amouage you'd think but that is fleeting and it soon retreats to a comforting cashmere wood, cardamom, nutty hazelnut/pistachio, sandalwood cream. The mention of cypriol here might be haunting it slightly and the strangeness of palo santo (thankfully without that awful off rubber note) could be playing a part in augmenting that sandalwood accord too? It's all to vague though. I am a sucker for nutty, broadly musky driven, low lying perfumes but this isn't quite doing it for me. Perfectly nice, somewhat creative but lacking the flare of Amouage in the Chong era. For the money, you're not getting the experience you used to get with Amouage, and for that REASON, I'm out. Update: 07/12/24 Yeah I'm wearing it today and I can confirm that Reasons is definitely not for me. I like the muskiness in the base and I think it's a creative perfume, I've smelled stuff like this before and it's not my scene, I don't hate it but I'm not a fan either.

A vanillic musk fragrance which somehow sidesteps the enormous cliche that description might have you thinking it's like (then again it might not?) I personally found it woodier and certainly with that cardamom note particularly in the opening giving a signature Schoen sort of minimalism. It's okay, I like musky perfumes but this isn't particularly memorable on that front either. I liked it though.

Challenging/terrible opening. I like ‘clean’ outrageously soapy and bracing effects, white musk and so forth so if you’re offending me with similar then it must be bad. I feel the style of this is ‘Italian’ in a loose sense. Spirit is too much. It’s unpleasant. Cool and mildly green, I want to say geranium but I like geranium. For 15-20 minutes or so. Then it starts to get a sort of floracy which I can start to get behind, then in the deep, deep, drydown (many hours later) it becomes something I’d actively say I enjoy. A real tale of two halves, which unfortunately for me equates to a bad/not to my taste perfume. Again this seems crude like source, I’d actually say sun is probably the most refined but they all come off indy, and that’s because they are! But… I crave more for in excess of 200 quid a bottle.

I got the samples of these which refreshingly (to some annoyingly) don’t have any notes or materials listed. At first (and throughout actually) this is a very femme tropical fruity musk smelling fragrance, quite lovely but I feel a little too far out of my comfort zone. After twenty minutes or so it settles and I smell a kind of very ‘pink’ tuberose smell. It’s quite a lovely thing really but not to my taste.

So this composition, predominantly smells of frankinsense and benzoin to me. Not in the way that you might think, sharply sweet, but earthy and ‘churchy’ like an Avignon type thing…nor is it an ‘amber’ as such, a world apart from that infact. This is not sharp at all but I think if you’re familiar with these kinds of resin materials you’ll recognise this non atypical signature. The rest is almost a creamy, hand cream, nutty vetiver, with an excellent lightly smoky effect layered in. In many ways this feels indy and clumpy, not very refined, yet its complexity and prominent naturalism in its materials make me inherently really like it. I’m morbidly interested in its facets and it wears really nicely but it’s far from a pretty or elegant perfume. Noticed it goes on in a kind of slick of grease on my skin, which I don’t like but generally it’s better than anything I could ever make, yet it’s still reminscent of my own naive, perfumery fumblings.

WTF?!?! What? The? Actual…. ? Mate? Come on? You can’t do that! You can’t be brought on board at arguably one of the biggest fashion brands, to oversee and be entrusted to direct their frankly legendary perfume legacy, do NOTHING (pretty much 🤷🏼♂️ ) for the first few years, except rehash some half arsed tripe (I love Eau Noire but clearly no one else did) Don’t mess with Ambre Nuit, it’s arguably one of the best things to come from this Dior exclusive collection in my opinion. One of the most iconic, understated and original ambers, which granted, had gone a little downhill with reformulation, but this is a drastic move. Way to piss all over Demachy’s legacy, if you think he destroyed it himself before he retired (you maybe had a point) Kurkdjian has heard it’s death rattle, soundly slammed the coffin shut, and hammered in the final nail! It’s not all that bad this esprit Ambre nuit (haha you’d never have guessed it) my contention is the name, if you’re going to completely change it… call it something else!!! So ironically, this was instantly reminiscent of Demachy’s boozy, sweet rework of Fahrenheit, the parfum. Before you get at me for misleading you it’s DOESN’T smell LIKE it! The ‘vibe’ is just similar, immediate heft, the ‘weight’ of this perfume is similar and the sweet top notes, spices and booze conspire to give me this impression. It has a kind of Indian drink vibe, with the cinnamon and cardamom almost as it shitmixed with Dr Pepper or Coke or something? I like the opening, I really do, I was like wow! That’s (kinda) different (ish) but it’s NOT Ambre Nuit and yes you might say “make your mind up!” I know I said I didn’t want pale rehashes and at least Kurky has made something new here, but I can’t let it slide, Ambre nuit is iconic and shouldn’t be messed about with, if you’re gonna make a perfume which bears no resemblance to the original then call it something else for Christ’s sake won’t you? I’m normally pretty tolerant of reboots or a new perfumer coming onboard to interpret but there’s a line and this crosses that line for me. Plus, after an hour or so as it settled on my skin I became more and more annoyed by it and I have a high threshold with a lot of modern, aroma chemical screech, but even this was a little too irritating. I’m not just saying that to have some issue with this perfume either, it’s a real tale of two halves. Oud Ispahan has a similarly piercing and tenacious base but that somehow improves on skin, whereas this is unrelenting. In conclusion it’s worth a sniff if just to see what the hell Dior and Francis have been up to, but I feel Ambre Nuit fans will not embrace this iteration (obviously I could be wrong) and will feel as afront

Gotta say as egregiously priced, and pointless as these Esprit creations are, this is the best one. I feel at the very least it will be the saving grace of the collection, appealing to Oud Ispahan fans, of which I believe there’s many. Now, I don’t know how Oud Ispahan has changed over the years, I recall trying it when it came out and thinking it was a superior oud rose but haven’t given subsequent (I believe poor) reformulations a go to compare. However it was on a bandwagon with a million others and although it did shine with a clarity and eventual mass popularity which made it an icon, I wasn’t that interested in owning it. I’d compare it to Portrait of a Lady in that sense, I recognise it’s a HUGE and fragrance culturally important fragrance but it doesn’t massively interest me. Sorry. It’s that broad strokes ‘leathery’ animalic synth oud thing (which has never been so much as near an animal) and has that ‘opulent’ modern accord which smells expensive (and reassuringly IS!!!) and is extra tenacious (lasted a good day on my skin easy) So yeah I liked it, I have to say… As my Caledonian brothers and sisters would say “Yas can get tae fuck with £380!!!”

Quite an intense sweetie, Red berry rose perfume, smelled like they’ve amped up the base a little. I found the original pretty uninspiring and sadly this esprit (although better/stands out more) is much the same. Certainly for the price I’ve no doubt you can find something better elsewhere.

I have to give credit where it’s due, this is a superior and potent white floral fragrance. Lucky edp was notoriously light and such, this amps it up slightly and is exactly what you probably should expect from this version, if that’s what you want, then that is what this delivers. It’s nice, I like that the whole point of Lucky (to me at least) is that it’s uncomplicated, it’s all the pleasant stuff of things like jasmine without the ugliness/intrigue. I’m just less interested in that if I’m honest.

Bland opinions coming up on these esprits and perhaps the blandest being Gris Dior. Seemed like an odd choice considering they have Rouge Trafalgar and Oud Ispahan in this collection, overkill on the rose perfumes but hey ho! Jammy, fruity, full top notes on this one, all the things I don’t recall Gris Dior being in its edp format. I liked it but nothing massively stiring to me.