Bracken Woman
Amouage (2016)

Strange juice. I'm not even sure what the appeal of bracken is supposed to be, other than a big, coarse poisonous fern that is an inedible invasive weed species. A small part of me wants to like this scent. Overall, meh, don't go there.

Amouage's marketing take on Bracken Woman is that the scent "is inspired by the Flower Power of the 1960's." Whatever Bracken is, it's NOT that. (They could have taken the straight-up cedar incense and patchouli oil route.)

No thanks to either.

Sillage is moderate for an Amouage product. Longevity is about seven hours or so.

This. Is. STRANGE! A fruity floral made weird. Fruity, candy-like and bubblegummy berry notes + flowers + deeper notes in the drydown + something to sour everything up. I don't even like it that much, but damn it's addictive!

First sampling: Well, this is a synthetic mess but it’s not terrible. There’s definite forest green in there with bark and moss and some mold, and it’s oddly matched with sweet berries and murky leather so the result is a bit of a weird gluey melange. Again, not as bad as that sounds but odd. For a few minutes it flirts with being very perfume-y in a clashing way, but that drifts by to green wood, stinging green leaves and that odd hint of sweet berry juice that isn’t quite berries. I think the floral notes ruin it, frankly. The sweet gluey notes take it out of true forest territory. Also develops screamwood as it dries down.

Second sampling: Galbanum tomato leaves and a powdery floral under note dries through a screamy wood stage and passes on to powdered tomato leaves without their tang, and sweet berry. Still not beloved.

Third samplgin: Strong rotting vegetation, very like bracken, so that bit is true, but it’s still not perfume. Disliking intensely.

Aromatic AND Smooth !!

This perfume is amazing...
Although I somehow expected it to be mainly aromatic (which is often Good in my book), Bracken has a lovely creamy side to it.
On skin I do experience a bitter note (probably caused by birch and leather in combination with the chamomile), but the wafts around me are all about the three flowers: Narcissus, Lily and some Chamomile.
Bracken is gorgeous and unique, a fantastic natural -summer- perfume with a little sting.

I am sold, or rather: It's gonna cost me... :p

(August 2017)

Shrill thin berry over green bracken backdrop, trying to be a bright spot in the shadowed forest floor.

These two accords don't belong in the same woods. It was an authentic, really great spirit-of-place note that plops a factory-made artificial fruit note over the top, impossible of finding a resonance between them.

I'm just not buying this combination, like the movie where the male and female love interest who have no chemistry are paired up in a surprisingly tone-deaf way and ruin the whole movie.

These perfume notes have nothing to say to each other - each resonate to their own music, which are not in tune with the other.

A perfume that speaks to the ability of some fragrances to separate out into juxtapositional notes that might have provided interest if they remained blended, but if they fall apart on some skin, as it did mine, reveals not a counterpoint, but a lack of communication.

I have to quit trying scents that contain narcissus and expecting to love them. There is just something about this note that overpowers every other in each perfume I've tried. And since I do not love narcissus, I do not enjoy Bracken. I think many others will love it though, and I might possibly, too, if the chamomile and leather and smoke played more of a role here. The sweetness of the berry note is also bothersome. Amouage scents rarely smell like something a young twenty-something should wear, but this one does.