Amouage

The Sultan of Oman commissioned a perfume house in 1983 intended to revive the ancient Arabian perfumerie tradition that had been displaced by European luxury fragrance through the 20th century. The house is still partially state-owned today. Sultan Kabust bin Said of Oman commissioned the founding of Amwaj in 1983 to reclaim Arabic perfumerie as a luxury category that had been dominated by European houses for over a century. The brand's early compositions were built around traditional Omani ingredients, including silver frankincense, ud, rock rose, and typhi rose. Pricing was deliberately set at the very top of the global fragrance market, with bottles regularly exceeding $400. The state backing was a commercial asset rather than a handicap. Amwaj could afford to use genuine silver frankincense, which sells at around $100 per kilogram wholesale.