Don’t forget to enter this weeks GIVEAWAY COMPETITION!.<<JUMP

.

Post by Portia

.

Hi Crew,

You know how you love some brands, always try them even though the notes don’t really look like they’re going to suit you or if their last few releases were lovely but not quite you? I like to try everything Amouage release because, well, Dia, Gold, Lyric, Interlude and Ubar. Sometimes I worry that the Library Collection are a bit too high brow for me but…

Library Collection Opus IX by Amouage 2015

Library Collection Opus IX by Pierre Negrin and Nathalie Lorson

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica Gives these featured accords:
Top: Camellia, jasmine, black pepper
Heart: Guaiac wood, leather, beeswax
Base: Vetiver, ambergris, civet

Christopher Chong has based this scent on the story of star crossed lovers in La Traviata, based on La Dame Aux Camélias by Alexander Dumas. Particularly with the lead role played by Maria Callas in Lisbon 1958. Poor Maria Callas, seduced from keeping her voice pristine by becoming one of the most popular party girls of the ultra rich tycoons and entertainment industry of her time. From Wikipedia: The press exulted in publicizing Callas’s allegedly temperamental behavior… rivalry with Renata Tebaldi and her love affair with … Aristotle Onassis. …her artistic achievements were such that Leonard Bernstein called her “the Bible of opera” and her influence so enduring that, in 2006, Opera News wrote of her: “Nearly thirty years after her death, she’s still the definition of the diva as artist—and still one of classical music’s best-selling vocalists.”

“Lady Loch” Photo Stolen Ashwood Nurseries

Mum loved camellias, our house was surrounded by both the japonica and sasanqua varieties and it meant the garden had flowers right through winter because different camellias flower at different times. We would pick the perfect newly opened flowers in the early morning by twisting the flower off the bush and Mum had a few shallow crystal bowls that we would float them in all around the house. We had about 20 different flowers and I loved them all, but I don’t remember them having any scent, except the wet green sharp smell of cutting their branches when we pruned the hedges.

Photo Stolen Wallpapers

So, Opux IX? How does it smell for me? Green, woods and peppery and really clearly fragrant, it takes a while for the excitement of the open to recede and then a velvet smooth jasmine steals in: jasmine, smoke and honey that is animalic and a little breathy. Fresh breath though, clean mouth, maybe after drinking a big glass of cold water. We use the Enjo wood wax on our dining table and Opus IX has a similar luxurious balmy smell as the feeling 2 days after waxing the table feels. From arms length though Opus IX is pure jasmine with amber-ish overtones.

I do not get a heart of cacophony as other reviewers have, Opus IX melts into my skin and throws me sweetly honeyed woods and resins with soft rises as other notes come and go: the dry, salt and oily facets of vetiver, animalics that are inextricably linked with the honey in a healthy smelling purr: no poo, sweat, urine or hair in particular. A wash of warmth, those first sexy moments as you undress someone and you smell them, their laundry, their fragrance and their desire all at once for the very first time, intoxicating.

Photo Stolen Flickr

I’m not the only fan of Opus IX, both TinaG and Scott have tried in on their skin with similar gasps of pure fumie pleasure. This is a winner.

Further reading: Colognoisseur and Non Blonde. You want the full story? Alembicated Genie
Libertine Parfumerie has $418/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml

Do you have a fragrance house that is ALWAYS on your try list? Which one and why?
Portia xx