Amouage Meander courtesy of Amouage©

Across a deep green valley, the fog rolls silently across the rushy forest floor, obscuring the sun and the path you travelled but ten minutes ago. Before are hills that undulate in an eternal rhythm of rain patter and leaf stir, the wild calls of birds and the rush of water somewhere nearby. Amouage Meander, part of the new Renaissance Collection, evokes the lush green plains surrounding the Omani city of Salalah during monsoon season, when the arid desert air is finally soothed, becoming thick with the wet smell of vegetation and rain spattered leaf, of clouds of mist hanging heavy and low, of muddy ground and the sun gleams weakly through its gauzy veil.

Plateau of Dhofar by Maria Sanchez Fernandez for Amouage, image via Amouage©

Meander is to wander, but this poetic word also describes the bends and twists of a river, and in Amouage’s fragrance, the smell of wetness is always close IFF perfumer Mackenzie Reilly’s composition. Reilly describes how she used both the resin and oil of the Boswellia tree (and also known as frankincense) in tandem with vetiver and balsamic, smoky cypriol to evoke the sense of brume: “I chose to paint a contradiction between lush green vegetal notes and warm dry desert dust: fog and smoke; real and unreal. Two different qualities of olibanum, an oil and a resinoid, lend the precious incense signature the fragrance carries throughout its development.”

Mackenzie Reilly of IFF kindly provided by Mackenzie Reilly

The principal aromas of vegetation and incense move out swiftly but fluidly and then draw slowly back, like a cast fishing line. As the minutes pass, other notes peek through; pungent black, and fruity pink, pepper; orris, chilly and papery, and an intensely nutty note. They announce themselves and then each gradually recedes. As time goes on, I sense of pattern of movement in Meander which befits its name: incense, water and vegetation move in and out of each other as if finding their way along different paths before returning to each other.

 

Salalah, Oman, image via Daily Mail

Where its beginning brings an imagined aroma of brume, Meander’s middle summons realistic smell of fallen rain in the forest: thick leaves speckled with droplets, rooty, fresh-pulled carrot, damp tree bark, wet tree nuts. As these notes filter out through each other sandalwood emerges and begins to dominate the fragrance, lending its characteristic mellow creaminess and joining with the black pepper and vetiver to enhance the Meander’s woody center. As it amplifies, the sandalwood whirls around the incense and smoky-rooty notes in a slowed-down hora, billowing out then folding in. The interplay between incense, vegetation and sandalwood continues throughout the rest of Meander’s development until the sandalwood takes charge and the vetiver-cypriol accord and olibanum move back.

In its dry-down, Meander settles chiefly into sandalwood and vetiver. But still, water is everywhere.  Deep in the verdant overgrowth, a water spirit laughs as it flows over the rocks and roots that break its fall, and morning fog cloaks the grasses and flowers that push through new soil. Meander’s plants and woods linger in their smudgy grey-green weald, and the sun just begins to cut the haze.

Notes: Olibanum Oil, Carrot Heart, Pink Pepper CO², Black Pepper Oil, Orris, Rose Absolute, Cypriol, Jonquille Absolute, Olibanum Resinoid, Vetiver Oil, Sandalwood Oil.

Disclaimer: Bottle of Amouage Meander generously provided by Eden Square, U.S. distributor for Amouage. My opinions are my own.

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

courtesy of Amouage USA

Thanks to the generosity of Euro Perfumes the USA distributor, we have a 100 ml tester bottle of Amouage Meander for one registered reader in the U.S. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about Amouage Meander based on Lauryn’s review and what your favourite Amouage perfume is. Draw closes 12/26/2020.

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