Reviews of Âme Sombre G1 by Sultan Pasha
Âme Sombre Grade I begins with an incredibly lush, lemony rose that has the effect of flooding the gloomy church corridors with light and air. Rose is usually added to oud to give it a sweet juiciness to counteract its sour, stark woodiness, and here it plays that role both for the austere, pine-like frankincense and the sourish cedar. Then a clutch of dark, balmy resins and leather notes moves in to draw a black velvet cloak over the bright, sourish rose, rendering the tone of the attar somber and serious. Grade I is slightly darker, more phenolic, and more sour-rosy in feel than the Oud Infusion, which draws sweet woodsmoke notes from the agarwood infusion. Grade I employs more of a focus on balmy leather notes than the other versions.
Overall, Âme Sombre Grade I feels more Northern in tone than Middle-Eastern. There is a fresh juniper note in the background that further bolsters this ‘Orthodox Church in a chilly Northern forest’ tonality. In terms of overall approach, Âme Sombre Grade I is perhaps the closest to the original Tribute with its stark, smoky cedar-frankincense combination. It is also intensely powerful, lasting on my skin all day and well beyond a shower.
Overall, Âme Sombre Grade I feels more Northern in tone than Middle-Eastern. There is a fresh juniper note in the background that further bolsters this ‘Orthodox Church in a chilly Northern forest’ tonality. In terms of overall approach, Âme Sombre Grade I is perhaps the closest to the original Tribute with its stark, smoky cedar-frankincense combination. It is also intensely powerful, lasting on my skin all day and well beyond a shower.
Ame Sombre is my favorite take on the Frankincense theme. Supposedly inspired by the legendary attar from Amouage, Tribute, which I have not tried, and I'm not sure I want to since I can't imagine anything better than this. And since Amouage was always sort of mediocre to me, I'll probably never hunt it down. When I can just get more of this.
Ame Sombre strikes me as a highly spiritual blend in which Rose and Frankincense dominate. On paper, it looks redundant, something that has been done before. But it is unlike anything that I've tried. The balance and the way the ingredients work together, it is supreme. Clouds of frankincense wafting from the thurible, lush, sweet rose petals on top of clean, warm, and slightly mineral ambergris. I can't detect much oud in here, it is not a prominent note. The saffron is a major player as well, especially for the first half of the perfume. It is a light attar compared to others in the line. It wears delicately around yourself. Like fumigating your clothes with bakhoor. Every note is in tune. There's no moment when I sense a lack of harmony in this. The smoke is soft and ethereal, never intrusive, the rose is lush and sweet but never jammy, and the ambergris is crystalline and warm, only embracing the blend in a warm veil.
Elegant, mysterious, and poised. A triumphant attar and one of my favorites from the house.
IG:@memory.of.scents
Ame Sombre strikes me as a highly spiritual blend in which Rose and Frankincense dominate. On paper, it looks redundant, something that has been done before. But it is unlike anything that I've tried. The balance and the way the ingredients work together, it is supreme. Clouds of frankincense wafting from the thurible, lush, sweet rose petals on top of clean, warm, and slightly mineral ambergris. I can't detect much oud in here, it is not a prominent note. The saffron is a major player as well, especially for the first half of the perfume. It is a light attar compared to others in the line. It wears delicately around yourself. Like fumigating your clothes with bakhoor. Every note is in tune. There's no moment when I sense a lack of harmony in this. The smoke is soft and ethereal, never intrusive, the rose is lush and sweet but never jammy, and the ambergris is crystalline and warm, only embracing the blend in a warm veil.
Elegant, mysterious, and poised. A triumphant attar and one of my favorites from the house.
IG:@memory.of.scents
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As all of the Sultans creations - awesome quality , blending and structure...hard to zero in on notes because of how well they blend... this composition in particular paints a picture in my mind...country cottage with all wood including the furniture...the smell of incense and beeswax candles mixing with the smell drifting in from the rose garden outside the window...opens with sledgehammer intensity and within a couple of hours mellows out...well done and highly enjoyable...somewhat gothic and dark , but i love that about it...
After application to my skin I got a intense blast of medicinal Oud and it was full on hospital band-aid with the disinfectant smell which caught me off guard. But before I could regroup and gather my senses I was assaulted by the most intense overwhelming Frankincense accord. lol.. With this knock out Incense blast was some rose and a hint of saffron
At this point I was surrounded in a super potent Frankincense accord that I could have got a job as a Exorcist: " The power of my scent compels you devil, leave this innocent and back to hell with you." lol
The quality was exceptional I could smell the lemony part of the Frankincense and it even overwhelmed the medicinal aspect, the poor rose was drowning in church incense. Then suddenly and dramatically after two hours the scent just died and became a skin scent, I got a few whispers of tobacco but the scent was basically gone.
So all in all I enjoyed the artistic experience with this one and had fun experiencing the Incense but it was just too overwhelming and short lived for my tastes to wear as a personal fragrance.
At this point I was surrounded in a super potent Frankincense accord that I could have got a job as a Exorcist: " The power of my scent compels you devil, leave this innocent and back to hell with you." lol
The quality was exceptional I could smell the lemony part of the Frankincense and it even overwhelmed the medicinal aspect, the poor rose was drowning in church incense. Then suddenly and dramatically after two hours the scent just died and became a skin scent, I got a few whispers of tobacco but the scent was basically gone.
So all in all I enjoyed the artistic experience with this one and had fun experiencing the Incense but it was just too overwhelming and short lived for my tastes to wear as a personal fragrance.
Ame Sombre is an absolutely amazing fragrance centered around the use of a rich, heady frankincense, a voluptuous, ripe and juicy (but simultaneously hidden and mysterious) rose, a thick, chewy hyrax, a sweeter, less peppery cumin than I'm used to, benzoin-honeyed, raw pipe-tobacco, earthy, creamy saffron tinged patchouli, and a majestically ambered, leathery labdanum.
The composition is heady, thick, chewy, musky as hell, smoky, and yet, juicy, rich, slightly sweet, almost edible at points and reveals the amazing care Sultan Pasha takes when tending to the fragrances of his that have a strong dichotomy at their core - for Ame Sombre is one of those fragrances that doesn't allow muddied or drowned qualities to overtake the nuanced play at work between the total form of the composition - It's absolutely a dense affair, don't get me wrong, but it's the difference between the solid and calcified remains of lava, and the molten flames themselves - neither completely consuming the other, and with a clear referential link guiding one from the lava to the solid form it later becomes.
A lot of the notes here almost turn this dark, spicy, balsamic affair towards something edible at the edges - for it has a lot of qualities which sing to the financially exotic affairs of the rich and the famous. What's more, the ambergris is absolutely present here, and undulates betwixt adding a salty touch to the spiced, and smoky tones carrying a majority of the fragrance, and other times still adding to the warm, sweet and ambered qualities that seem to bellow underneath the waves of dense, dark smoke, musk, spices and woods that run overtop each other, as if waves of syrupy resin cascading atop each other, one after another.
There is in fact a quiet jasmine note that begins to appear as the fragrance itself dries down, which joins with the patchouli to accentuate the leathery qualities which seem to be coming from the labdanum, as well as the tobacco which emerges through the thicker animallic qualities and more prominently atop a bed of resins. While the musk seems to persist here, it's more at the background of the composition than directly at the forefront. Absolutely one of the very best "dark scents" of all time, and one which, to me, is the true elixir that houses like Amouage boast as being contained within their line, but whose works fall short when stood next to Ame Sombre.
Holy shit.
10/10
YT: Jess AndWesH
The composition is heady, thick, chewy, musky as hell, smoky, and yet, juicy, rich, slightly sweet, almost edible at points and reveals the amazing care Sultan Pasha takes when tending to the fragrances of his that have a strong dichotomy at their core - for Ame Sombre is one of those fragrances that doesn't allow muddied or drowned qualities to overtake the nuanced play at work between the total form of the composition - It's absolutely a dense affair, don't get me wrong, but it's the difference between the solid and calcified remains of lava, and the molten flames themselves - neither completely consuming the other, and with a clear referential link guiding one from the lava to the solid form it later becomes.
A lot of the notes here almost turn this dark, spicy, balsamic affair towards something edible at the edges - for it has a lot of qualities which sing to the financially exotic affairs of the rich and the famous. What's more, the ambergris is absolutely present here, and undulates betwixt adding a salty touch to the spiced, and smoky tones carrying a majority of the fragrance, and other times still adding to the warm, sweet and ambered qualities that seem to bellow underneath the waves of dense, dark smoke, musk, spices and woods that run overtop each other, as if waves of syrupy resin cascading atop each other, one after another.
There is in fact a quiet jasmine note that begins to appear as the fragrance itself dries down, which joins with the patchouli to accentuate the leathery qualities which seem to be coming from the labdanum, as well as the tobacco which emerges through the thicker animallic qualities and more prominently atop a bed of resins. While the musk seems to persist here, it's more at the background of the composition than directly at the forefront. Absolutely one of the very best "dark scents" of all time, and one which, to me, is the true elixir that houses like Amouage boast as being contained within their line, but whose works fall short when stood next to Ame Sombre.
Holy shit.
10/10
YT: Jess AndWesH
The opening rose otto with jagged peaks of saffron takes off and soars. The radiance and lightness of rose otto with the sharp edge that saffron imparts is a striking opening. A light undercurrent of frankincense adds thickness to the rose scent, jasmin adds to the lyrical lightness in the heart. All of this dancing song of rose and saffron is underwritten by very dry negative space of woods with labdanum, hyrax, tobacco and vanilla that is very soft and dry as to almost escape notice during the first hours, but later this soft mellow base takes center stage and becomes the scent with the rose saffron still in background as a distant memory. This is a very fine, composed evolving perfume with a nice balance of opposing directions that begins sharply with soaring rose and soon becomes a comfortable nest of dry musky leaf and woods. Rating: 8.5/10.
I believe the name translates to "Dark Soul."
This is obviously incredibly rich, being an attar concentration, and my first reaction is that this is what I imagined the ancient Egyptian scent of Kyphre would smell like.
The note tree of 18 oils and resins is bottom heavy in the base with eleven elements, as follows:
Top: Rose, Frankincense, Saffron (3)
Middle: Amber, Bulgarian Rose, Jasmine, Honey (4)
Base: Beeswax, Tobacco, Patchouli, Benzion, Vetiver, Juniper, Hyrax,
White Amber, Cedar, Cumin, Oud (11)
I associate my first impression with a blending of warm, freshly cut cedar, pungent tobacco leaf, creamy amber, and caramelized maple sugar (the honey and beeswax, no doubt). The use of two roses and jasmine should, I would think, stand out as a floral center, but my nose cannot detect these notes.
I thought I detected a bit of civet on the applicator, but it would seem that this was merely an impression. I am unfamiliar with hyrax and wonder if there was a typo in my note tree source and styrax was meant.
I find it ultimately to be pretty linear, the first impression above being one that continues throughout the dry down. It is quite beautiful, very powerful (one dab on the wrist projects into the room), and although quite costly for a 3 ml. bottle, it is probably cost efficient given its intensity.
Highly recommended for anyone into the oriental genre. I look forward to experiencing more from this house.
This is obviously incredibly rich, being an attar concentration, and my first reaction is that this is what I imagined the ancient Egyptian scent of Kyphre would smell like.
The note tree of 18 oils and resins is bottom heavy in the base with eleven elements, as follows:
Top: Rose, Frankincense, Saffron (3)
Middle: Amber, Bulgarian Rose, Jasmine, Honey (4)
Base: Beeswax, Tobacco, Patchouli, Benzion, Vetiver, Juniper, Hyrax,
White Amber, Cedar, Cumin, Oud (11)
I associate my first impression with a blending of warm, freshly cut cedar, pungent tobacco leaf, creamy amber, and caramelized maple sugar (the honey and beeswax, no doubt). The use of two roses and jasmine should, I would think, stand out as a floral center, but my nose cannot detect these notes.
I thought I detected a bit of civet on the applicator, but it would seem that this was merely an impression. I am unfamiliar with hyrax and wonder if there was a typo in my note tree source and styrax was meant.
I find it ultimately to be pretty linear, the first impression above being one that continues throughout the dry down. It is quite beautiful, very powerful (one dab on the wrist projects into the room), and although quite costly for a 3 ml. bottle, it is probably cost efficient given its intensity.
Highly recommended for anyone into the oriental genre. I look forward to experiencing more from this house.
I had heard that Âme sombre was the perfume of perfumes.I now believe it,carefull not to put too much for it is very potent.i am new to the world of hi end fragrances (3 months) i learn fast.This Attar changes like a cameleon slowly and always pleasing .very attractive scent
If Tribute is Darth Vader, Âme Sombre G1 is The Emperor, at least in the first several minutes. It's darker, smoldering, as if The Emperor kept falling in Return of the Jedi and found himself landing in Mordor's lava in Middle Earth.
I'm about to make the weirdest, but most accurate, association I can think of: the first 15 minutes or so smells like venison jerky my uncle would make after hunting season. It's smokey, thick, spicy, but somehow juicy and mouthwatering. Now, I'm not saying The Emperor TASTES like venison (or a crispy Hobbit for that matter), but there's something appealing about it. I'm at a loss for what it's called at the moment, but had some meals in Las Vegas several times where a bunch of us would sit around a table and they'd keep bringing out these different meats, shaving bits off onto each of our plates. The meats were smoked, glazed, seasoned, and the aroma somehow brings forth those visuals. It sounds strange, but trust me - that's the olfactory illusion, not so much with the meats themselves, but just the aromas all those things conjured up - like you know you're in for a special treat (now I recall said experience in the restaurant was an evening I happened to be wearing Serge Luten's Arabie - so take some aroma, minus the dried fruits, and I see where some of the association comes from.)
Amouage's Tribute opens up a little more airy, not quite as dark and a little more refined; as Kafkaesque noted on their blog, it's the perfect scent for Darth Vader. I get a bit more of a "greener" feel to it that makes it lighter, but within 30 minutes to an hour the two scents are very, very close to one another. When I tried Âme Sombre G1 the previous day, it seemed to venture off into a slightly different, and more interesting, journey than Tribute does - but I'll have to see what happens today as I just started venturing down the proverbial yellow brick road.
As the day wore on, the first several hours the slightly darker accord in Âme Sombre G1 held on though the scent in general seemed to grow a bit softer than Tribute. Somewhere around 12 hrs in it was more or less a skin scent, though very much present if I rubbed my finger on the areas I dabbed and sniffed. About 15 hours later, I definitely smelled the aged patchouli, particularly underneath my shirt. In fact, the whole bit of it feels like a strangely, comforting trip through time - like opening someone's old wooden chest and finding preserved, pressed flowers inside. Their smell is faint, but with the patchouli, cedar and tobacco, it smells... ancient, but not necessarily dry and brittle.
All in all, it's an excellent tribute to Tribute and I'd think anyone at a loss for Amouage's discontinuation of their attars would be more than pleased with the composition here.
I'm about to make the weirdest, but most accurate, association I can think of: the first 15 minutes or so smells like venison jerky my uncle would make after hunting season. It's smokey, thick, spicy, but somehow juicy and mouthwatering. Now, I'm not saying The Emperor TASTES like venison (or a crispy Hobbit for that matter), but there's something appealing about it. I'm at a loss for what it's called at the moment, but had some meals in Las Vegas several times where a bunch of us would sit around a table and they'd keep bringing out these different meats, shaving bits off onto each of our plates. The meats were smoked, glazed, seasoned, and the aroma somehow brings forth those visuals. It sounds strange, but trust me - that's the olfactory illusion, not so much with the meats themselves, but just the aromas all those things conjured up - like you know you're in for a special treat (now I recall said experience in the restaurant was an evening I happened to be wearing Serge Luten's Arabie - so take some aroma, minus the dried fruits, and I see where some of the association comes from.)
Amouage's Tribute opens up a little more airy, not quite as dark and a little more refined; as Kafkaesque noted on their blog, it's the perfect scent for Darth Vader. I get a bit more of a "greener" feel to it that makes it lighter, but within 30 minutes to an hour the two scents are very, very close to one another. When I tried Âme Sombre G1 the previous day, it seemed to venture off into a slightly different, and more interesting, journey than Tribute does - but I'll have to see what happens today as I just started venturing down the proverbial yellow brick road.
As the day wore on, the first several hours the slightly darker accord in Âme Sombre G1 held on though the scent in general seemed to grow a bit softer than Tribute. Somewhere around 12 hrs in it was more or less a skin scent, though very much present if I rubbed my finger on the areas I dabbed and sniffed. About 15 hours later, I definitely smelled the aged patchouli, particularly underneath my shirt. In fact, the whole bit of it feels like a strangely, comforting trip through time - like opening someone's old wooden chest and finding preserved, pressed flowers inside. Their smell is faint, but with the patchouli, cedar and tobacco, it smells... ancient, but not necessarily dry and brittle.
All in all, it's an excellent tribute to Tribute and I'd think anyone at a loss for Amouage's discontinuation of their attars would be more than pleased with the composition here.
My first sampling of this was difficult - I hated it! BUT... like all my favourites it was the one that stuck! The reason it was so hated is that it is Very Musty! Its like an old antique shop that has lots of old old things in it that no-one has bought and in the middle of the shop is a huge bunch of beautiful roses. The flowers are voluptuous and fresh, dripping in sweet scent but the smell of the shop over-rides the roses....it is a battle! Like all Sultan Pasha's attars your skin chemistry is the one element that either adds or subtracts to your enjoyment of the fragrance. Some work and some don't. The battle rages on and in the end it depends on who you are....on me the drydown is wonderful - you have to try it for yourself to see who is the triumphant one....