Ashore

Ok I absolutely love this, but it’s not me at all. At first there’s a blast of sea air (I grew up next to the ocean, this smacks you in the face with the smell just like being a kid arriving at the beach and excitedly opening the car door to rush out onto the sand) it’s fresh, briny and clean, with a bright sappy green background that feels like clover crushed underfoot, and a very faint hint of a pleasant masculine soapy scent that reminds me of the Imperial Leather soap my Grandad always used. It’s like a windy, clear summer afternoon. About half an hour in, it softens, the tender crushed greens vanish but are replaced by a sappy resinous eucalypt note, it’s both rich and fresh and smells like the real tree, not a sharp medicinal cleaning product at all. As it develops I get a faintly woody, dry grass parched warm forest floor scent, like a eucalyptus glade on a hot day. There are hints of a fatty, rich, waxy jasmine plant, no real sweetness and not just the flower but the whole plant, it’s very green and bright and warm and fresh, a slight astringency that reminds me of a freshly torn jasmine leaf. Later on I get inscence, sandalwood and a slight dry mossy undertone, still with woody warm eucalyptus trees and the clean masculine soapy note lingers. There’s also a note that comes and goes that reminds me of the slightly confronting smell of seashells gathered a couple of days ago that you forgot to wash out straight away - it’s sharp and pungent and a little rotten but not exactly unpleasant, just strong and on the verge of being truly rank. It finishes with the soft scent of sun warmed timber decking, those same slightly spicy soapy notes, and a very sexy hint of that musky smell you get from someone who has just gone for a run outside wearing freshly washed running gear and has just arrived back, still wet with sweat and smelling strong but it’s a healthy, pleasing smell, no trace of anything stale, bacterial, funky or sour. Overall I really enjoyed this, but it doesn’t suit my personality at all. I’d definitely be happy to have a small decant to wear on beachy, active holidays, and I think this would be a gorgeous everyday scent for an outdoorsy, masculine sort to wear on warm spring and summer days that aren’t humid or sticky.

There was a white floral a long time ago that smelled very similar to this, and oddly enough I cannot remember what it was. Usually I will covet a fragrance and never forget it until I own it or I no longer like it. It is driving me a little crazy actually. Anyway, after my absolute love affair with Meander from Amouage, I encouraged my mother and a dear friend to come with me to the Amouage counter at Neiman’s to play a bit. Our assistant was SO lovely and knowledgeable, and she sprayed sample cards of a few different frags based on what we like to wear. One that she sprayed for me was Ashore. Mom and I both liked the card well enough to spray our wrists, but our chemistries worked VERY differently with this frag. On mom, she started to smell kind of awful, like an “old lady”, just all powder and that weird neroli-candy corn-metal smell that happens so much on ME. My chemistry for once responded with a “WE HAVE A WINNER” though! I didn’t experience any weirdness in going through the initial spray to drydown. I smelled lovely all day with this fragrance. The jasmine remained front and center, a creamy, silky dance. There was at no point any indole, and I never felt headache-y or like I was knocking anyone over with my scent. If you’ve ever driven on a back road with your windows down and you get this whiff of something floral and beautiful and springy, that’s what this was like for me all day long. It was so timeless and classy and subtle yet prominent enough to not be “invisible”. I felt like I needed to be wearing all white and more expensive clothes. I smelled expensive. *laugh* I’m on the fence about this fragrance being as pricey as it is and whether it is worth it. Worth is of course always subjective, and for most people, this probably is not unique enough to justify purchasing Ashore. Gucci Bloom is similar enough for most people, and I know there’s other perfumes at lower price points that smell similar as well. However, since I struggle with white florals balancing just right on my skin but loving them and WANTING a good one, I kinda think I’ll need to buy a bottle of this soon. It’s just so pretty and luxurious without being obtrusive.

Ashore by Amouage is an overlooked gem from the house of way bigger personalities. But Ashore isn’t created to be a look-at-me nepo baby style fragrance, it’s an elegant and classic Oriental-floral that’s deliberately understated. Wearing it made me exclaim “it’s simply charming” in its clean and effortless naturalistic femininity. So what does it smell like? It’s like the innocent jasmine found in Cigarettes Et Jasmin (but without the cigarettes) plus salty ambergris which completely removes the indoles and adds a savoury anchor to ground the white florals. The spicy/citrusy resinous olibanum, smooth woody sandalwood and salty/dry slightly bitter turmeric adds more grounding to the base again so it’s not a heady screechy non-green jasmine, it’s more like a creamy lily-of-the-valley floral. Ashore is soft and elegant without being vintage as it’s fresh and clean-powdery. I almost immediately bought a full bottle but... after the first 2 hours Ashore sinks far away to a skin-scent and remains that way for the next 8 hours. I had to ask my boyfriend to smell my neck to tell me if he smelt anything at all and he remarked “you smell like you’ve just had a wash” which is a good thing to smell like, considering I hadn’t. Ashore is the perfect vacation scent for when it’s tropical and sunny and you don’t want to overpower your other senses, just compliment your sun-kissed sea-salt skin and breezy light clothing or indeed a wedding gown. My love for Ashore is linked to my love of Fils De Joie which is my other favourite jasmine (that’s more exotically exquisite) whereas Ashore is the demure romantic novelist sister. If you love Ashore, I’d recommend a similar understated elegant fragrance to try: L’or De Louis - it’s a little more spicy but still powdery-soft. I’m still tempted to buy a bottle of Ashore as I love its beauty and gentle simplicity. And I might as this could easily be my 2 hour elegant signature scent. If you’re done with fragrances that bash your head in, Ashore is the charming elegance you’re looking for.

I can't tell for sure if my view of this perfume is too biased to be of value. I have terrible luck with jasmine in perfumes, at least once I spray them on my skin, even if they smell delightful on the blotter. Most of the time my skin turns them bitter, acrid, almost metallic, nothing like the actual flowers, which is a terrible shame. I tried Ashore impulsively, not knowing its notes, just because I was at the Amouage counter and it was the first tester I picked up, and once I had I liked the scent coming off it enough to try on skin. It smells like jasmine on me, I almost can't believe it, I keep smelling my wrist to make sure I'm not imagining things, or that it hasn't turned horrible, but it just keeps on smelling of jasmine. If my memory is correct, it even smells a little like jasmine polyanthum, the jasmine I am used to, and the one whose scent I truly adore. There's a sweet, almost vanilla icecream element to the scent. Not expensive vanilla icecream, which is rich and fatty, and uses real vanilla, but that thin, sweet, milky kind of vanilla icecream like a softserve. A cool, delicate sweetness. It's coming into spring here, and the jasmine flowers all over the neighbourhood are budding, though not yet blooming. Once they do, I'll have a better sense of how much their scent resembles this perfume in reality, and not just my imaginings. I am more than half in love with this perfume, just because for once something still smells of jasmine when I spray it on my skin, so I can't tell you objectively whether I think it's a good perfume. It's certainly a very pleasant perfume, but I suspect if jasmine notes don't turn tend to turn horribly on your skin there are probably other, cheaper, alternatives. For now I will sit around and contemplate whether "still smells like jasmine on my skin" is justification to even think about buying a full bottle of such an expensive perfume.

AMOUAGE Ashore Mackenzie Reilly 2020 Feminine Sometimes it’s difficult to find a realistic review of some Amouage’s perfumes. I think the reason for that is that people who love Amouage are always used to get something extraordinary, something special and/or something artistic. That’s why technically great is not enough and on the other hand some amazing scent is not so popular because it doesn’t meet the right people. When I bought Ashore (blindly) I was thinking that it’s too cold weather for it. It didn’t really make any wow effect on me but mostly people like it in hot weather so I was thinking to wait next summer. Anyway I was spraying it on me the other day and I fell totally in love with it. Beautiful bright and soft Jasmine which is not heady at all. It’s somewhat transparent and minimalistic, it’s even quite linear and easy. It feels fresh and warm and I feel that I have worn some Jasmine scent during the day, spent a beautiful sunny summer day on the beach and been swimming in a salty Mediterranean Sea. That’s how it smells - Jasmine with sun and clean sea water - solar notes and salty feeling. It’s beautiful. It’s like a scent of a mermaid. 🧜♀️ I think I will wear Ashore a lot during the next summer. The longevity is easily 12 hours and it’s not too strong, absolutely office safe. Top: Pink Pepper, Cardamom Oil, Turmeric Leaf Oil Heart: Jasmine Sambac Absolute, Solar Accord, Rose Absolute Base: Ambergris Accord, Olibanum Hyperabsolute, Sandalwood Oil Thank you for reading, I hope my review was helpful. I would appreciate a lot if you want to follow me on IG and/or YouTube (English subtitles): @ninamariahperfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more. 🤗