The universe of Amouage has always encompassed a breathtaking variety of landscapes. From the boundary-pushing territory of the Library Collection, to the complex realm of the Exceptional Extraits, each facet of the House’s creativity has reflected the numerous possibilities offered by the art of perfumery. The Secret Garden Collection occupies a singular position in this rarefied space. Since its inception in 2016, it has been an invitation to enter the uniqueness of the Amouage fragrance aesthetic. With warmth and openness, the perfumes of the Collection have captured the true spirit of femininity in the modern woman. Now, having formed a distinct stylistic profile, Amouage’s Secret Garden has been re-imagined, ready to embark on further journeys of creative exploration. To mark the occasion, a brand new composition, Love Delight, joins the Collection – a delicious creation that adds an alluring dimension to the quartet’s expression of womanhood.
The Temptation of Love Delight
From the moment they emerged, the aim of the Secret Garden scents has been clear — each Eau de Parfum has explored a facet of contemporary femininity by pairing a tantalizingly flavoursome accord with a distinctive floral note. “In the case of Love Delight, I absolutely knew I wanted to stay faithful to the idea at the core of all the Secret Garden perfumes,” explains Chief Creative Officer, Renaud Salmon, “but I wanted to push the olfactory vocabulary into areas we had not really explored before.”
To meet this challenge, Salmon turned to renowned Vice President Senior Perfumer Pascal Gaurin. Taking his cue from the richness of Arabian sweets — which layer generous quantities of crumbly pastry alongside nuts, orange blossom and rose water — Gaurin created an almost impossibly appetising accord that he and Salmon came to call ‘Honey Glazed Pastry’. Shimmering with golden temptation, and calling to mind the gleam and texture of mouth-watering treats, it is exuberant and refined without ever resorting to simplistic sugariness. For the floral facet of Love Delight’s personality, Gaurin turned to Heliotrope. With its aroma of warm almond, as well as its suggestion of ripe cherries, it was a perfect fit with the addictiveness of the Honey Glazed Pastry accord. The result is the most enigmatically lustrous member of the Secret Garden Collection.
When the scent first reveals its optimistic personality, Ginger and Cinnamon project an effervescent insouciance – a glittering sparkle of joy. Adding to the light-filled effect is tender Rose Water, a material being used for the first time in an Amouage creation. As the perfume offers up further charms, the florals in its heart – Heliotrope, Jasmine and Rose – cast a knowing smile across the brightness of the opening. Finally, three precious absolutes, Vanilla Bean, Cocoa and Rum, unite themselves to Cypriol and the Honey Glazed Pastry accord to add an air of languorous ease, balancing the dazzling, solar elements.
Free-spirited and spontaneous, but also generous and open-hearted, Love Delight is an irrepressible tribute to the woman who seeks and finds all the pleasures life has to offer. It is, as its name suggests, a creation that is both full of love and full of delight.
A Garden Redesigned
All four Secret Garden Eaux de Parfum are now presented in re-imagined flacons, featuring a colour palette that emphasises a sense of the enigmatic without losing any of the Collection’s vitality. The bottles’ soft-touch ceramic coating adds an enchantingly tactile dimension to the ritual of applying the scent. Their texture calls to mind a fine, leafy down, making it feel familiar, inviting and confidently contemporary.
Love Delight joins the three existing Secret Garden Eaux de Parfum to add a new chapter to Amouage’s story of the modern woman. It takes its place alongside the powdery elegance of Lilac Love, which mixes Cocoa Bean with Lilac to explore the idea of classical femininity in today’s world, as well as the nectar-like seductiveness of Blossom Love, in which Amaretto and Cherry Blossom burst forth with unashamed romanticism, and the creamy headiness of Love Tuberose, where Chantilly and Tuberose conjure a distinctly female aura of heightened sensuality. While their presentation has been updated, the fragrances of these three existing creations remain unchanged.
Dramatic Visuals for a Return to a Garden of Mysteries
Shot by Charles Negre, under the artistic direction of Jade Lombard, the new visuals for the Collection find inspiration in the work of Joan Miró. A mix of organic and structural shapes against an all-black background, the compositions are an arresting array of textures and colours – a deceptive landscape where proportions are impossible to gauge, compelling the viewer to be drawn into the images. Encapsulating the Collection’s combination of the carefree with the mysterious, the visuals reflect the mysteries at the heart of the Secret Garden, as well as the varied, contrasting forms of femininity itself.
