Aroma M Amber Rouge – Amber Heat

This perfume is a modification of Geisha Rouge, fundamentally changed by the addition of a vintage Moroccan amber accord.  I have written before about Geisha Rouge, the strong cinnamon/carnation heat it generates on the skin, and how it develops from a fiery beginning, to dry down balanced by its incense-wood-vanilla base.

In Amber Rouge an amber accord that can hold its own casts a warm, mellowing, candlelight glow over the strength of the base perfume.  All the power of the Geisha Rouge version is wedded to an enveloping, seductive form of heat.  The fire is now radiance.

I definitely feel like a warm blooded animal wearing this one. It  has a real throw of singular beauty, stronger and more distinctive than most perfumes these days, and complex so that what others get at the distance of sillage is warm amber cinnamon sandalwood and vanilla but come in close for the true powerful heat of the ambered clove. 

 Toward the end of a long day I noticed it coming up from my skin, still, and notes that were almost floral in their grace were (but not floral at all, there are no floral notes) hanging in the stillness of the air around me.  As the fire becomes a glow over time, the warmth becomes relaxing.  The light touch of star anise keeps it fresh, and lifts it so it is not a heavy perfume, strong as it is.  The sensitive complexity holds it firmly within the realms of sophistication.

This is not a shy perfume, it reminds me of certain aspects of vintage Opium, and even with its strength it has the kind of beauty that those around you who are not normally fans of perfume can relate to.  I have received compliments wearing this perfume from those who generally don’t notice or at least don’t mention the perfumes I’ve worn. That may be because the elements of spice and vanilla are there.  The amplified amber and the glowing radiance caused by the underlying fragrance are what excite me about it. 

I feel the mood for travel to exotic places and a different culture's sense of beauty is being introduced into the Aroma M Japanese Geisha theme.

I find it almost unbelievable that for thousands of years wildly disparate regions were touched by traders bringing aromatic spices and perfumes by caravan, who basically walked, rode and sailed many thousands of miles because of every culture's insatiable desire for beautiful and aromatic substances. I wish I could time travel and participate in the caravans that brought spices and perfume materials across the continents.  That experience of slow travel and seeing the whole ancient world while carrying a  luxury cargo of beautiful materials must have been profoundly exciting.

The sense of pleasure in the refinement of feminine beauty remains the same.  I know that Maria Mcelroy of Aroma M traveled to Morocco last summer and spent time with the perfume materials suppliers and sellers. She is deliberately reaching into the tradition and lore of how precious perfume materials were carried on the  Silk Road routes that stretched from Japan to the Mediterranean and so brings it to us now in the present.

A Young Lady Reclining After a Bath
Leaf from the Read Persian Album
Herat (Afghanistan), 1590s
By Muhammad Mu’min
MS M.386.5. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1911

 I suggest a little Arabesque flavored trance music to get something of the mood of the perfume:  

Invaders of the Heart/Jah Wobble: Yalili Ya Aini

Abdul el Karim:  Haschisch

Perfume available at the Aroma M site and at Luckyscent