Tribute Attar (2009)
by Amouage

Holy smokes! Tribute is as impressive as everyone says it is. It is an equal amount of leather and smoke, mixed with cedar, rose, and vetiver. Dark and smoldering at first, it goes on with the acrid tang of freshly billowing smoke from the priest's censer. The leather note is dark but supple and so smoothly folded into the smoke notes that it takes your nose a while to separate what is smoke and what is leather. The opening is quite pungent, but also beautiful, in that harsh, angular way that phenolic scents often are. The smoke is similar to that in Bois d'Ascese and Jeke, in character if not form, with Tribute's smoke more tightly woven into the other notes.

Although the smoke and leather notes continue on for quite a while, the middle section of the scent comes to the fore and you start to notice the different smokey woods (cedar mostly), roots (vetiver), and leaves (patchouli) jostling around for your attention. The woods/roots/leaves have a resinous quality to them, but also a dry, smoked quality. Fascinating. But then I asked my husband to take a sniff, and he recoiled, spluttering, "Oh God, that is terrible" When I asked him to describe what he smelled, he went down to his wardrobe and brought up these wooden balls he had bought to scent his clothes drawers - "It smells like this," he said, "Raw wood and nothing else. And not a fancy schmancy wood like sandalwood, either, something more common", which I took to mean cedar (I mean, what else could it be?) Don't know why I am including this anecdote except to say that it gave me pause for thought. Sometimes, you just have to listen to the common man, ya know?

Anyway, I loved the way Tribute slowly but surely shed its tough outer layers of smoke and leather to reveal a fleshy, tender rose. I started to pick up more on the dusty, slightly medicinal note of saffron too. Underneath, vetiver continued to provide a resinous, rooty and masculine base for the wonderful rose. I found Tribute to be fascinating, beautiful, and complex. But I could never lust after a perfume that not only is far beyond the reach of my wallet but also disgusts my husband. So, for me, a pleasurable sampling that will go no further than that.

Genre: Leather

When Tribute was announced I wondered how much it would resemble its predecessor, Homage. After all both are attars centered on frankincense and rose Taifi, and how much range for variation could there be? Plenty, as it turns out. Tribute bears no resemblance to Homage whatsoever. In fact, it doesn’t smell a whole lot like anything else in the Amouage line, despite employing several house standard ingredients. Whereas Homage is all about rose - seasoned, to be sure, with oudh, citrus, and frankincense - Tribute’s rose is not immediately apparent to me. Instead, Tribute opens on a grimly mesmerizing accord of intensely smoky leather, frankincense, and dry, bitter saffron. It’s at once craggy, gaunt, and otherworldly. It’s also completely devoid of the decadent, plush, floral texture familiar from so many other Amouage scents.

Thought the saffron bows out fairly quickly, the smoke, charred leather and incense remain in place, supported as Tribute develops by a potent, dry, earthy vetiver. Once the vetiver materializes, Tribute begins to echo, (albeit at a distance,) the equally austere charred leather and vetiver accord at the heart of Vero Kern’s weird and magnificent Onda. What distinguishes Tribute from that worthy antecedent is the exquisite rose and jasmine accord that follows the vetiver to the surface. While rose is the star performer in several Amouage scents, including Lyric Man, Lyric Woman, and Homage, here it plays an ensemble role, weaving through Tribute’s structure to wrap all the smoke and ash in a luxuriant, soft floral blanket. The somber mood established at the start remains intact, but it is softened, elevated, and rendered more complex and full by the rich floral embroidery.

Tribute mellows very slowly on my skin, as the gradually dispelling smoke and tar reveal more of the floral components. After an hour or two of wear, Tribute acquires an added layer of complexity with the emergence of a deep, rounded pipe tobacco note. As the tobacco note swells, its inherent warmth transforms Tribute incrementally from austere to comforting. This transformation transpires over the course of perhaps eight hours, during which Tribute exhibits considerable strength, though like many attars and oils, it wears relatively close. While it does not fill the room, anyone who enters your personal space will perceive it quite clearly. The extended drydown of tobacco, vetiver, and animalic leather lingers for hours as a warm, tightly enveloping skin scent.

Whereas quite a few men have expressed anxiety over wearing the conspicuously floral Homage and Gold Men in public, Tribute offers no grounds for trepidation. In fact, Tribute is a far less “pretty” composition than Gold, Homage, or any other Amouage scent I know, and for that reason I particularly enjoy it. I certainly find it easier than several of the others to wear.

I loved the rose and Jasmine. It went on strong, but sadly for me, did not have longevity. So many perfumes just seem to soak in and vanish. I can usually count on Amouage to stay, but this sample did not.

Totally agree with Iivanita; Tribute is the yin to Homage's yang. Whereas Homage is the Sun, Tribute is a smoldering fire at night under the Moon.

Amazing, intense, supreme

frankincense, saffron, floral notes, Jasmine, Rose Taifi, leather, tobacco, cedarwood, patchouli, vetiver

The beginnning plunges straight into a gorgeous frankincense with saffron and a floral note; on my skin it takes a while for a nice rose to develop. Jasmine and an intense tobacco merge into a rich cedarwood note, whilst in the later stages a feshness emerges that is vetiver-driven, with patchouli giving it a slightly deeper and rougher edge for a moment. On my skin the incense is alway present, like the backbone of this great fragrance. The quality of the product components is amazing, the overall blending very smooth, and the overall end result is a unique scent. Very good silage an projection. I used a homeopathic amount only and got eight hours of longevity, a perfume-like performance.