Touaregh
Il Profumo (2003)

This one is a freak, but I have not been able to forget it over the years. I keep buying decants of it! It's a soapy, herbal, rosey, waxy, strange creature that morphs every few minutes. At this point, years later, I just have to say I'm smitten....

Soapy/waxy, rosey and british "neutral/toilette kind" style throughout, with a more than vague Black Aoud Montale's (but without the resinous/medicinal feel) decadent aura. The smell conjures the perfume you detect in the air when you get inside a sort of artisanal family-run laboratory of soaps and detergents. Yes, this elixir is something completely different from what you usually smell around. There is a plenty of spices, cloves in particular but also cinnamon, and a starring palmarosa with its waxy aftersmell. The beginning is a bit misleading with a strange almost boozy, faintly herbal and barely detergent burst but it lasts a flash, just the time the soapiness starts stepping on the stage. Probably some balsams are inserted in the blend. The dry down keeps on to be soapy/spicy but with a light woody and mossy feel and some creaminess. The smell is close to the skin for sure but tenacious for hours.

A dry, monotonous clove/incense. It really cries out for something sweet to provide a bit of contrast and relieve the tedium. Excellent longevity.

Yeah --- I remember this -- was looking for something completely different at the time, but the top notes just hook you in -- a sort of spicy pot-pourri and I succumbed. It's a bit like cds -- always have the best and strongest track as the first. I soon got pretty bored with it though -- a linear spice bomb that wore me down.

Fascinating… Dramatic… A spicy treat with florals, palmarosa, and a touch almond gourmand that captures something not often offered in fragrances: An aromatic elixir making gorgeous use of palmarosa, nutmeg, cinnamon, and bay. I love the spices and I particularly love the palmarosa, but Touaregh seems to be a one accord wonder. It loses its sillage and strength so quickly, and with the loss of its strength, it loses much of its identity - its attractiveness. It does manage to last as a close-to-the-skin scent for two or three hours, but that is merely anticlimax - disappointment. Touaregh's drydown has settled down to a transparent and too light vetiver, palmarosa, and cinnamon accord. It was fascinating and dramatic at first, but then just too quiet and short lasting…

I disagree with Joe_Frances that this was too feminine for a guy just because there is some rose in it. The heavy flowery (and maybe femine) note of yellow rose is balanced with a decent portion of nutmeg on a woody background. Anyway - who cares?Yellow rose and nutmeg - for me these are the outstanding ingredients here - strange but intriguing!It is easier to get this scent than to let this scent get you. I had tested it three or four times at the perfume shop before finally buying it. At first I thought it was quite nice. Then it appeared to me as a toned down version of Montale's Black Aoud and therefore unnessessary. Still I wanted to smell it the next time. I did not like the bitterness of the nutmeg. Then again I wanted to test it because it was so exceptional.Finally it occured to me that I had become familiar with this fragrance and simply felt at home with it.Longevity is OK and the scent develops rather linear. Aoud is not listed as ingredient but there is some subtle similarity, maybe due to the other woody components