The Odyssey Collection
Chapter ⅠⅠ: liberation
AMOUAGE TAKES A LIBERATING VOYAGE INTO A ‘BOUNDLESS’ WORLD WITH INTANGIBLE ‘MATERIAL’
A journey into a sensory kaleidoscope, Amouage has unveiled its latest creations; Boundless and Material. Together they plunge deep into a synaesthetic fantasy, painting humankind’s awakening to the novelty of pure existence, consumed with the joy of a newfound liberation, free from any prejudice or discrimination.
Masterfully brought to life by perfumers Karine Vinchon-Spehner and Cécile Zarokian under the creative direction of Renaud Salmon, Boundless and Material embody the power of liberation as an evergreen force and an enjoyment of every second to its fullest. “Boundless and Material are traditional woody-spicy-ambery creations, reminiscent of early personal olfactive memories of a time when the apparent lightness of life brought us simple pleasures that shaped our happiness,” explains Salmon. “They offer our senses fragrances where natural materials are showcased with rare purity and abundance to echo the life-bringing energy of liberation.”
“Boundless and Material are an initiatory journey that explores the depths of the soul through the most intimate of senses, the sense of smell, giving back perfume its profoundly mystical dimension”
“They offer our senses a more visceral and primeval discovery where natural materials are showcased with rare purity and abundance to echo our deepest aspirations. This new olfactory universe responds to the strangeness of our time where the gradual forsaking of all certainty will eventually lead to finding the fragrance of truth.”
RENAUD SALMON
FOCUS ON VANILLA
Native to the Americas and wild-harvested by the Totonac tribe since centuries, Vanilla was revered as the material symbol of love, here on Earth, its complex aroma - a web of pure vanillin, phenolic creosol, smoky guaiacol and fruity methyl-salicylate- representing the duality of passion and the sacrificial nature of loving another more than oneself.
Due to its prohibitively high cost, the Vanilla used in perfumery nowadays is mostly vanillin, an aldehyde naturally occurring in vanilla pods and responsible for its unmistakably sweet fragrance, either processed from guaiacol or lignin, the same lignin used to make paper and which over time degrades into vanillin, explaining the oddly comforting “old book” smell.
Thus, Renaud Salmon chose natural Vanilla as the main player in the scent of Liberation, an energy as delectably ravishing and passionately bold as love itself... here dually expressed in Boundless and Material. For Boundless, Karine Vinchon-Spehner chose to work with a rare Bourbon Vanilla CO2 Extract as its aroma, in comparison to the Vanilla Absolute, sits closer to that of a fresh vanilla pod. For Material, Cécile Zarokian opted for a Madagascar Vanilla Absolute highlighting its darker and boozier facets as a way to show us that Vanilla is everything but “vanilla”.
