Opus XVI Timber
Eau de Parfum, Amouage (2025)

Oh dear. Does anyone have a direct line to Amouage’s creative team? Can someone let them know that this is 2026? Every big house from A to Z has done one of these big, sharp, resinous balsam scents going back more than a couple of decades. The Amouage entry into this very crowded genre is marked by an Amouage trait of richness and general performance, but, if you’re like me, you’ll sort of wish that it wasn’t. Let’s go through the marketing checkboxes, shall we:

Up top there are plenty of vague lemony green resins from pine, some vague cool woody spices, and a faux oily and herbal lavender. Check. The middle is a rather nondescript incense woody affair with a sort of gutless frankincense, and more balsams that are harder and whiter than those at the top, and leaning more towards aromatic than resinous. Check. The base is a bit woody smoky, a bit woody creamy, a bit woody aromatic, a bit tonka vanillic, and a bit patchouli earthy - but it’s bits of earthy woody things, not really anything in particular that can be readily identified. Check. Just like its forebears from Tom Ford, Dior, Le Labo, Creed, Nishane, Penhaligon’s, Xerjoff, Initio, Ex Nihilo, Lattafa, Versace, Paco Rabanne, Roja, Prada, Davidoff, Boss, Azzaro - ok, I’m done, you get it, the A to Z - Opus XVI Timber is meant to deliver what has been selling at men’s counters by Olympic pool sized quantities for nearly twenty years, Amouage simply felt it was time for them to have a splash.

Positives? Well, it smells more expensive than the vast majority of what those other brands have and are willing to put forth, which is just as well since Opus XVI Timber is very expensive; part of this is due to the greater concentration of perfume oils, which means you will also get smell like a vague woody morass more strongly and for longer than those other brands can help you achieve. Perhaps the name was meant to be clue. This is one more tree in a forest of trees that all generally look the same.

Quickly put this opens fresh, cooling and spicy.
Somewhat alpine. Lavender is also noticable.
But the woods, woods that the word "Timber" had me expecting, really never materialize. Oh, there's a bit of cypress and piney things, for awhile. It's during the drydown where things really fall apart for me. Its the smell of a synthetic coffee-like thing and it lasts for hours.
Performance is Amouage-strong but here that's not a good thing. This is my least favorite Amouage and it has some competition since Chong left. Mr. Chong, your visionary perfumery is sorely missed.