New Fragrance Review: Amouage Blossom Love (Christopher Chong/Nathalie Lorson/Elise Benat) 2017 + A Breath of Spring Fragrance Draw

Photo of Cherry Blossoms in The Snow York New York Times©

“Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Is hung with bloom along the bough

And stands about the woodland ride

Wearing white for Eastertide…

And since to look at things in bloom

Fifty springs are little room,

About the woodlands I will go

To see the cherry hung with snow.”  The Loveliest of Trees – A. E. Housman

Blooming Sakura Reinaldo Irizarry ©

I am writing this review on the first day of spring, March 20, 2017.  This year, in the Pacific Northwest, we have already had more than our share of precipitation – at least forty days and forty nights of drenching rain.  But somehow I feel better about all the dampness just knowing that springtime will have officially arrived and very soon the plum and the cherry trees will be in bloom. In warmer climates, the almond trees, close relatives of cherries are just now losing their blossoms. This year, In Washington DC, the cherry blossoms should have been at their best between March 19th and March 22nd, except for the snow storm Stella, that froze the tender petals.

Risa Kojo

In 1912 Japan gave the first of these famous Capital cherry trees to the United State. More than three thousand trees were presented as gifts to honor diplomatic relations between the two countries. According to the U.S. National Park Service the cherry trees blooming in our nation’s capital  “symbolize friendship between nations, the renewal of spring and the ephemeral nature of life.”   Interestingly, the Samurai have historically used the cherry blossom as an emblem, the fallen flower symbolizing the fallen hero who sacrificed his life for the emperor. Even today, the iron fittings of Japanese swords are often decorated with cherries in bloom. My take on cherry blossoms is much more peaceful and romantic, devoid of nationalism and the militarization of aesthetics. 

BLOSSOM LOVE Amouage ©

I simply adore the fleeting and faint fragrances of the blossoms of almond trees, cherries, plum trees and their kin, and yes roses too, also relatives of these fruiting trees.  I am at once soothed and stunned by the beauty of their flowers in fluffy shades of white, pink, mauve and even deep purple. Blossom Love, the latest fragrance in the Amouage Secret Garden Series, features scents derived from cherry blossoms, cherries and almonds. The perfume resides in delicate, ultra feminine opaque pink curved bottles packaged in boxes replete with images of boughs of blooming cherries.  If it is true that  “Pink Is Love” then the new Amouage Blossom Love is love at first sight – and sniff – for me!

Photo Laura Kicey©

Blossom Love opens with a hint of powdery heliotrope, a bit of citrus and tangy cherry/almond. This first impression instantly blooms into intoxicating amaretto colored with rose. The effect is vibrant, mouth watering and ultra feminine.  The perfume is much more focused and fragrant than even the freshest of cherry blossoms. Christopher Chong, creative director of Amouage, worked with two women perfumers Nathalie Lorson and Elise Benat to create Blossom Love. The perfumers under the direction of Christopher, brought an unabashed femininity to the fragrance that is both comforting and seductive, more complex then I had imagined, unfolding like origami, layer by layer.

Corrie Bond ©

The rosy amaretto effect wears long and well. After about three hours on my skin, vanilla adds a new dimension to the cherries, amaretto and rose. Once again this phase is quite long lived, eventually drying into sandalwood, cashmeran and tonka bean.  Blossom Love is not a shy wallflower and certainly no shrinking violet. The sillage is effusive and the longevity is overnight; it blooms on the skin and continues to from dusk to dawn.  Blossom Love is a heady breath of spring and one I will turn to again and again all year long.

Notes: Cherry Blossom Nectar, Rose Liquor, Ylang Ylang, Amaretto Accord, Vanilla, Tonka Bean, Sandalwood and Cashmeran.

Disclosure:  Many thanks to Christopher Chong amd Amouage for the 30 ml sample of beautiful Blossom Love.  My opinions are my own.

Gail Gross- Editor

Art Director: Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

Thanks to the generosity of Christopher Chong and Amouage we have one 30ml special bottle of Blossom Love for one registered reader in the US, Canada or the EU (be sure to register or your comment will not count). To be eligible, tell us where you live, what appeals to you about the new Amouage Blossom Love from Gail’s review, if spring has sprung where you live and your favorite fragrance by Amouage. Draw closes 3/25/2017

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS feed…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.

  

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47 comments

  • Richard Potter says:

    I live in Washington, DC. We have been cheated of our cherry blossoms this year, whether due to winter storm Stella or the presence of our new Clown in Chief I can’t say. I would love some Blossom Love in my life. Thank you. Have fun at Esxence!

  • I recently tried this one at an Amouage counter in London. It was creamy, soft and seemed like it would last and last. That is my sort of summer fragrance. My favorite Amouage scent is Journey Man. I love the spicy scent.

    I live in the USA and I would love the chance to win this bottle. Thank you very much for doing the giveaway.

  • I love Gail’s review which is a compelling tale of a long-lasting blast of spring with unfolding layers of all my favourite notes. Therefore, in the absence of love in my life, i am hoping for a bottle of Blossom Love to ease the loneliness!
    I am registered and in the EU (UK) – Spring has arrived here and little plant shoots have appeared and some trees bear blossoms, Its still cold, but bright and hopeful with the days getting longer. I really enjoy Lilac Love and Opus III – my favourites from Amouage. Thank you for the draw.

  • My favourite Amouage is Gold Man, by far. So a pale pink floral would be a challenge and a change, but if anybody can convert me, amouage would.

  • Vanilla, rosy amaretto and cherries that bloom on the skin. Sounds great! Spring here is shy but the sun seems to be present more and more. I love Lyric woman!

    I am a reader from the EU! Thank you! Wish you all the best!

  • BethMongold says:

    I live in Colorado, USA. It has been like summer here! Strange…in the 70’s and 80’s. It’s beautiful and discomforting. I love ultra fem fragrances…rose and almond and vanilla sound so perfect for the warmer weather. My favorite Amouage scents are Lyric for Women and Beloved.

  • I was in love with Amouge Lilac Love
    And now this
    Unfolding like origami and smelling like being in love for the first time
    As always stunning art and loved learning about the samurai
    Live in Boston and it snowed a week or so ago

  • GrandmaGaga says:

    I am in the Desert Southwestern US and yes, Spring has sprung here but with temperatures the past few days close to 100! Warm enough for the allergens to bloom but not hot enough for them to ‘burn off’…kind of a miserable time here for a lot of us. My favorite Amouage is Gold for women. This sounds so much lighter, ‘pinker’ and I think I would love it as well. What I love about Amouage is what I call the ‘stories they tell’; long-lasting with a beginning, middle and end.

  • I live in New Hampshire, USA. Blossom Love really does sound like a nice fragrance. It would be lovely to wear it in the actual spring instead of the wintery spring we are having here. We will be having temps in the 30s again tomorrow:( I don’t think I have tried a fragrance by Amouage but I would love to!

  • Carol Webb says:

    I love how she said this is no shrinking violet with spillage and longevity. I struggle with scents – they seem to sink into my skin and not last long at all. I would love to win this and start to celebrate Spring!
    I’m in the US. Thanks!

  • although it is marketed towards women, it has notes I adore: amaretto, cherry, vanilla, sandalwood, tonka. the fact that it summons up spring in your mind I think is wonderful, and I would like to try it and wear it even if I have to do it in private, while at home. 🙂

    I live in Romania, EU. Spring is coming here in waves this year. My favourites from the men’s line are Ciel, Sunshine and Reflection!

  • I love Gail’s review! It made me want to rush outside and enjoy spring! However, I live in mid-Michigan and it’s mid 40’s , very breezy , and we don’t really have any evidence of spring yet….I still have a small ridge of snow along the driveway! But anyone who has spring: please, please, sniff a daffodil for me! I have almost all the ladies amouage scents…except Lilac Love , which should have been perfect for me, but somehow wasn’t. It’s very hard to select a favorite….I will never be without Beloved…and I’m currently infatuated with Bracken (wearing it right now). I love Amouage …please enter me in the drawing. Thanks to Cafleurebon & Christopher Chong for this fabulous give away!

  • My favorite Amouage is Epic Woman.

    Not sure about this one (Cherry Blossom Nectar, Amaretto Accord, Vanilla, Tonka Bean…) but if it’s different from “la petite robe noire” and its multiple variations, I can perhaps love it (or give it to someone if not)

    I live in the EU.

  • I have not experienced cherry blossom in fragrances. Actually, I have no idea how it smells lol. The powdery heliotrope sounds good, but the rosy amaretto sounds even better.

    No spring here. Still very cold during day and a bit windy and sometimes long sessions of rain… This Amouage would be a nice welcome to spring I think.

    I live in EU. Thanks for the draw!

  • I live in Canada and thank you for the draw!

    The amaretto accord sounds lovely and cherry blossom season is my favourite time of the year here on the west coast. Nothing says cherry spring more than a street under a canopy of delicate pink blossoms. I’ve said it before but will say again that my most beloved Amouage is the sadly missed Homage attar!

  • I am from the US and I love how Gail talks about the history of Cherry Blossom trees in the US and in Japan. I have always been a fan of th beautiful trees, they have several around my area in Philadelphia and they would make the street where my grandmother lives look so beautiful when the blossoms would fall from the trees like pink snow! Spring has started here and it is getting a little warmer, I have not had the pleasure of trying a Amouage fragrance but the cherry blossom nectar, vanilla, tonka bean and ameratto accord notes makes me want to dive into this frangrance! Thanks for the draw!

  • Elizabeth T. says:

    This sounds delectable. I’m in the midwest and we hardly had a winter this year, but I’m still thankful for spring. The daffodils are blooming (the ones that didn’t get frozen when we had a hard frost!) and the leaves are starting to bud out. No cherry blossoms yet, but we do have a young Yoshino cherry we planted a couple years ago that should be in bloom soon! Cherry and almond go so well together, so this fragrance really does sound delicious. Thank you for the review and for the draw!

  • ntabassum92 says:

    I am in the US, and a rosy almondy softly boozy fragrance sounds divine. I love soft, pink cloud fragrances, and this sounds like one of those. Spring has sprung where I live, I just saw some tulips out today, and I love it! Spring is my favorite season. My favorite fragrance by Amouage is Epic Woman 🙂

  • I own and love a few Amouage perfumes. My favourite is Jubilation XXV (man), but I also love Fate, Journey and Jubilation 25 (woman). This sounds very different from anything I’ve tried from the house before, and I’d love to try Christopher Chong’s cherry blossom.
    Cherry blossom is such a beautiful, transient thing. Coupled with the amaretto note, I imagine this could be unbelievably pretty. I often steer away from pretty scents, or very feminine ones, but Amouage always has something in the contrast and complexity that makes them wearable, and very grown up.
    Please include me for the draw. Canada please.

  • cardinalmind says:

    I live in Hayward, California, located in the East Bay area. Spring really has been in here, if you count the pouring rain as an indicator of spring.
    I’ve grown enamored by scenes of Cherry Blossoms blooming so beautifully but I haven’t seen one in person. That and how Ms. Gross vividly describe it seems like a perfect spring fragrance. If you’re from the tropics like me who doesn’t have a chance of seeing these gorgeous trees bloom, won’t you want to get something that can remind you of them?

    Thank you for your generosity and have a nice day!

  • I am visiting Washington DC for the Cherry Blossom festival.
    This perfume sounds perfect for that occasion.

    Tonka,Amaretto Accord, vanilla sounds amazing.
    I will love to try this.

    I am in USA

  • fazalcheema says:

    Gail’s review reveals it is inspired by Japanese sakura blossom culture as I suspected it. I didn’t know Japan first gave a cherry tree to US in 1912. This seems interesting though modern composition and quite different from early Amouage releases. Thanks for the draw. My favorite Amouage is original Amouage Gold for women. I am in the US.

  • I love all kinds of blossoms and their colors. My mother has a few different fruit trees in her garden and love to photograph and smell them in the spring. From the review, this sounds like something I’d like to smell on my wife.
    The spring has come here for about a week and I’m enjoying it a lot, I really was tired of the winter. My favorite Amouage is Dia Man. I live in EU.

  • This is a wonderful review! I suppose that Blossom Love is a fabulous perfume. From the review, I imagine that perfume as the perfect scent of spring. I very love the spring, and the scent of it. Thank you very much for the draw. I live in Europe.

  • I live in Georgia, USA. thanks for the opportunity to win this. To be honest the only cherry blossom I have smelled is bath and body works! And I have never smelled real cherry blossoms in full bloom. 🙁 so sad that the weather has affected them this year. I would love to smell this. I have always had a fascination for the connecting smells of cherries, and almonds. It seems it may have been done well and right in this fragrance composition. Living in Georgia, the fragrance profile of spring is different and usually doesn’t include cherry blossoms. Would be nice to switch it up this year with this fragrance! Thanks, again. 🙂

  • Hikmat Sher Afridi says:

    Thanks for the review! Celebration days started with the first wave of delicate blossoms of Cherry (Hanami). In short Amouage Blossom Love is a magnificent display of Hanami.
    My favorite from Amouage is Interlude and Jubilation Man.
    Thanks to the generosity of Christopher Chong & Amouage and Cafleurebon for the opportunity to participate in the draw by letting my relative address residing in NY.

  • MikasMinion says:

    I love the scent of fruit tree blossoms. We get them so seldom here in the too-hot South where they burn almost as soon as they open their crepe-paper petals. I would love to experience the Amouage interpretation.
    My favorite from the house is Epic, but I adore Jub 25, Memoir, Lyric, and Gold as well.
    We seem to have skipped both winter and spring here and have gone from late summer to early summer over the last few months. I’m in the US.

  • The cherry/almond appeals to the gourmand lover in me. I’ve recently bought a few fragrances with rose to try to branch out a bit. Amouage does amazing fragrances. I would love to try this. Spring is not here and doesn’t look like it is coming anytime soon. So happy to have plane tickets to Phoenix for spring break! I hope someone has spring.

  • I live in Canada and the new Amouge sounds like a lovely fragrance for spring.I live in Canada and the new Amouge sounds like a lovely fragrance for spring.

  • Fantastic review! Notes sound like something I would like. Today is a lovely spring day over here and it really felt as if spring has sprung,
    Thank you for the draw! I live in Europe.

  • This sounds like the perfect spring fragrance and I am waiting for the trees to blossom as the spring has just begun. It’s always a pleasure to see them and especially those cherry trees have some nice color in them. My favorite Amouage is Dia Man. I’m in the EU.

  • beangrower says:

    Writing from Philadelphia- ‘unfolding like origami” has me intrigued. I am so ready for spring and for a new spring fragrance!

  • Cherry blossoms are pretty and have a lovely scent and i like heliotrope very much also, so a perfume that has both AND is a fragrance for spring must have been made for me. It’s still pretty wintry here and I need spring. Unfortunately I have yet to find a love among the Amouage that I have tried. Ilive in the USA.

  • Kathleen Smith says:

    I adore Amouage Fate, Lyric, and Lilac Love. I look forward to experiencing Blossom Love and a creating by Christopher Chong. I also love cherry blossoms and have beautiful photographs of the blossoms in Japan. This sounds perfect for a spring scent.

  • What a wonderful combination of notes! I don’t think I’ve ever smelled a perfume that contained Amaretto in it! I’ve never owned any perfumes from Amouage. This would be the perfect one to start with!
    I live in New York and Spring peeked its head out a week or so ago (3/9) and we had temperatures in the high 60’s/low 70’s. Then 4 days later, we had a blizzard! This past Monday was in the 50’s and now it’s in the 30’s again. I can’t wait for the weather to become stable again and for us to have some consistent warmer days.

  • Iuno Feronia says:

    Unfortunatly the blossoms are not blooming yet here in Vienna, but I hope they will soon. I love to ambulate through blloming gardens. The perfume sounds perfect for spring.

    Thanks for the draw, I live in the EU!

  • Powdery heliotrope? with ylang-ylang, sandalwood—— This is a MUST try for me! I am sure Amouage has put the best to create a wonderful powdery perfume! I love the most part of perfumes by this house, difficult to say just one favourite but if I should chose one I would say Lyric Woman (Dia w comes later!).
    I am travelling tomorrow to Milano to Esxence….I hope to find a perfume shop there to smell this new Amouage asap.
    I live in Europe. Thanks-

  • Julie Lacroix says:

    Thank you for the amazing opportunity. I live in Canada and I don’t think I ever smelled real cherry blossom. I adore spring. Here in Quebec, Spring means maple water 🙂 I am so curious of the composition of sweet almond-tonka and floral. I adore Amouage fragrances. This one sounds very interresting to me.

  • Especially the rose liquor and cherry blossom sound wonderful to me. I think Amouage’s attars are extraordinary. I’ m in EU. Thank you!

  • This just sounds like the perfect springtime fragrance! I used to live on the Northwest Coast, so cherry blossoms have a special place in my heart. I have so many sultry, rich perfumes, I’ve really been craving an unabashedly light, feminine perfume now that the weather has started to change. Spring hasn’t quite arrived yet where I live, but there have been a few beautiful days. I can’t wait! I live in Canada, thank you.

  • Here in the southwest US we are experiencing spring with cool sunny days, sometimes rain, blossoming trees, and blooming flowers, especially dandelions. I love the smell of all of them, especially the fruit tree blossoms with that gently sweet, slightly bitter, almond-heliotrope fragrance Gail describes so beautifully. Blossom Love sounds like a delicious complement – amaretto! – to the outdoor scents of spring. I haven’t yet worn an Amouage fragrance. Thank you for the delightful review and the generous draw.

  • Spring has sprung in London, all the cherry/ almond / plum and other pink blossom trees as well as the gorgeous magnolias are in full bloom. Cherry blossoms are so delicate and frail, so beautiful and light, I just love them! I would love to try this interpretation of the lovely blooms!

  • Thank you dear Gail for the interesting historical references about the cherry tree and the way it came in the USA from Japan as a diplomatic present for the strengthening of those two nations relations.
    The whole review from its start till the very end makes me want to try this masterpiece from Amouage House.
    The part that I find highly interesting is the part that mentions the notes and the interplay that follows and makes Amouage Blossom Love irresistible:

    ‘The rosy amaretto effect wears long and well. After about three hours on my skin, vanilla adds a new dimension to the cherries, amaretto and rose. Once again this phase is quite long lived, eventually drying into sandalwood, cashmeran and tonka bean.  Blossom Love is not a shy wallflower and certainly no shrinking violet. The sillage is effusive and the longevity is overnight; it blooms on the skin and continues to from dusk to dawn.  Blossom Love is a heady breath of spring and one I will turn to again and again all year long.’
    My favourite Amouage is Fate for woman and Sunshine for Men.
    Spring has sprung in Greece, where I live in Athens the temperature today has risen up to 23 degrees Celsius, with sunshine all day long and full Nature’s blossoming

    Thank you dear Cafleurebon & Christopher Chong for the amazing and so generous giveaway!

  • Genrally when I read Cherry Blossom in the notes I tend to shy away as fast as I do with Muguet, however the notes in this one seem really appealing and make me think that maybe this is a little bit of a gourmand take to which I say welcome 🙂 and rosy amaretto sounds delicious to me. I am in the US and would love the opportunity to be able to try this.

  • doveskylark says:

    I used to live in Tokyo and I will never forget the blossoming of thousands of cherry trees all over the city. Oh, they are a stunning sight. Most of them are white. Like snow. They don’t really have a scent–or do they? It’s like the scent of snow. Falling snow has a scent, doesn’t it? There’s something soft in the air. Something so ethereal and so very fleeting.
    I am in Sao Paulo, Brazil for work now. It’s autumn here, but it’s really spring-like. They call Sao Paulo the city of drizzle. The soft rain has a fragrance, doesn’t it?
    I live in the USA.

  • It’s beautiful, except the sandalwood note makes it tough for me to wear – on me sandalwood is the sourest, weirdest note ever and it comes up front and center on this otherwise lovely perfume. I’m going to have to give away the luscious sample I just bought.