The exotic-sounding name of
Ubar by parfums Amouage comes from a lost Omani city founded in 3000BC and still functioning during the first century AD, which consolidated a reputation as a tremendously wealthy trading post of frankincense en route the Silk Road. Nicknamed "Atlantis of the Sands" by T.E.Lawrence, its mysterious past lay hidden beneath the sand dunes as a result of divine wrath against the amorality and greediness of its inhabitants (according to the Qur'an). Although archaeological study had been going steady following
surface archeology methods, it was only in 1992 that satellite imaging fully revealed Ubar to the world.
Commemorating that event and marking their Silver Jubilee, the Omani-residing brand of Amouage first issued a fragrance named
Ubar in 1995, yet like the lost city the fragrance disappeared soon afterwards as if engulged by the sands. Luckily for us, Amouage re-issued the
Ubar fragrance in 2009 under their new Creative Director, Christopher Chong; some formula tweaking didn't change the resulting composition too much, but enough to render it more baroque and extremely lasting.
Comparing a vintage sample I had languishing in my collection with a new batch which a generous friend recently provided , I can sense that the original 1995
Ubar consisted of a distinctive woody orientalised composition without much citrus up-top, while the re-issued
Ubar is a floriental, with a dominating floral heart and a soft oriental aura on its lush lemon top and its silky woody bottom. Luca Turin gave it maximum points in his
Perfumes the Guide quarterly update, mentioning how the older version had also received high marks of respect from connoisseurs, and I can see how it would.
What is most interesting about the re-issue is that Amouage
Ubar is a regular shape-shifter on its ~very long~ course on my skin!
Ubar's beginning mingles the discernible and very lush bergamot and lemon brightness with some "cleaner" notes (listed as lily of the valley,
more of which here) cutting through the voluptuous richness; yet already a velvety aura radiates warmth forth ~the magical radiance of civet, conferring a restraint upon whatever tangy nuances might have been feared. You never had such a lush lemon before! Give it some time however and it becomes a throbbing, pulsating, thorny dark rose, the way
the classic Montana Parfum de Peau behaves, while jasmine later embraces the composition fully. At this stage
Ubar is a statement-making evening diva, not your average office-friendly perfume and indeed to treat it thus would amount to terrible waste. Atter a brief phase that seems to take a more masculine direction, the longer it stays on skin the more it reminds me of the peculiar lemon-cupcakes accord which was the pinacle of charm and naughtiness in
Guerlain's Shalimar Light, with a very discreet suede-like accent in the base (perhaps due to a little labdanum): for something so naughtily laced with animalic civet,
Ubar retains an always opulent yet elegantly sexy vibe (same as
Ormonde Jayne's Tolu does), never veering into vulgarities: it wears hand-sewn dark lace, not red vinyl, as befits something evoking the romance and splendour of the Arabian Nights.
Although
Ubar is appealing to me in no uncertain terms, I find that it is hard to surpass my infatuation with
Jubilation 25, despite its many merits. It is worth noticing that men however, especially men attuned to rose and sandalwood mixes, might find it less outrightly feminine than the former and thus find it a better match to their sensibilities.
Amouage Ubar notes: Bergamot, lemon, lily of the valley, rosa Damascena, jasmine, civet, vanilla.
The original
Ubar from 1995 came in Eau de Toilette concentration in a twisted pyramidal-shaped bottle (
pic here) and cost "around $60 for a half ounce", according to the
NST reportage. The re-issued Amouage
Ubar comes in Eau de Parfum concentration and costs $250 for 50ml and $285 for 100ml at
Amouage.com and
Luckyscent.
Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Amouage scents, Parfums Fourrure/Animalic scents. Pic of Oscar de la Renta fashions shot at Palmyra, via Corbis.
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What to do: Kindly ask your colleagues to go easy on their favorite fragrances, and bring a portable fan to keep your area as scent-free as possible. Stick with body creams and moisturizers that have light scents. These are less likely to irritate you."
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