Fate Woman
Amouage (2013)

I really dislike stepping into echo chambers and adding my voice to the din and drone, but it’s hard to not do that with Amouage Fate Woman. Amouage is not a stranger to the lands of classically Western/French perfumery, a place where they’ve veered fairly often - but Fate Woman isn’t veering, it’s destination is classic French and it gets there with the speed and force of a train. Yes, there is quite a bit of overlap with the juggernauts of Opium, Shalimar, Cinnabar, and on and on and on - and that’s where the din and the drone of the echo chamber becomes quite funny to listen to: many will quickly deride Fate Woman for being too much like any of those other perfumes, but not a single din or drone is being critical of those other perfumes for being like each other. Why are we picking on Fate Woman? Because it had the unfortunate timing of coming after many other massively popular Oriental ambers? It is lost on a lot of people just how rare it is for something truly novel to be composed in modern perfumery; nearly every perfume in existence is a close if not exact facsimile of some other perfume, intentional or not. The little details will make outsized differences. So, I plead, give it a rest folks.

What are Fate Woman’s little details? Claws. We’re told to go looking for the sharp little edges in the perfume right from the beginning, when Fate Woman opens with spicy and slightly vegetal-fruity chili peppers. It’s quite intense, particularly with the amplification provided by bitter, oily, and sour bergamot and a completely parched and woody cinnamon that wants to make your lungs collapse. The spiciness is real, but not so real that you’ll begin sneezing or tearing-up, but be ready nonetheless. After the opening dispenses the sharp edges become quite a bit harder to find but they’re still there, quietly nestled. In the heart you’ll find the claws in the narcissus note being presented as a slightly sharp green edge, and a rainbow peppercorn type facet. Finding these two little claws is not particularly easy since you’ll have to dig through plenty of rose, labdanum, and incense to get to them. To that end, the heart of Fate Woman is classically Oriental floral amber: elegant and rich red rose, a sort of standard frankincense smoke, and warm and slightly sweet balsamic labdanum. The claws get even harder to find in the final dry down to the skin scent as Fate Woman goes completely warm balsamic amber. You can find them in the peppery facet of the patchouli, but it doesn’t feel like claws since this is a pretty bog-standard amber: pleasantly sweet earthy, leathery animalic, vanillic, balsamic, and a bit of damp green woods from some moss material.

Fate Woman is beautifully done. Excellent materials, excellent blending, excellent performance, and it smells excellent too - all the things we hope and expect from Amouage. An unusual characteristic of it for an Amouage is how weightless it feels. It is very rich, and very diffusive - make no mistakes about those - but it is also very breathable, light, and airy to the point where it almost feels like it doesn’t exist. It just hovers in the air like an imperceptible cloud or a spirit presence…. Ok… fine… I’ll go back to the echo chamber for a second: is it a redundant amber - not sufficiently different to justify its existence? About the only criticism I can levy against Fate Woman is that I wish it was more “Amouage” and less French. The storied Omani brand has a style and a voice uniquely its own, particularly when it was under the guidance of Christopher Chong, but that style and voice is mostly missing from Fate Woman. I wish it was bolder, more Arabian, maybe a bit pushier or edgier, instead of being very pretty in the classically French style. That said though, yes I do find it to be different enough from its predecessors to stand on its own, especially that feeling of complete weightlessness that is so very rare in this genre. Different enough that I purchased a full bottle of it, and I find myself wanting it at different times and for different reasons than any of my vintage or new Shalimar formats, or my 1986 Opium, etc. The doomed fate of Fate Woman has already been delivered, today’s Opium is a total mess, Cinnabar has been neutered and Musc Ravageur is a shell of itself (thanks, Lauder), but thankfully Shalimar is still in pretty good shape (particularly the extrait). The old guard, and even some new guard, that Fate Woman is routinely compared to are starting to fall, so maybe what is considered derivative about Fate Woman should be celebrated; if it wasn’t discontinued, in several more years’ time it very likely could be one of or maybe the last still standing.

I’m a bit conflicted on rating this because the influence from vintage Opium is hard to ignore. I’ve never smelled true OG Opium, but I did have an early-2000s bottle, and the resemblance is there. The thing is, Opium had more layers—more spice, more texture, and that unmistakable nag champa-leaning incense. It was trickier to wear, but that was part of its charm and why it felt like an acquired taste.

Fate Woman takes that blueprint and sands down the edges. The spices are dialed way back, the whole structure is smoothed out, and it’s clearly made more approachable. The smoothing goes so far that the base starts drifting into Shalimar territory—you get that Shalimar-style vanilla humming through most of the wear. At that point, it’s fair to ask: why not just get Shalimar?

You could also argue there’s a touch of Musk Ravageur’s DNA hiding in here, but without the bite or the spice that makes MR distinctive. And if newer Shalimar batches aren’t doing it for you anymore, Shalimar Philtre is a solid direction to go before chasing something like this. Overall, it feels like Amouage is getting a bit too much credit here. It smells good, it performs beautifully—no surprises there—but in terms of originality, it’s lacking. Considering it’s discontinued and prices are climbing, I don’t think it’s worth the hunt. Solid scent, but derivative.

While l can clearly smell narcissus on opening the vial, on skin I get a sour bergamot in the opening, & little else. I'm dabbing here though, & of course this impression might be different when spraying. Slowly a spicy floral accord emerges, with a leathery undertone. Half an hour in, this settles into a softer, more powdery floral with a subtle note of incense, but retains that sour aspect. After an hour the sourness disappears, & finally it's a smooth, warm & pleasant oriental with hints of animalic castoreum & smoky labdanum. It's already quiet at this stage, & fades to a trace of vanilla twelve hours in.
I expected to be wowed by this, but I'm not. It's not as pwerful as I thought it would be, & although the drydown is lovely, there are many other floral orientals that I enjoy much more, for a fraction of the price.

Sampled after reading the five star review in the latest edition of the Guide. I can see the similarity of old style Guerlain in the opening of bergamot and I think the hint of pepper gives a even more classic oriental feeling. It's loud from start to finish.
As it develops you can identify different notes more or less strongly, but all in all it is a smooth, luxurious and heavy affair. Standing out are the bergamot, leather, benzoin vanilla and pepper with the bergamot fading fast.
I'll sample this more and consider buying a bottle before it is muted down in reformulations.

Can still wear it to some dinners though, just maybe use in moderation and try to wear it close to the skin if possible.

An excellent oriental style perfume. If Shalimar and Bakir had a baby, this could be her. It begins with a burst of incense, benzoin, and pepper. Sadly I get no cinnamon but, that's my dysfunctional nose. Here you'll find delicate narcissus. Smooth vanilla. Faint labdanum, castoreum, and leather - they are here. They just don't scream at you. I smell a light rose, then, rich patchouli and jasmine. Many hours later I get a hint of moss on my skin.

This is well done. Longevity is about 8 hours in high heat, surprisingly. Quite lovely overall and worth the price.

This is a complex perfume, sweet, perhaps from the benzoin, with notes such as the listed frankincense, cinnamon, and chili pepper adding character. The frankincense is light - just barely peeking through. It has a powdery aspect, which could be a natural floral smell, and it has a warm, delicious leathery aspect.

I'm getting a sweet cola smell. I like this. It's nicely agreeable, and complex enough to be something I'm excited to wear.