Amouage, Reflection Woman

Fragrance type: Floral 

Notes: Water Violet, Purple Freesia, Tropical Green Leaves, Magnolia, Ylang Ylang, Jasmine, Amber, Musk, Cedarwood, Sandalwood (Basenotes) 

Where can I buy it? Parfums Raffy sells the 50ml EDP for $225 US. 

Reflection Woman is a fragrance by Amouage, which was founded in Oman. Starting in 1983, Amouage has released fragrances for both men and women, such as Amouage Gold, Arcus and Epic. In 2007, the company released both a men’s and women’s version of Reflection. 

The nose behind Reflection Woman is none other than Maurice Roucel, who has created perfumes such as Hermes 24 Faubourg, Guerlain Insolence and Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur. (You can read a fantastic interview Cris Rosa Negra did with Maurice Roucel at Perfume Critic.) 

I was lucky enough to have been given a bottle of Reflection by Mr. Perfume Critic himself, Marlen Harrison. (Thank you!!) The instant I pulled it out of the box of goodies he had sent me, I was awestruck by the gorgeous bottle!! From what I have been able to find out on the net, Amouage have changed their bottles – so above is the new bottle...but below is the old one! Can you see why I was speechless? It’s absolutely stunning!

Anyway...onto the fragrance. When I first read the notes, I thought it was going to be a fairly strong white floral, because of the magnolia/jasmine mid notes... but I was pleasantly surprised when I sprayed Reflection on my skin. The fragrance is fresh, aquatic and slightly green at the beginning, with only the slightest hint of flowers. Definitely not what I was expecting from a Middle Eastern fragrance company! 

Not more than 15 minutes later, the florals appear – but not as strong as I thought they would be. The white flower notes really compliment the fresh top notes, and blend to form a pretty feminine scent, perfect for a spring day. 

Once the base notes appear, they add some warmth to the green-floral notes, and leave you with a vaguely woody-fresh (yes, this combination is possible) drydown. This really surprised me – I thought the wood/amber notes would take over at this point, leaving no trace of what the scent had begun with...but I thought wrong! 

Reflection Woman was not the fragrance I was expecting to smell...and I’m glad! Rather than being the overly floral, cloying scent I had thought would come out of the beautiful bottle, a fresh, green, light floral scent emerged and took me by surprise! 

Disclaimer: I received this product as a gift. All opinions are my own.