Pen & Perfume: Visconti And Amouage

September 12, 2015

I have quite a substantial perfume collection - roughly as many bottles as I have fountain pens - and it occurred to me that if Montblanc was the undisputed Chanel of the FP world, then Visconti was probably the Amouage.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f391/thegrynne/FountainPenNetwork/L1200953_zpsuutlpb2p.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f391/thegrynne/FountainPenNetwork/L1200940_zpsdwa5iskb.jpghttp://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f391/thegrynne/FountainPenNetwork/L1200930_zps7wiltrh8.jpg

Top: Amourage Epic Woman, Visconti Kaleido Voyager Amber

Middle: Amouage Gold Woman, Visconti Fiorenza Lava LE

Bottom: Amouage Jubilation XXV, Visconti Opera Crystal

Taken with a Leica X2

Edited September 12, 2015 by fireofspring

September 12, 2015

Nice photos. Were they all taken with natural light?

September 12, 2015

Nice photos. Were they all taken with natural light?

Yes, it was the afternoon light. The photos were cropped, but not retouched.

September 12, 2015

Lovely! Have you seen the BBC documentary on perfume? It's wonderful. I got it on YouTube. Alas, they did not mention Amouage. Which Amouage is your favorite?

September 12, 2015

Lovely! Have you seen the BBC documentary on perfume? It's wonderful. I got it on YouTube. Alas, they did not mention Amouage. Which Amouage is your favorite?

I've seen on YT the documentary that the BBC did with Luca Turin - are you referring to that? If I remember, that documentary was made in the early 1990s (1994 maybe?), and Amouage would only have been a young perfume house at the time (they were established in 1983), so it wouldn't have been surprising that they didn't mention it.

My favourite Amouage (and I don't pretend to have tried them all) is probably Epic Woman. It's an incredibly opulent floriental, with strong dose of one of my favourite notes in perfumery - pink pepper.

September 13, 2015

No, it was not the one with Luca Turin, but I am glad you told me about that. I am going to see it, Dr. Turin is one of my favorites. This is a different one and I think it was done in 2013 or so. It features Christopher Brosius, Ellena, and more. The whole thing is quite interesting. Talks about marketing in Brazil, scandals in France, the changes in the scent of a city, and more.

September 13, 2015

No, it was not the one with Luca Turin, but I am glad you told me about that. I am going to see it, Dr. Turin is one of my favorites. This is a different one and I think it was done in 2013 or so. It features Christopher Brosius, Ellena, and more. The whole thing is quite interesting. Talks about marketing in Brazil, scandals in France, the changes in the scent of a city, and more.

I haven't seen that one! I'll have to check it out.

BTW the Luca Turin documentary is less about perfume, and more about Turin's theory of olfaction (he's a physicist and biochemist by training).

Edited September 13, 2015 by fireofspring

September 13, 2015

Yea, didn't he write the original "Perfume Guide"? Kind of got the ball rolling. We live in interesting times.

September 13, 2015

Yea, didn't he write the original "Perfume Guide"? Kind of got the ball rolling. We live in interesting times.

Yep, he and Tania Sanchez co-wrote the extremely influential "Perfumes: The A-Z Guide". Turin clearly has an amazing nose and a way for describing scents. He also used to keep a perfume blog, but stopped about 10 years ago. Another professional perfume reviewer, Chandler Burr, wrote a fascinating book about Turin, his perfume writing and his scientific work called "The Emperor of Scent". Also check out this TED talk Turin gave.

Edited September 13, 2015 by fireofspring