Amouage Boundless by Louise Mertens, courtesy of Amouage
If there was one song that got everyone on the dance floor in 1985, it was Baltimora’s Tarzan Boy. When that firecracker opening synth started and the beat began to drive, the dancefloor swarmed like a hive of gelled hair bees, big-shouldered blazers pushed to the elbows, long shirts billowing, bangles jangling. As echoey, exuberant whooa whooa calls repeated into the cavernous room, you waved your arms in the air and spun like a dayglo top, faster and faster, as if nothing else would ever matter. That joyfully untethered feeling is the inspiration for Amouage’s Boundless.
Rainbow tree, image via Amouage
Described by Amouage creative director Renaud Salmon describes as “traditional woody-spicy oriental creations, reminiscent of early personal olfactive memories of a time when the apparent lightness of life brought us simple pleasures that shaped our happiness.” For Amouage Boundless, Renaud had in mind a jungle where “energy echoes that of sunlight bouncing off the dewy leaves” and he hit upon Baltimora’s music video for Tarzan Boy, with its psychedelic visual and colour-saturated jungle graphics. Boundless and its sister fragrance, Material (reviewed here by Alexandre Helwani) share a central accord of guaiac wood and vanilla. But where Material goes low-light and chewy-resinous and heads for the nearest sofa to make out, Boundless picks up the beat with dry notes of bitter orange and myrrh bopping along with a big dose of cinnamon and fresh ginger at the top. Some deliciously smoky guaiac wood trips in after; it is bittersweet, spicy, crackly, and ready to parrrtttyyy!
Karine Vinchon-Spehner via Amouage
But instead of going 2am caffeinated bonkers, Boundless draws you in closer and, while the beat steadies, it moves to a different groove. The fragrance becomes denser as the woods come forward, and the laser light opening gives way to filtering sunlight. Robertet perfumer Karine Vinchon-Spehner explains, “I wanted to play with the idea of a ‘golden wood’ and a gateway to a dense jungle where wood essences of all kinds can be perceived. I used the raw aspect of vetiver roots, the smoky effect of guaiac wood and the earthy tones of patchouli, supported by oak moss. I represented the reflection of sun rays piercing through the branches with natural materials evoking light and the golden colour, such as vanilla, cardamom and ginger or balsams: frankincense, benzoin, labdanum and myrrh.”
Rainbow tree, image via Amouage
The sense of brightness introduced by the fruity orange, ginger and cinnamon in the opening never leaves but with the volume lowered. These vivacious notes hover over the perfume’s woody heart as it expands. As time goes one, the composition gets warmer and a bit more butch with all that guaiac and now, some mulchy tobacco. Papyrus, sharply aromatic, augments the dry quality of the guaiac, while vetiver pulls the perfume deeper into the rooty, murky realms of Renaud’s fantasy jungle. Before you get lost in a heart of darkness, though, civilization breaks through with the dusty, velvety, market stall fragrance of cardamom, and a complex waft of temple incense wends through the woody, earthy smells. I also get a sweaty hit of cumin, even though it’s not listed, which reminds me the humans lurk nearby.
Vanilla Still life via Amouage Rafael Deprost
Vanilla – the central note of Material – comes through late in Boundless’ development and reminds me of the kinship shared by the two fragrances. But here, the chewier, sweeter aspects of vanilla take a back seat to its fruity, almost raisin-y quality. The blood orange from the beginning bounces back happily to meet it and Amouage Boundless takes on a creamsicle note. An hour or two later, Boundless has coalesced into something more burnished and snuggly. The brightness is still apparent but now acts as a backbeat to the slower tempo of the woods, resins and incense. Boundless becomes warmer, hazy and bright at different moments like sun on a damp day playing hide-and-seek with the fog.
Baltimora Still
Balitmora is blaring from a boombox and the old craic comes for a visit. Dogs bark and pounce on each other in the street outside my window, trucks go about their city business, and every movement of the street syncopates to the music. My body feels the beat bouncing off the scuffed walls of the scruffy common room of Westfield College, circa 1985. Street market beads click against the buttons of my long paisley shirt, wild hair falls across my black-rimmed eyes, and I’m being spun clumsily by some guy I will be snogging before too long. I’m remembering that sense of exuberance you have very young, when life is a yellow brick road promising excitement and leading to dozens of magical somewheres. It might be Renaud’s history, but it feels like mine right now. Boundless is the kind of smoky-woody-vibrant fragrance the arty, trendy boys I hung out with in Camden Town might have grabbed a off my bedroom shelf. It’s time to hit replay and another spritz. Even though the trees are sagging under the cicacadapocalypse, screw it. I’m grabbing that long vine and swinging.
Notes: Blood orange oil, cardamom oil, ginger CO2, elemi oil, vanilla bourbon absolute and CO2, benzoin resinoid, guaiac wood oil, papyrus oil, cocoa absolute, tobacco absolute, oak moss absolute, frankincense absolute and oil, myrrh resinoid, vetiver oil, patchouli oil.
Disclaimer: Bottle of Amouage Boundless and component accords generously provided by Amouage. My opinions, as always, are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
10 ml Amouage Boundless, photo by Lauryn
Thanks to the generosity of Amouage we have a 10 ml travel spray of Amouage BOUNDLESS for a registered CaFleureBon readers in all countries EXCLUDING Canada, Russia, China, Italy, Spain, New Zealand and Latin America (if you are not sure if you are registered click here.)To be eligible please leave a comment with what you enjoyed in Lauryn’s review and where you live. Draw closes 5/26/21
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