– Part One of a tale and a review of Amouage Fate

How should I begin this reading for you? How to quell those butterflies of futurity that flutter in your dark, that fear of the unknown that so impels you all? If you had no trepidation of the future or even any hope, you wouldn’t be here with me, hoping against all experience for all your dreams come true. Or should that be – hoping against hope to quash that midnight black moth of fear that batters you and propels you through Destiny’s Doors, where I wait for those who dare to find me?

I am always here, you have just arrived, and time dances ever onward towards a destiny it too must fulfill.

Yes, I know, I know…I don’t come cheap. Few revelations ever do, and somehow, I get the impression that’s what you seek – a revelation of a future you don’t even have the courage to imagine. Or should that be some epiphany that even as one door closes – the one you chose to enter by, that tale you have told the world so far – another one opens, and yet another story begins for you?

I can tell you now…this is nothing more and never less than one ending to that old story of you, the one you write even as you sit with me across the table, and very much more than that new beginning for you, the one you need me to confirm.

That new beginning you so desperately want to believe in, the one you cling to on rainy days and Mondays. What shall it be, what shall I see for you, what clouds and visions will unfold in my crystal ball?

What perfume does your destiny breathe? Are you surprised that such a portentous thing should be a perfume instead of an amulet, a lucky charm, a  deck of Tarot cards?

Everyone does that, which is precisely why I don’t. These are Destiny’s doors, which open only for the most arcane of secrets – and people, too.

Close your eyes. Breathe in deep. Can you sense those omens of sunshine and spice? Do you feel how suddenly, your world seems so much lighter? It almost makes you want to laugh for joy, doesn’t it? Worries? What worries? This is kismet of a gentler, softer kind, but don’t mistake gentle for careless. If you do, that fiery, feisty spice and sass will come back to bite you, although I suspect it has other plans.

You expected Beethoven, star-crossed Sturm und Drang, an operatic overture of doom in baritone and alto keys. Major surprises can be good that way.

Destiny has other plans for you. Incendiary things, sugar and spice and several things nice, but I tell you now – you have to suspend your credulity just a little, give over control and have a little… faith.

Ah. That struck a chord, yes? Faith, hope’s less cynical sibling. Not something easy to come by in this disparaging day and age, which doesn’t mean you need it any less. This perfume will tell you how to find it, but I can tell – you know.

You know to find it in the beauty within the silky petals of a thousand flowers, roses, jasmine, narcissus, even, blooming all their glories, blinding white and ruby red against a blue eternal sky, emanating all their secrets on your skin and blowing their summer breezes into your soul.

Go ahead. Have all the faith and all the courage you can ever need when you doubt that destiny of your making.

Here’s another secret for you. This is not a destiny created for you, this is the destiny you create for yourself every instant it wafts in your wake. I am here to tell you, since otherwise, you would never believe and that is important.

Believe it.

Believe it as you waft through it, walk around it, breathe in all those arcane wishes and secret aspirations.

Now, the time has come to inhale those fires that inspire you to create that karma you claim as your own.

They burn far below that summer sun and spicy laughter, beneath that faith the flowers bestowed upon you, they burn as warm and as precious as frankincense tears to cherish and console you when all around you seems so cold and so indifferent.

What world would not acknowledge what you have to give with a fortune such as yours, with a singular perfume such as this?

This is not the song this perfume sings for you, this is not the destiny you’ll implore as you walk out my doors.

Ah, I sense it now, that tiny drop of fear you hide so well beneath all your sophisticated veneer, that fear of one door closing, the fear we all have of all we cannot know.

Most of all for you, I think, that fear that all your dreams are dreamt in vain, for nothing, for lack of a reality to manifest them in.

Close your eyes. Breathe them in, those dreams, for all reality begins in dreams, the daylight dreams that catch us unaware and the midnight visions that so bewitch us in our sleep and sets us free to build reality upon them.

I know those dreams. I can tell you what they mean, but you…you are in a hurry to know more, to know everything, to know what no one can ever know but you.

Every moment you breathe, every moment you create, every instant you remember…the sunshine of a flawless summer day, your fiery zest for life, those moments of beauty that catch you by surprise and take your breath away, those flickering flames of inspiration that always, always burn and impel you to manifest those haunting dreams – all will lead you to this sweetly scented secret.

Vanilla and benzoin will sing their chorus that great things await you, this silken chypre will whisper on your skin no pleasures shall be denied you, if you dare, if you believe, if you have the courage to follow where they lead and the imagination to envision it as boldly and as audaciously as you dare.

These are the secrets I could breathe alive for you, the perfume your kismet has made for you.

I sense nothing more for you here, see no further secrets in my opalescent crystal ball except one.

The time has come to claim the Fate that awaits you on the other side of Destiny’s doors.

Notes: Bergamot, cinnamon, chili, pepper, rose, jasmine, frankincense, labdanum, vanilla, benzion, castoreum, patchouli, oakmoss, leather

Amouage Fate Woman was created by Dorothée Piot in collaboration with Creative Director Christopher Chong. It is available directly from Amouage boutiques worldwide now, and in the US in October 2013.

Disclosure: A sample was provided for review by Amouage. With thanks to the Very August Personage.

Images: Image of Amouage Fate presentation courtesy of Amouage. Used by permission. Fortune teller via Dorothea’s Closet Vintage, original hamsa via Razanal on deviantart, Wheel of Fortune Tarot card via Polyvore, Photoshop reprographics, editing and compositing, my own.