Amouage Interlude 53 Man Exrait (New Packaging) 3.4 Oz

Smoke, resin, and dried herbs - this smells like a room where incense has been burning for hours. Interlude 53 Man is the extrait-strength take on one of the most recognizable smoky compositions in modern perfumery, and it does not ease you in. The opening is a strange, brilliant hit of oregano and pimento berry over bergamot, herbal and nearly savory, before frankincense and opoponax take over and everything turns dense and resinous. Leather, agarwood, and sandalwood carry it home.

Top: Bergamot, oregano, pimento berry · Heart: Frankincense, cistus, opoponax, amber · Base: Leather, agarwood, patchouli, sandalwood

Extrait concentration on a resin-and-oud base makes this the longest-lasting fragrance most people will ever own - twelve hours is unremarkable, and it is still detectable on a jacket days later. Miami heat does something specific to it: the incense expands. In cold, dry air Interlude 53 sits close after the first few hours, but at ninety degrees with high humidity it keeps radiating, and one spray too many in a car or an elevator becomes everyone's problem rather than yours. Half a spray to one spray is a real dose in this climate. The compensation is that South Florida heat coaxes out the sweeter opoponax and amber facets that stay buried in winter wear, softening the smoke into something warmer and less austere.

Cool evenings, formal occasions, and anyone after presence rather than agreeableness. Not office-safe in any season and not a beach scent. December through February is its window here; summer wear belongs outdoors, in open air.

Stocked as a full bottle only - there is no decant size on this one - which makes trying it on skin the sensible first move. Come by the Miami Gardens shop, spray it once, and then wait two hours before you decide anything. Interlude 53 at hour three is a different fragrance than Interlude 53 at minute one.