Reviews of Hammam Bouquet (1872)
by Penhaligon's

Nice very nice special in winter days.

If you ever wondered what The British thought an upper-class dandy's scent would smell like in 1872, this is it.

Dr. Turin's book put me off trying it for a while, since it stated that the original ingredients must have been superb, and further implying that this is at best a second rate copy, at least until I turned a few pages and saw he said the same thing about Blenheim Bouquet, which I had already tried and loved.

I figured if it was as "bad" as the modern Penhaligon's rendition of Bleinheim, I could live with that.

Someone posted this is the opposite of Blenheim. True. Blenheim has a rugged,masculine, almost adverserial quality to it.

This one I can picture as a signature scent for Oscar Wilde I wonder if he ever wore it? Did Whistler make fun of him? did Lillie Langtree console him? We might never know . . .

Upon first sniff I got a blast of lavender and then the rose kicked in. Yes, there are other notes, but to my nose those are the more prominent ones. I also agree that this is not a " floral" scent, as another reviewer commented. Now THAT is hard to explain, it's not just that it smells unlike irritating flowery female frags, it also smells unlike first rate men's floral scents--scents that have a floral at the heart note.

The downside is it's a bit powdery. Worse, my imagination makes me feel as if this scent should have been invented a hundred years earlier. The villanous fop Cunningham (Tim Roth) in Rob Roy would have worn it in his dueling scenes. Though I suspect he'd have it sprayed on his handkerchief, not on himself.

So if you're ready to say " I am your Grace's humble servant " as you bow ceremoniously prior to drawing your rapier and humiliating a burly broadsword wielding opponent, or if you wish to have something cool to drink in a Victorian garden before quipping a bon mot, this may be your signature scent as well . . .

Hammam Bouquet is a very lovely, light oriental. The bergamot/lavender opening is sparkling and inviting; the floral heart opens with in moments and is warmed by notes from the amber base peeking through. The musky sandlewood/amber drydown is rich and fulfilling. It's an excellent fragrance. It's old fashioned in every good sense; I wouldn't call it a classic though. It is not a scent I want to smell every day, but it is quite good for what it is.

i was shocked when i first sampled HB.....any indian on this forum would recognise this smell with the age old hair oil formula that is quite popular in india and has been used for ages.

for a quick review, this product is quite popular in some parts of india and especially local head massage parlours in india.. the similarity ceases between two after the opening notes. (the mood of the scent)

http://www.herbalcureindia.com/produ...n-hair-oil.htm

HB for me opened with this accord that im not new to by any means. it's a very raw, herbal/ floral accord, done in the same vain/intensity as YSL Jazz (only a reference for the intensity, no similarity in smell)...this accord is quite invigorating and bright..like smelling 1000 crushed flowers mixed with tart lime notes and herbs at a time..it's sour to an extent of leaving a taste in mouth..its somewhere in the midnotes that this grabs one by their $@!!$... wow! the very same opening notes lowers it intensity and lays itself on a bed of powdery animalic notes(in kouros/gentleman way)...it has the same kind of powdery effect which kouros exudes (only the approach, not the smell)...once in this accord, it's then very hard to turn back. one of the most astounding fragrance ever released, way way ahead of time and a masterpiece to say the least.

i'm sure many fragrance houses of today would still look up and admire this fragrance for its construction, built, finesse and rugged quality.

A rich rose/neroli that is carried well by a musky, woody amber. The neroli comes across quite heavy at first, but it mellows out and settles into a pleasant and comfortable powdery musky thing that gives me new appreciation for neroli.

Good rose scent that's classy and refined. I believe this is the same rose/neroli Penhaligon's uses in their newest Castile. The rose sticks around a while, amplified by the sandalwood and amber.

This review is under revision.

The first notes of this perfume made me nervous. I felt like it was designed for innocent virgin girls. But as soon as the rose and sandalwood took over, I became aware of how sophisticated this fragrance is. It is delicate but manly at the same time. It is a wonderful achievement and can surely be considered a classic. Thumbs up.

Magnificent! The finest men's rose I've ever encountered. I recently compared this with Villoresi's Donna, which is based on Bulgarian Rose. It is comparable in quality - the Hammam using Turkish Rose otto - but Hamman has more of a masculine base note to hold the rose firmly in place as an evocation of sensuality. One of the great colognes of all time.

9 notes:

Top: Lavender, Bergamot
Middle: Rose Otto, Cedarwood, Orris, Jasmine
Base: Amber, Musk, Sandalwood

Heady, wonderful stuff -- the stuff that 19th century Orientalist dreams are made of. Warm rose in the middle of all that glorious sandalwood, then a crescendo of amber to tie it all up at the end.

Classic stuff, and (in many ways) the antithesis of Blenheim Bouquet.

This one started with a lovely galbanum-orris accord similar to that found in the topnotes of Chanel No. 19(which I find nutty), and slowly fades into a low-key dark rosy floral heart.

The rose is lightly spicy and accented by overtones of jasmine, turning slightly more spicy as the notes progress, and eventually the sweetness tones down and the powdery iris rises again, this time returning with hints of lavender and amber.

A iris based floral truely wearable by men, look for its female counter-parts in Chanel No. 19(preferably the EDP) or Hermes Hiris.

having tasted a lot of outstanding floral,fascinating,rich but unfortunately feminine scents i nearly was giving it up-but accidentally it was recommended to me and it has been one of my my most amazing experiences-hammam bouquet is a male-definitely a scent for a man!-perfume:rich, elegant,warm oriental,floral, classy and it so distinguished and decent!Discret and elegant-you feel it but it is never dominating, nerving or exhausting-you feel surrounded by the memories of a journey into the ancient oriental baths and palaces....oriental countries...and on the other hand it is the old british empire....you live the upper class life in a british colony....remember a passage to india or similar books....this perfume captures the complete british history...and as time goes by this scent becomes more and more interesting and fascinating...a fragrance with heart and soul.....it is absolutely a gentleman´s eau de toilette-so sophisticated and exceptional-a timeless really great scent specially for those who look for the unique!Absolutely gorgeous-you can´t describe the perfection of this scent-you have to taste it!and 1872-are there any questions?!hey it´s 2007 and hammam bouquet is a thrilling and outstanding scent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For a fragrance so heavy on the flowers, it’s surprisingly un-floral if you take women’s perfumes of the same family as a standard. You cannot mistake this for such a one; it’s unequovically a man’s scent. This dandy isn’t even confused about his sexual orientation. He’s just come from the Turkish baths, where he’s been frolicking with the proprietor’s daughter, and as he leaves the barber’s shop he casts a lascivious glance at the newly-wed countess across the street. But his mind quickly wanders to other promises of the heart of the British Empire, and as he swings his priapic walking-stick and heads home to change for the evening, the sunset takes on the smell of roses and the moon rises into clouds of jasmin and lavender.

What really makes this scent so fascinating is that it turns an English meadow into an exotic jungle, each soft flower having the shade of soil, sweat and danger. It’s as musky as it is floral, as daring and provocative as it is stylish and classic, as animalic as it is gentlemanly, but above all it is natural and naturally classy. A social lion indeed!

Orientalism captured in a bottle. This is the olfactory complement to Ingres’ Turkish Bath, which is, of course, what a Hammam is. A brilliant projection of repressed Victorian sexuality upon the foil of an imaginary Araby. Fantasies of a Sultan’s absolute power and unrestrained sexual indulgence with unlimited numbers of women, of reversing the strict codes of the British social veneer in the dreamland that Stephen Marcus, in The Other Victorians, labeled Pornotopia. What better way of scentualizing these desires but by combining the rich floral power of rose attar and the violet-like orris, supported by a hint of cedar that adds a traces of oriental spiciness, with the smell of sex created by musk and amber. Hamman, we realize, is just a code for what a Victorian perfume could not be called, despite deliberately intending the association: Harem bouquet. This smells like a heady opulent boudoir in which people have just had sex, pure and simple. And certainly everybody in fine society knew this and yet did not – Victorian doublethink. Few scents could be richer in cultural history and this, seriously, should be smelled by students in seminars on the Victorian Era, British imperialism, Orientalism - and gender history, since quite likely many present-day individuals would experience gender confusion here, associating femininity (perhaps even of the Queen Mum sort)with the flowery aspects and then stumbling over the sexual-animalic component.

*Hammam Bouquet* is Penhaligon’s first and oldest fragrance introduced in 1872 at the high point of British imperial expansion. An imposing scent from a still imposing bygone era and like the Victorian imperial culture which engendered it, it is rich and full of the refinement of imperial experience. The visual image I get of this fragrance is one of paisley prints. *Hammam Bouquet* is also a model example of the skillful, artful, and creative blending of key natural ingredients. It opens with an amazingly heady and exquisite top note, a heavenly combination of Otto of Roses and Orris. For a man’s fragrance, it is very clever in its use and interplay of what are now key and classic floral elements of women’s perfumes. The iris and rose top notes persists, albeit in a muted fashion, well into the heart notes where they are married with jasmine and cedar. Despite its use of iris, rose, and jasmine, the accord remains resolutely “masculine” as the floral notes are modified by the cedar and anchored by a solid, mostly Musk basenote accord, with touches of amber and sandalwood, both of which, along with the cedar, keep pulling the floral notes back into a more “masculine” woody animalic realm. Of course, it comes from a time when masculine/feminine distinctions with regard to florals meant very little as we can deduce from the very nature of this fragrance. Well into the drydown the accord becomes clearly powdery with a predominance of musk, and with a surprising recrudescence and slight persistence of Jasmine and Rose. A word of warning, the musk drydown seems based on an older style of musk, which can be, in some instances, quite temperamental by developing a troubling, sharp, civet-like animalic urine edge, the “urine” note noted by a previous reviewer. I suspect such a response will vary according to skin type and to ambient conditions. With this in mind, wearing the fragrance in heat and humidity is probably not a good idea. Despite this caveat, *Hammam Bouquet* remains a very refined, strikingly assured, and brilliantly crafted fragrance with an engaging, dynamic drydown that is a joy to behold. It is impressive to experience a fragrance which knows where it’s going, actually goes somewhere, and has an adventure getting there. I think this one is an authentic gem, but I suspect that, like most gems, it will be kept in its box most of the time and will only occasionally be brought out and given a chance to sparkle.

I never thought of rose as a particularly feminine smell. If you smell the actual flower in a dewy garden it smells very genderless to my nose, just a nice, mild and fresh aroma. I think it's the extremely synthetic rose in the tacky mass market fragrances of the last decade that has tarnished the reputation (and woman-ized it)of this beatiful floral component. The rose found in Geo F Trumpers ancient Rose Shaving Cream for instance smells very gentle and natural, not girlie in any way. The same can be said for Comme de Garcons Red Series Rose. So with this in mind I was never afraid or worried about the strong rose element when I finally got around to sample Hammam Boquet. After all this one was released over a century ago. Unfortunately the overall impression of the fragrance left me somewhat underwhelmed, I guess I expected a little more - afterall Penhaligon's Blenheim Boquet is one of my favourites and a monumental statement of everything brittish. Since, I've warmed up to it slightly but there is a dryness in HB which just doesn't sit well on my skin. The quality is stellar though, literally smells expensive (and it is!) and for the right person I think this could give the perfect ambiance of understated elegance. Good stuff, just not for me.

This is flamboyant, it's true, and I have to be in the right mood to wear it. But it's too damn beautiful not to have. A glorious reminder of when men loved floral, this is a beautifully rich, enveloping fragrance that captivates me at first sniff. In fact, it's one of the smells that lured me back into a love of fragrance. To me, it's less hammam than august English garden, sweating under a sultry heat. I adore it.

In my search for rose scents, I came across Hammam Bouquet. And though there is a great deal of rose here, jasmine is also high in the mix, and lasts at least as long as the rose. A beautiful sandalwood note lingers in the base. Because of the competing notes, I find this one to be a bit baroque. It is also quite evocative of another era. But do I enjoy wearing it? Absolutely! This is one of the most compelling scents in my collection, but it does take a great deal of panache to wear.

A brave rose scent for men. Sumptuous with some spice and wood in the mix. Almost flamboyant would be a good description. I'd keep it for a nice evening out.