Atlas 62

Atlas 62 goes after Amouage's Outlands, one of the most unusual releases in the Essences Collection, and the note match is thorough: cardamom, bergamot, lemon, Sichuan pepper, elemi and frankincense up top, patchouli, rose, orange blossom, cumin, geranium, wormwood, saffron, anise and coriander through the heart, benzoin, labdanum, amber, ambergris, frankincense, opoponax, vanilla and oud in the base. That is a genuinely difficult pyramid to reproduce and this dupe deserves credit for attempting all of it rather than a simplified version. What can't be replicated is Cecile Zarokian's actual process - the real Outlands is aged for six months with a double infusion through sandalwood and oak barrels, which is what gives it that deep, almost fermented resinous quality. Atlas 62's version is bold and spicy in the same direction but reads flatter and rawer, without that aged complexity. An ambitious dupe of a genuinely strange, interesting original.