It's Saturday, I don't have to work, or meet anyone, or pretend to be Mr-Grey-Accountant-I-am-a-cedar-and-icky-synthetic-amber-Man (not that I do anyway), so today I pulled out my samples of Amouage and decided to wear Gold (for da Laydees) and Ubar.
Gold is good and powerful. Like a lot of the earlier Amouage fragrances, it isn't for the faint hearted. Described as a floral oriental, to me it may start quite floral and pushy, but dries down to a quality and sophisticated blend of sandalwood and incense, albeit still quite floral. I've seen this one described often as 'old lady like' and while I can sort of see why (I was surprised that this was released in 1983, according to Basenotes. Can this really be, or is Gold in the 21st century a reinterpretation of the original, bearing in mind likely reformulations anyway?) I don't personally think it smells that dated but irrespective, lets put it this way - this is no fruity floral circa 2011, thankfully.
As for Ubar, I think I actually prefer it to Gold. It is slightly sweeter, with a stronger green note, with Lily of the Valley. After this, a prominent rose note comes to the fore, not miles removed from the Lyric Note, but yet not the same either. The dry down is rich, with a hint of animalic, and still fairly sweet, but not cloying. The listed notes include civet and vanilla. A perusal of the top and base notes, including civet, vanilla, bergamot and lemon could lead one to think this might bear a resemblance to Shalimar, but actually it turns out to be a very different beast indeed.
As a man, while I find these fairly feminine, I didn't feel uncomfortable wearing them, but having said that, the grey accountant in me couldn't really see myself wearing this to a board meeting!
