Reviews of Hammam Bouquet (1872)
by Penhaligon's

While Hammam certainly is the true Victorian oriental of the 19th Century, it is far too dated and far too "old fashioned" in a bad way for the modern nose. The notes themselves are wonderful, but combined create a symphonic dissonance where accord battles accord for dominance. The end result is a stuffy, super powdery, antiquated rose. If this were cleaned up a bit in terms of spices and musks, this would be a wonderful Victorian scent still relevant and impressive today. I prefer Penhaligons Elizabethan Rose, even though it is marketed for women, because it essentially the same scent minus everything that clouds the water so to speak with Hammam Bouquet. The ingredients are no doubt high quality. If you must have a 19th Century floral Oriental, this is the one to get by the way.

wickedly strong and stays for awhile . . . too much for my liking however

A dull rose scent with a hint of citrus and an almost alcoholic smell that lingers like spilled whisky, or cheap aftershave.

I was very excited to try this scent, and I was very disappointed (like I have been with most Panhaligon's scents). It has smelled nice on me on warmer days, but if you're looking for a modern, androgynous floral men's fragrance, check out Fleur Du Male.

This opens with an accord that reminds me of this 'hair oil' that I used to use as a kid. I just can't seem to shake off this 'hair oil' association from it. I think it as far too much 'jasmine' for my liking. I am not averse to floral fragrances but this is cloying. Ofcourse there is 'rose' lurking somewhere in the background but for me this is definitely a 'jasmine' dominated scent. It also has this powdery characteristic to it. I am shocked that its Hammam bouquet is not even a unisex fragrance because to my nose this should definitely be a woman's fragrance.

Hammam Bouquet is a stuffy old-fashioned rose scent that intrigues but nothing more. The rather unpleasant drydown is the main problem I have with it.

At first I didn't like it. I'm no fan of rose scents and especially not of the sort of dry, aromatic, rose geranium like one in Hammam Bouquet. What saved the scent for me was the strong animalic/soapy/musty/powdery/warm ambergris basenote, which feels very traditional, very unlike modern ambers. To me the scent is intriguing, comforting and nostalgic like an old house. If you've tried Creed's Ambre Cannelle you'll now what I'm talking about.

Franco Zefirelli loved this so much he bought the company. I gave my bottle to my father-in-law because I could not relate to the animal-note, probably musk of some sort. However, contains the world's best attar of roses and people who buy this are somebody in life but totally opposite to those who buy Blenheim Boiuquet; successful but usually creatives, artists, philosophers and film directors, of course. The scent that saved a company!

Hammam Bouquet is quite an experience! It is a Victorian-era oriental, and seeks to convey all the exotic splendor of that realm to the curious Western world. I think Creed admirers should try this. It shares the qualities of many Creed fragrances; being quite sweet, intense, and luxuriously opulent. It has a spicy and rich opening of bergamot. Then for a while, cedar gives some dry wood notes which provide a breathing space amidst the rich florals in the middle. The cedar is so balsamic it is almost minty. The roses and violets are quite heavy, though. Soapy sandalwood starts to assert itself. Amber resins then give further balsalmic notes, now almost cinnamon or even coconut-like. Finally, the dry-down is very dusky, powdery and sweet. This is not at all my style, but I do admire the history behind this bottle. Out of that respect I will simply register a neutral rating and urge interested parties to try it.

'Bouquet’ is a very appropriate name for this scent—it is a bouquet of mixed flowers. It opens with an accord that is quite traditional (perhaps this one established that tradition in 1872): that rose dominated accord with substantial support from lavender, bergamot, and orris. There is also an element in the opening that I find a little dirty—I think it rises up from the base. To my nose, the fragrance blossoms when it moves into the midnotes by adding the jasmine (and I get a little musk, too). This juncture with the opening notes create an elegant bouquet of floral scents. It is very floral but it is not all flowery—it’s quite masculine, polished, and it has that rare old world charm—graceful, and dignified without being pompous or stuffy. I love the middle notes of this fragrance—they are an extreme achievement in the artistry of masculine floral accords. The dry down begins with the musk in the mid notes, and it is quite traditional. Unfortunately, my skin captures and magnifies some kind of animalic note in the base and it gets a little unpleasant for me—the musk is retained and is very, very nice, but the sandalwood and amber disappear in the wake of the animalic note. I think that this is the note has affected my interpretation of the opening.
The high quality of this fragrance is obvious from the start. It is such a pleasure to experience these fragrances that still retain some of the natural ingredients of the past. Even the slightly disagreeable notes are acceptable because they are so real and natural—they are produced by life-imbued wood and flowers not by test tubes.

My experience with Hammam Bouquet was a watershed event for me. I walked into Saks Fifth Avenue to try it, dressed for all the world as a young-middle aged business man in nicely cut suit. I tried on Hammam Bouquet and left the store as Marie Dressler in "Dinner at Eight" fat flapper, white cake makeup and all! I was in shock. I had to get back to my office to try and get it off. "Oh my dear this was reeealy something" my Marie personality said swinging the opera length pearls as I got into the elevator. I feared that someone I knew would come in and I would smile that Dressler cringly smile, and I would make him/her sick. Once free I realized that I do not like and can not wear strong floral fragrances. I prefer fragrances with vetiver, or those such as one of my favorites: LV Uomo; fragrances that are a bit bracing and not very sweet. If there is a floral note(and I like floral as a basenote a la l'homme de couer, or Sandalo by LV) it has to be balanced with an earthy or sharper note. Hammam is a strong rose fragrance that I don't think even my wife could stomach. That being said, I would not give this fragrance a "down" vote, since I don't think I can objectively rate it. How can one honestly give a bad rating to something that might be great, but is clearly not for the reviewer? I say go neutral, but don't go out of your way to review too many fragrances that are outside your area of interest. This one opened my eyes to what florals are all about and that is fine as long as they are not about me. Enjoy.

Joe

I'm sorry but HB has left me disappointed. I've worn it dozens of times in the past couple of months. At first, it felt unqiue in its prominent presence of roses. However, lately I've noticed that the drydown isn't very pleasant. In fact, it leaves a bitter, not to say foul, residual smell that reminds me -- sorry to say this -- of urine. I guess it's one of those scents that you need to wear only once in awhile to appreciate it virtues. Perhaps it's also a climate thing: when I wore it in London, it smelled differently than in the warm climate of Israel. At present, I'm less impressed than I was intially. I have a lot of respect for this 19th century fragrance, but I certainly don't think I'll be using it on a daily basis. Endymion is still my favorite.