Opus IX
Amouage (2015)

Loaded with jasmine, really animalic with presence of ambergris + leather + civet. Floral duty thereafter served handily by camellia, not a common note in masculine fragrances.

I think Opus IX is better for ladies than men. Watch not to overapply, as this one can become overwhelming!

Opus IX is strange done with great confidence – all but a knowledgeable few will be a bit bewildered by the array of unfamiliar aromachemicals deployed here, not quite knowing what their nose is smelling. Opus IX is to smell what a hall of mirrors is to sight.
The main theme here is jasmine and quite a special one at that, carrying with it the particular fresh, tinged with green, yet syrupy sweet quality of jasmine buds. A supporting player is black pepper which creeps up like a panther – so beware if you go heavy on the sprayer (as I once did), you could be flattened.
But around this duo of naturals is an array of odours that remind me of things that have next to none – lacquered nails, false eyelashes, fake fur. These are things of the body I suppose but without its warmth and familiarity – a denatured muskiness. So there are accents that come across as highly glossy, others that can be described as faux-leather – enough to remind one of the thing but still not quite, not quite. This is a heavy perfume at this stage yet pumped full of air.
Is this how you turn what is essentially a jasmine-led perfume into the aimed-for fantasy camellia? Well, assigning a made up scent to a strikingly beautiful flower that has none may be a worthwhile artistic endeavour but whether your audience will ‘get' it is another matter entirely. Disregarding that, there's enough here to intrigue, particularly if you care for novelty, but it doesn't win me over. Plus it loses all complexity past the 3-4 hour mark, turning into a thin, plasticky jasmine.

Hmm...interesting. I actually like it quite a lot. It reminds me of JOY - with a floral-civet combo. But this is louder than JOY and jasmine-civet is in the front. There may be other notes such as a bit of rose and wood and even leather, but they hide behind the explosion of jasmine-civet. 'Camelia' is just a concept with no reality to it.

I like it! It has character and enormous sillage. This is no wimpy fragrance.

I am not sure if it is really unisex or leans towards feminine or even the masculine spectrum. Try for yourself and find out.

Far too feminine to me. Rose, lily, orchid and more flowers. Good quality and long lasting, but does not fit me.

Starts out as a jasmine bomb. Calms down to a light wood with a hint of amber. Unisex, but leans slightly more to a feminine fragrance. This fragrance is an animalistic floral that a daring woman will love. 6/10

Christopher Chong says to Extrait: "The creation of a perfume takes one or two years of work, the longest part is always the beginning, which involves the construction of a story that can interact with the ingredients you want to use ... " I mean (as I said): “There isn't any artistic impression from a kind of work like this one. A Perfumer (as an artist) has the rule to dominate the raw materials, creating a performance that brings his work in contact with the nature, as a new and original creative act. “

http://www.extrait.it/opus-ix-lodore-invisibile-della-camelia-domina-la-nuova-fragranza-amouage/

I think often the creators of perfumes do not understand what they say. The equivalence of this reasoning would lead us to say that an artist chooses to paint the sun because the sun can interact well with the colors that the painter wants to use: yellow and orange! And sometimes, to find the right subject for your yellow and orange colours you need two years!

And if the ingredients are predominantly synthetic or reconstructed in a bad way, I wonder what was the idea of the artist: "I want to use bad ingredients" (?)

This scent is inspired by Maria Callas, and in the same interview the creator says:"In the opera you sing with your voice, in fragrances you (work) with the smells." (Wow!)

Ok, I want to quote Maria Callas:
“What a lovely voice, but who cares?”

When it is said that the camellia (as smell) does not exist, this is a lie! Camellia smells like camelia? How to reconstruct it? Who cares!

The question is, why to use camellia?
They say the camellia is poignant! But my grandmother was poignant too!