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Monday, January 19, 2009

Mona di Orio Amyitis: Perfume Review

Inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon built by Nebuchadnezzar II for his Queen Amyitis, homesick for the greener and more fruitful Media, Mona di Orio's fifth creation is a spicy, aromatic and earthy take on the green perfume genre.

The pungent, peppery aroma of savory and capsicum and the sweet spiciness of caraway dominate the top notes. The presence of a green accord and, and later on, of moss, make the spices smell earthy, as if ground with black, fertile soil. Iris and violet, the floral notes that have a pronounced rooty aspect, continue the earthy theme in the heart of Amyitis. Woods and amber lend the fragrance rich balsamic darkness, while saffron intensifies the sweetly piquant aspect of the composition. Add to that the powdery, rounded softness of oponax, which smoothes the sharp edges of the spicy, green and resinous ingredients, and you have a complex, long-playing perfume, an exotic and quirky distant relative of the classic green-rooty beauty, Chanel No 19.

Available at Aedes, $120.00-$200.00.

Our past reviews of Mona di Orio's fragrances: Nuit Noire, Carnation, Lux and Oiro.

Image is by Michael David Adams.

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19 Comments:

Blogger chayaruchama said...

Oh, Marinochka !

So happy to see a little love for this extraordinary perfume.

I bought a bottle gratefully- after sniffing, wearing, and losing myself in an intensely intimate conversation with the lovely Mona.

I feel it resonates deeply with my adoration of the natural world; my DH agreed, immediately- upon sampling it [ something he doesn't usually do] upon my skin.

How I love that pictorial !
WOW !
Where did you FIND it ?

7:12 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Ida,
I imagine that it smells amazing on you.
The image might be from http://www.michaeldavidadams.com/

7:21 AM EST  
Blogger lilybp said...

Oh, this sounds absolutely lovely! I haven't had much luck with Mona, though. Carnation is OK on me, but the others (inluding the much loved Nuit Noire) are---not. So I wonder. . . . (In a--relatively successful--no-perfume-buying phase anyway).

7:53 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

J,
How relative is the success of the no-buy? :-)

7:54 AM EST  
Blogger lilybp said...

Huh. Well, I started buying other things--often much more expensive (handbags, etc.)--in the New Year's sales to compensate, so I had to pull back on that, too. For perfume--pretty successful. I was, however, one of the people referred to in the Indult post who bought ReC unsniffed and is trying to convince myself I like it. And I DO like it; I find it quite comforting. But it is definitely NOT worth $250 (and it doesn't last very long on me; oh well, I have a lot:)

9:02 AM EST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Love, love, love Amyitis. I tried and bought this one recently after mulling it over for only about 15 minutes -- didn't even let it dry down, and I never do that. It smells so rich and complex. Love. Only thing: the bottle itself smells so strongly of Amyitis that I have to keep it in the box. Luckily, the cedarwood packaging is lovely.

12:16 PM EST  
Blogger ScentScelf said...

Holy moly!! I tried to reach through my screen to get at this!

Considering I love green...soil & moss...woods & amber...just picked up the L'Aromarine Opopanax extrait, 'cause there was something about it...

Want! Want! Does Aedes offer samples?

6:40 PM EST  
Blogger Flora said...

I feel a lemming coming on - wow, what a description, and me a Green lover! :-)

10:45 PM EST  
Blogger Unknown said...

How precise and elegant is your writing, and I love it, as you must surely know by now. I also love Amytis, very much, as it is spicy but serene, tender like moist earth, full of gravity, but never heavy. And the gender issue...so good on me, so great on my guy.

5:17 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

J,
Well as long as you at least find it comforting it is worth it.

9:24 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Maryann,
I love immediate loves-purchases like that!

9:25 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

S,
LOL at "tried to get through screen". I know the feeling! I think this one is calling your name to at least sample it. Aedes does have a sample program.

9:26 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

D,
You, like S, have to try it.

9:26 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Eleven European Mystics,
Let me return the compliment, because "full of gravity but never heavy" is so true and so beautifully put!

9:27 AM EST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Dear Colombina (Marina)...Now that is a compliment for me. By the way, I bought Amytis about a year ago without sniffing, relying on the description given by James at the Les Senteurs website. I just trusted Mona di Orio, whose Nuit Noire I find to be one of the sexiestof our times (i've just read your review of it, and congratulated myself for having liked it...). Now, like most of the world, I am going to wath - in awe, with love - Obama's inauguration. :)

11:34 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Watching it right now. Goosebumps!

11:41 AM EST  
Blogger Unknown said...

what a nation you've got there...i feel ennobled by the sight. I feel lucky to live in this generation. And although in the mouth of such a bishop, the beauty of the "Our father"...Civilization runs in leaps of thousands and hundreds of years. And ...here we are...again, when history matures and, for a second, humanity can be reminded of its brightest quest. And he's so...brilliant

12:37 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Yes, a huge moment for all.

12:42 PM EST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I ordered a sample of this yesterday.
so it obviously hasn't come yet, but I can't wait to try it
I must be in a moss and opoponax mood, all of the samples in my sample order batch had them (except for A.Maze)

12:35 AM EST  

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