Opus XIV : Royal Tobacco
Amouage (2022)

Royal Tobacco smells quite pleasant from the nozzle. The opening is promising, enveloping you with a cloud of balsamic, ambery sweetness. However, as the fragrance develops, it seems to unravel. Each note appears somewhat flat, muted, and lacking distinctive characteristics. It presents itself as a pleasant licorice-infused tobacco with balsamic nuances from olibanum, myrrh, and Peru balsam. Unfortunately, it falls short of justifying its $300 price tag. The performance is moderate, with nothing noteworthy to highlight.

The opening is waxy and smokey, like caramel or brown sugar being burned with a candle. You have to be a fan of frankincense to enjoy this one. I like the drydown so much better than the opening, so you do have to wait for this one to develop. Once it does, it is a soft, seductive, woody-incense-vanilla scent that feels more mature but could be nice for date nights.

Starts off strong, very loud. It settles nicely in an hour, pretty wearable actually. It does hang around for most of the day on skin.

These days I normally don't opt for a scent like this. It's pricey. It's arguably a bit loud. But on a trip to Scent Bar to sample something else, I gave this one a quick wrist spritz. On the way home empty handed, the scent grabbed me so pulled a u turn and went back.

It's a very nice rich smelling scent. I'm sure there is tobacco, but it's not very tobacco forward to my nose. There's a very pleasant bit of kind of sweet anise/licorice which is a note I like a lot. It also features fenugreek which has a bit of a maple syrup kind of effect. But it's not as overwhelming as most of the immortelle scents I've tried. More subtle. Amouage frankinscence does a little dancing in here too.

Lasts really well. Smells very moneyed. My big splurge for the year.

So according to taskphorce01 below, anyone who likes this has a broken nose and not him. Oh, ok. And no, this does not smell like a Hobby Lobby vestibule. THAT sounds like a broken nose to me. SMDH. This scent keeps evolving from the moment it is sprayed and you can pick up different things depending on the day. Very powerful and very regal smelling. Appropriate name!

Extremely disappointed.
Upon first spray, I was taken back, not with just mere utter and immediate dismay, but also with shock and confusion. How could this fragrance get such amazing reviews? Have “they” just never smelled pure oils and parfums produced by world class artisans or is my nose broken? Definitely not the latter. I move my arm to my wife who says: “You smell like a Hobby Lobby vestibule” then on to my children who unanimously describe this scent correctly: “You smell like bathroom spray.” YESSSS! A Glade air freshener is exactly what I smell. Or, one of the lower end, cheap synthetic smelling dollar store/Walmart “tobacco and birch” candles. I have only been truly repulsed 3-4x in over 12 years of niche fragrance collecting and this is absolutely one of those times. 2/5 stars. Scrubbed off in less than 10 minutes. Nothing more to say..

It opens with strong tobacco and liquorice notes, then gets a bit similar to TF Tobacco Oud but drier, more smoky, without the whisky notes, and, in my opinion, better. I like it a lot.