Sorry, the scheduling piece of the blog decided to sleep in this morning.
Did everyone who celebrates it have a nice Christmas? Mine was lovely and quiet and weird. But those are the best kind.
Speaking of weird. Well, not really weird, weirdly interesting. I got a teensy drop of the Amouage Al Shomukh Attar.
For those of you that like your ouds to smoke – pitch, tar, leather, vetiver, burning souls, pitchforks, demons and other things that go bump in the night – well, hurry up and get some before they break the first four seals and the Four Horsemen show up.
It does settle into a pretty hot smoky leather after 30 minutes or so, but that only smooths out some of the rough edges and makes it run a little hotter. The Davana takes it out of all smoke and leather, which is a nice, light touch in an otherwise fairly outspoken scent. The musk in it is fairly animalic, but with the strong smokiness, it doesn’t feel quite as bloomer’ish as it could, but you certainly do notice that you are discharging some Grade-A smuttiness as you move through space.
Out of all the Amouage attars, it’s not my favorite to wear regularly, but it’s incredibly interesting and has been my favorite just to sniff for all the changes and angles it has. Tribute is taking all the love for me as my go-to uber-expensive attar. Al Shomukh doesn’t seem as loud as Tribute in terms of sillage. Tribute leaves a devastating wake as you walk. Shomukh just keeps telling you you’re already in the handbasket, you might as well have a good time on the trip down.
Patty, I got my Tribute Attar sample. Thank you SO much. I plan to wear it on New Year party.
Mmmmm… Tribute. Interesting relationship I have with him. When I get up in the morning, he is just home from work. His greasy work boots on my kitchen table… blowing cigarette smoke in my face. I have to ignore him or I’ll hate him. But later, after he’s napped… he showers and combs his hair then sneaks up behind me and nibbles my neck with spicy goodness. I melt. I’m his. I’ve promised him he’s the only attar for me. 😉
This is the one that makes you cock your eyebrows behind my back.
Musette popped a bit of this on the back of my hand a couple of days ago, didn’t tell me what it was, and I got that it was an Amouage (rather, something like “mmm, it’s all dense like an Amouage”), but here’s something that is just now striking me as weird: It didn’t haunt me. I mean literally, it didn’t hang around for a long time, reminding me it was there. I have Jube 25 (a travel size that was a fluke good deal), and a precious vial from this Perfumed Court outfit ;), but Tribute did not camp out like those two do. On me. The back of my hand. I know, wrist could be better/different, but I’ve gotten good mileage out of others there. So now, of course, *I* am wondering wth, and will be begging another hit to see if I don’t have a different experience.
Which is going to be more about the thrill of the hunt than any “kill,” because I doubt I’ll be bagging this one at that price. I’m still in the Blinders Are On to the Money I Waste on “Bargains” and Gathering a Library of Scent stage, though it’s interesting how these stages are not discreet. Because I have also hit the I’m Dead Set on Culling and Eliminating That Which is Cr#% (at Least to Me), Even If I MIght Throw Away My Future Nose’s Treasure stage. Too much stuff. In ‘fume and overall. Purge and cull, cull and purge.
Hoping to someday soon reach the I Could Caravan Across Europe With the Money I Squeeze From Different Budget Categories and Pretend I Don’t Spend on Perfume So I’m Just Going to Get What Is Really Good and Will Be Used stage. I have seen it, but it eludes my solid grasp… :)>-
Oops…silly bad English teacher…by “the one,” I meant the post/comment, not the perfume. l-)
And the precious vial is of Lyric Woman. And while I’m at my corrections, I’ll mention I have a vial of Gold, too, which also lingers. Methinks I am all to successfully relaxing during this holiday season… ;))
Shelley I’ve been the same, reading about all these fascinating-sounding scents that I can never test because I live too far from the city department stores to go and spritz! Not to mention all the wonderful stuff that will never make it to Aus. However, I am now forcing myself to sample things from TPC before I impulsively hit the buy button on international sites!
Actually Amouage makes me think there is still the galaxy somewhere far away that gave us Mitsouko trying to communicate….
Huh, I’m baffled why it isn’t lasting the same on everyone, but will chalk it up to the normal perfume flibbertygibbetishness. I just figured Attars might be more reliable that way, but no.
These are the Harrods-exclusive ones right?
The only one I know is Hommage..a very exotic looking(and very kind)SA at Harrods gave me a few drops to try…a real beauty (the perfume,not the guy).I did expect more sillage but it was one of these compulsively-wrist-smelling scents..Ahhh..those other 2 look sooooooooo good…but maybe this one’s a bit too much smoke and too much wild animal,huh?
I recently got a sample set of their “normal” scents…at first sniff..I thought..pfff..nothing sooo special. Well, at second sniff I’m seeing the beauty of Gold (very no 5 right??),of Jubilation (mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh!) and of some of the masculines.But,oh,that price tag..weep,weep!
I desperately want to be a good girl in 2010..no spending money on perfume..but..these kind of reviews make it soooo hard!
:((
I think so. Or Selfridges?
homage stayed close to me, too. I love it, but it’s a skin scent. Tribute wafts. Shomuhk is somewhere between, though I haven’t verified with other people how much I’m wafting in it.
My Favorite other Amouage non-Attar is Lyric Women. Ack, that spiced rose just haunts me.
I’ll happily get stoned with you, Musette…I don’t get the As, either.
They smell okay, but more like something I’d like my home to smell like, not my person, and are certainly well out of my home-fragrance budget.
well, I am smoking something :(|), thinking this was a flyaway scent.
this stuff is STRONG LIKE 3:-o
One schmear of Tribute around 11:45a. I could clear a room right now!
But it’s still not the one for me, beautiful though it is. Tammy, I’ll still be your stoning partner – it would make a fantabulous room spray, wouldn’t it? Oh, to be a sultana!
xo >-)
that sounds like Tribute. 🙂 it’s not shrinking violet, that’s for sure. I had no idea it would be like that until I started moving around about 30 minutes later. I still don’t like pressing my nose to the skin to smell it. It’s far, far better in the waftage.
Miss Patty –
Glad to hear your Christmas was good, if weird (aren’t they all? they are if you are in my fambly)
I am sure I will be stoned to near-death for this but: (ahem) I just don’t ‘get’ the Amouages. I understand the attraction but on/for me they just seem sort of weirdly generic. It could be that something in there is shutting down my already wonky sinuses but after about 20 minutes I get next to nothing. Even Tribute, which I bought (sample) on your review, just fell flat. An initial burst of a lovely rose then……/:)
It might just be my sinuses. I could be wafting all over the place and not even know it! 😮
xoxoxo >-)
Glad you had a good/weird Christmas, Patty! Love the review but I haven’t tried this either yet, though if it is a “knicker perfume” then that can only be a good thing.
Talking of which, I received 2 bottles of vintage Bal today, still in boxes and utterly pristine, but pretty old. Hurray!
Has the font changed on this blog for everyone or is it just me?
The font hasn’t changed for me, but this is the first time I’ve been able to get on the blog in weeks. I’ve tried a variety of computers and network connections. Suddenly, today, poof! I’m back on. I’ve missed you all!
Well, I’m glad you finally got back! But whatever fixed you broke our timed posting thingie. I think it was a WordPress update. Maybe next update will fix us both. 🙂
Well, it didn’t fix me completely. I’ve only been able to get on intermittently. And usually I have to completely delete my browsing history each time I want to get on. Frustrating! :((
OOOh I got vintage Bal too! To think I wore this years ago to work as a secondary teacher! Fortunately I was in charge of Creative and Performing Arts so I suppose everyone accepted it as just one more bit of eccentricity from the Art faculty! Oh how I loved it in the morning when the ladies would all turn up with their perfumes on, Poison, Opium, Paris, Shalimar, can you believe I still remember what each of those wonderful women wore???
Well, less knicker, more smoke. Like smokey knickers. Hey, that Christmas Day underpants bomber may have smelled like that! 🙂
Love the vintage Bal.
I finally tested a bit of Tribute at Aedes. It went pretty smoky/leathery on me after an initial tiny burst of rose. Then it wafted lots of tobacco, leather and vetiver at me for the next, oh, six hours or so, with just a teensy hint of floral peeking out from behind all of that smokiness. What did you call it? A diesel fragrance? Yup, pretty much. Pretty hot. I had to leave the store before I whipped out the Visa card impulsively.
So, comparison-wise, is Al Shomukh more animalic? It sounds like another one that I would really like, if not love.
Just six hours? Huh. 🙂 Tribute lasts on me for 12-16.
Yup, Al Shomuhk is more animalic and smokier, if that’s possible. But not more smoky, but rougher smoke. Tar, creosote, pitch. I happen to like all of those.
I think they’re both great, I’d just wear them for different things. The Tribute I really have to be careful on. One drop really does permeate auditoriums. Shomuhk seems to cling closer, at least I think it does. I’m afraid to test it.
Yes, six hours, but I only put the tiniest bit on and, my skin eats fragrance. I think that it would have lasted longer if I had put more on.
That said, the only fragrance that has lasted on me for 12 hours was a scrubber, Mercier Minuit Enchante. I know that a lot of people love this one, but it was cloyingly sweet on me. It chased me around for about 15 hours, despite futile attempts at washing it off. Shoulda tried sandpaper.
Patty–Tribute faded pretty quickly on me, too. I kept at it, thinking that it was a fluke, since you had such a nice looong cuddle with it, but it faded even faster on me than on Melissa. I didn’t get major sillage, either. Homage goes for at least 24 hours, and in that period has changed its clothes, combed out its hair, and put on a new pair of heels at least six times, and I didn’t have that happen with Tribute like you did. That said, what it DID do was rock while it lasted. Al Shomuhk…I’ve got my eye on you…$-)
Really? I must amplify it because it lasted forever and telegraphed to everywhere. The Shoukh didn’t last as long on me, though it wasn’t short-lived either.
I’m already in that handbasket, apparently. I am loving my precious Tribute attar. Dare I try more?
Yes, of course youd should dare, Jarvis! The Shomukh is smokin’ hot, it’s just a weird different angle than the Tribute, which I found to be more in the beautiful realm. Shomuhk is in the chest-heaving, bodice-ripping realm
Am avoiding all Amouage attars on the wallet principle. Love reading about them, though.
“Already in the handbasket” – see, now THIS is why I love your reviews, P.
I don’t blame you. They are ridiculous. But to be fair, when I’ve gone to Arabian Oud and Al Quarashi, their aged ouds, on their own, run a lot for a tollah, which is like 3-4 mls, depending on how old they are. Some in the hundreds, and I think one in the thousands.
If they didn’t smell so good, the Amouages, I’d have an easier time resisting. 🙂
Oh, I wouldn’t call anyone to task for buying them – by nearly all accounts, they’re wunderbar. I’ll just enjoy them vicariously!
G’day! Sleeping in is very, very good :d/
Must try Tribute….Homage went extremely citrusy on me, no thanks…:((
This sounds smokey beyond even my limits. And I like smoke 8-|
I think the Al Shomuhk has your name written all over it, probably more so than the Tribute, but I could be wrong!
Patty,
Thanks for the review. I have a tiny sample of Tribute on the way, but it has been hard to resist the Molook Attar…I love ambergris. How did you like that one? Is it very masculine?
Merry Christmas!
I haven’t gotten my hands o the Molook attar. Is that the one that’s even more than the others? Ack!!! I love them all so far, it’s just deadly for my bank account. But I have like a teensy bit ina vial of the Shomukh, and I swear I could get like 20 wearings out of it.