Amouage Honour Man

From the incense masters at Amouage, we have Honour Man to grace our skin. When I see any Amouage scent, I already envision a terrific house rendition of frankincense. Okay......calling them incense masters is a bit hokey, but I never claimed to be a wordsmith.

Enter Honour Man. First off, I have to admit that almost every Amouage I have sample-worn to date has numerous similarities. It's akin to Montale and its use of their house aoud note. That doesn't stop Montale fans from liking ( and purchasing ) numerous releases and it sure shouldn't deter Amouage aficionados from enlarging their wardrobes.

With that said, Honour Man opens with a spicy duo of pepper along with an extremely short lived citrus. At least it seemed like a citric accord, but it was like a drive-by with pepper kicking the doors open and firing with both barrels. Nothing loud mind you, but very noticeable. You have to remember that this house is all about the smoothness, so obnoxiousness has no choice but to step off.

The incense note is apparent from the outset and is joined by a deftly used nutmeg. I truly admire the way this note is used here. The pepper remains and now spices up the frankincense accord. The nutmeg is intermittent on me. One moment I smell it, the next I don't. I like it jumping in and out of the progression.

The base notes of cedar and vetiver take their sweet time making a contribution. Honour Man seems to unfold rather slowly on my skin and I'm not bitching about it either. When it does finally enter the fray, it goes almost unnoticed because of how long it took to materialize. It's subtle and smooth like the rest of the composition and adds an earthy wood aspect to an already respectable accord. The listed patchouli  has me baffled since I cannot smell it at all. Olfactory fatigue? Could be, but I readily recognize the other culprits, so it has me wondering. Could it be that the incense got tired of being offered as a sacrificial aroma and burned the patchouli instead? Okay, okay......another hokey line from yours truly. Sue me.............

The extended drydown affords the wearer a hint of tonka and a dash of musky spice. The aforementioned players are all still alive and kicking and the scent gets even smoother by this point. This is an extremely comfortable drydown and the balance of notes is very good indeed.

Honour Man is a very respectable fragrance and another viable masculine from the house of Amouage. Big thumbs up from Aromi.