From the beginning of Francis Kurkdjian’s eponymous Maison Francis Kurkdjian line he has released paired fragrances, pour femme and pour homme. In the original releases APOM and Lumiere Noire existed in these pairs and the funny thing was I preferred the Pour Femme version. It was enough for me to consider getting genetically tested to make sure my Y-chromosome was still there. More seriously it was another example at how adding a gender to fragrance is meaningless. If it smells good on me it can be called “Only for Women” and I’ll still wear it. What I liked about both of these first two pairs were they showed M. Kurkdjian taking a different creative tack on some of the same central notes and using different complementary notes to realize striking and interesting differences in the similar cores. A new pair has been released by M. Kurkdjian called Amyris Pour Femme and Pour Homme and he has again achieved a fascinating duality around the titular note of Amyris.

Amyris is a flowering plant commonly called Torchwood and is a common source of elemi resin. M. Kurkdjian, as he did previously, takes this resinous wood and uses it as the focal point to create two very different fragrances where the only overlap happens with the amyris and iris found in the middle of both. This time though I prefer Pour Homme but Pour Femme is probably the more unique and interesting piece of construction.

Amyris Pour Femme was a complete surprise because I thought I understood how one uses elemi in building a fragrance. It usually adds that citrus tinged balsamic pine accord that heralds a fragrance taking a turn for deeper waters. The fascinating aspect of Amyris Pour Femme is instead of the balsamic aspects taking hold somehow it is the sharp lemony citrus aspects that carry the day and for much of the development the deeper aspects seem to be far off in the distance.

The opening is a juicy orange and this is where the lemony character of amyris comes forward and instead of getting intensely woody it stays very light and surprisingly transparent through the early moments. The heart is a rich orris which has all of the floral aspects of iris without the powder or heavier earthy aspects on display. This maintains the sheer quality of the top notes and this is where Amyris Pour Femme lingers for a long while on my skin. The amyris and orris seem like tailor-made partners for each other and their harmony is the high point of this perfume. The base uses vetiver and amber to finally coax a bit of balsamic goodness off the sidelines and into the game but really as foundation for the amyris and orris to rest upon as it is those two notes which leave an indelible impression.

Amyris Pour Homme is very much a strong presence and it was everything I expected and wanted from a fragrance from M. Kurkdjian based around amyris. What is fascinating as far as construction differences go is in the top and the heart notes M. Kurkdjian uses the same notes but from different sources and throws one extra game-changing note into both and that makes Amyris Pour Homme dramatically different and something which definitely feels like it carries its own Y-chromosome.

As with Pour Femme there is a citrus top note but in this case it is mandarin and along with it is an excellently chosen rosemary which adds a pungent herbal contrast and this coaxes all of the balsamic possibility of amyris to the foreground. Then he uses a Florentine iris which, this time, does carry that earthy quality of iris with it and it is a great complement to the amyris. To keep this from dropping too deep M. Kurkdjian adds a significant amount of tonka bean absolute and this has the effect of adding a tobacco-like accord to the heart of Pour Homme. The first time I wore this the tobacco accord didn’t come fully together. The next two times it clicked into place and turned Pour Homme into something that really appealed to me. The base is the synthetic woodiness of ambrox up against the woody characteristic of amyris and it leaves Amyris Pour Homme deep in the woods at the end.

Amyris Pour Femme and Pour Homme have excellent all-day longevity and average sillage.

As I said in the beginning this time I prefer Amyris Pour Homme because it is a lot of what I hoped for and which M. Kurkdjian delivered. In the long run I think Amyris Pour Femme is the better piece of perfumery as it was a complete surprise and something I kept sniffing over and over when I was wearing it. Uh-oh maybe I do need to get a genetic test after all. The truth is much simpler, when a perfumer as talented as M. Kurkdjian interprets a central note like amyris one should just sit back and let his creativity take you wherever he thinks you should go; it is almost always a trip worth taking.

Disclosure: This review was based on samples provided by Osswald NYC.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor

All Art by Fernando Botero