Over the last year and a half I have often received an anguished e-mail after an entry in this series. It goes like this, “Noooo! Why did you have to send me on another quest for a bottle of perfume that will be so hard to find.” I feel your frustration so this time I am going to write about a perfume which has only recently been discontinued. I also think it is among the very best perfumes Bertrand Duchaufour has created.
Penhaligon’s Amaranthine was released in 2009 and discontinued earlier this year. When it was released the press release described it as a “corrupted floral oriental…..reminiscent of the scent of a woman’s thigh”. Right there is the reason I think this perfume was discontinued. There is a child’s game called “Which Doesn’t Belong and Why?” You show a child something like a duck, a goose, and a lifejacket. They answer the lifejacket doesn’t belong because it is not a bird. Amaranthine never belonged as part of Penhaligon’s well burnished aesthetic. Even upon its release M. Duchaufour did such a fantastic job of living up (down?) to the press release it never felt like a bottle which should read Penhaligon’s on it. The tragedy here is it is one of the most sensual perfumes on the market.
Bertrand Duchaufour
M. Duchaufour starts this off with an exotic spicy vibe. He uses banana leaf and green tea to throw a gauzy green veil over the early moments. Then he uses a precise mix of coriander and cardamom to create a human body odor accord. What is particularly notable is he could have used cumin and I would be surprised if he didn’t in a lot of the early mods. I would also suspect that it was overpowering. The body odor he wanted here is that sweet post-coital smell of sweat beaded skin. To get that right he had to not use the easy note. Instead he had to form a different chord of spices. This woman still vibrating from the aftermath of passion gathers jasmine and orange blossom and crushes them to her bosom. This is where the corrupted floral part shows up. This is also where for the first time I really experienced ylang-ylang as a fleshy floral. Carnation and clove provide more decay around the floralcy. The base is what happens as that sweat dries on the skin leaving a salty residue. This is that accord of sun-warmed skin except M. Duchaufour adds a twist with the addition of a milk note. This turns the clean skin into something less pure and once again more carnal. It is almost like Amaranthine is looking over its shoulder, with a crooked smile, asking you if you want another round.
Amaranthine has 8-10 hour longevity and moderate sillage.
Amaranthine is one of the most unabashedly sexy perfumes I own. Which is why it is gone. Sexy, carnal, Penhaligon’s…..which doesn’t belong and why? Penhaligon’s seems to make a regular foray off into the truly different from the rest of their brand. What is amusing is they are often very good perfumes which the brand doesn’t know how to market next to their other more very stiff upper lip entries. As of this writing Amaranthine is still available at most stockists of Penhaligon’s. If you want a bottle it is out there to be had for its normal price. It is well worth getting it before it becomes a legend years from now.
Disclosure: this review was based on a bottle I purchased.
–Mark Behnke
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