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.