Anatolii Drogalov

Anatolii Drogalov

Feb. 16, 2026

5/5

5

Amouage, with its new fragrances, certainly remained true to its oriental theme, but the spirit of the previous creations by Christopher Chong seems to be lost. This is neither good nor bad, just a new stage in the development of this great house. After the release of Boundless and Material, I'm inclined to think it's truly an evolution. Chong always prioritized art over commerce, and I got used to Amouage being primarily about creativity, not profit. This, it seems, aligned with the ideas of Sayyid Hamad al bu Said at the beginning of the journey. Now, however, the focus seems to have shifted to profitability, but that doesn't mean the ideas and beauty of the compositions are lost. I'm increasingly drawn to Enclave and Meander, even though I used to criticize the brand's new releases. But after Boundless and Material, I realized that talking about Amouage's decline is foolish. These fragrances are truly beautiful. Material is a bold experiment by Cécile Zarokian, and Karine Vinchon, in whom I placed my hopes, almost entirely justified them. She created the legendary Interlude and brought out green wormwood in Memoir, and in Opus III, she played with floral elixirs. I resisted the charm of Boundless for a long time. At first, I perceived it as an expensive version of a tobacco-vanilla fragrance, but then, when it was given to me for New Year's, I decided to set aside my initial impressions and compare them with new ones. On the first sniff, everything matched: spice, vanilla, tobacco, but. it's done differently. Now, any tobacco-vanilla accord will be compared to the "father"; its influence is too great. But floral-aldehydic fragrances also remind us of those who left their mark in perfumery