Inside An Oman Factory Where The World's Most Expensive Perfumes Are Made
Muscat:
You can bet on its sillage in a room full of your Chanels and YSLs. The dark, sexy oud is complemented by the romance of frankincense and myrrh, and your nose readies itself for a full-fledged olfactory implosion as you enter the House of Amouage.
A stone's throw from the city of Muscat in Oman, the exterior drips gold. No, literally. A gilded gold-lined waterbody greets you as you step into the fragrant portals of the House.
This is the perfumery where some of the world's most expensive perfumes are made. By hand, with care, and boasting an attention to detail only Amouage can boast of.
The brand hasn't been around for too long. It was only in 1983 that the late Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman set out to realise a dream - of reviving Oman's legendary perfume industry. But before we get to the present, a bit of the past.
For centuries a few thousands of years ago, Oman enjoyed the rare status of being the central point of the frankincense trade route. This route ran from the Mediterranean in the west to China in the east. So, Oman was bang at the centre of it geographically and otherwise. The port city of Dhofar is home to some of the best frankincense in the world. In the dry wadis of Dhofar, it's the the dryness that sends the prices of Dhofar frankincense shooting: any humidity, and you have sub-par quality.
This frankincense from Dhofar brought in trade might and money for Oman. The craft of perfume-making lay confined to the contours of the country for years, till Oman's much revered and longest-serving Sultan, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, decided it was time to raise the curtains and take the scent of Oman to the world.
He commissioned 'The Gift of Kings'.
The perfume was named 'Amouage', a symphony of the French word 'amour' for love, and Arabic for 'wave'. And thus, with the 'Wave of Emotion', the world was awash in frankincense. It soon took note of the notes crafted in Muscat. Amouage shot to fame in exquisitely designed bottles; gold-dusted, Swarovski-studded.
The bottles, or flacons, are works of art in themselves. The men's perfumes take their inspiration from the Khanjar, the Omani dagger. The women's lines have caps inspired by the dome of a mosque, with a Swarovski crystal on them.
As you go higher in the price index, the bottles become veritable collectibles. The Zadora containers, the rarest Amouage bottles ever created, belong in museums. The price tag is in sync. At $150,000 each, these aren't perfumes you pick up at your nearest duty-free. They are made to order and kept for eternity... gift fit for a king, indeed.
Inside the white marble facade of the House of Amouage lies an army of perfumers who craft each of these flacons by hand. The perfumery produces 5,000 to 7,000 bottles every day; handcrafted, meticulously, by the Amouage family in Muscat. Much like Oman's geographical location, its most famous perfumes are a midpoint between the East and the West, first created by a French perfumer.
So, when Guy Robert was handed the task of creating a perfume that the world would wake up and sniff, he left no stone unturned. The traditional values of Arab culture had to be distilled into a flacon full of French finesse, with a dash of incense.
'Gold', Robert's crowning glory, happened. Robert crafted a scent that was recognisably Arab, but came infused with the modern luxury of French perfumes. This was 1983. The original Gold bottles were iconic, 24-carat gold-plated, and refillable.
The Amouage Man, unique in its ornateness, was inspired by the Khanjar. The Amouage Woman bottle was a cube with intricately patterned gold plating. These bottles were initially made by luxury jewellers Asprey, and then by Danny Lehrer Jewellers in London.
Today, Amouage Gold doesn't come in the ornate gold-plated bottles, but in glass. A 100-ml flacon retails for Rs 32,500 and is one of the brand's most expensive perfumes around.
Amouage Attars. Photo: Author
Its other high-end offerings include the Attars: a 100% pure perfume oil line inspired by villages in Oman. A 12-ml vial retails for Rs 47,000. The attars can stay on skin for more than 12 hours and it is precisely this longevity that demands the prices they are sold for.
The attars are not your standard perfume. Their base isn't the easily-diffusible alcohol, but oils derived from the best of the Orient: frankincense, rose, myrrh, oud, younameit.
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In the hills of Jabal Akhdar, where Damask roses are in bloom in the months of March-April-May, Amouage has tied up with all local rose farms. These farms distil 3 millilitres of rose oil from 300 kg of roses, and send them all to the House of Amouage for use in their perfumes. Alcohol is haram (impure) in Islam. So, most perfumes in the Islamic world adhere to the Book and swap the alcohol for stronger, longer-lasting oils.
The other element that sets Amouage perfumes apart is its ageing process. Perfumes here are given adequate time to develop before being sent out. The ageing takes place in oakwood barrels at the House of Amouage in Seeb.
At the Amouage headquarters in Seeb, Oman, 5,000-7,000 bottles are handcrafted every day. Photo: Instagram/Amouage
In a chamber adjacent to the wood barrels, a group of women, in abayas, go about their business of sticking golden medals to the base of the flacon at hand. These containers will then be fit with a diffuser, filled in with perfumes carrying the heady scent of Oman, and sent out to the world, which will then soak in its sillage. The gift of kings. A gift fit for kings.
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