Eyes of the Tiger, GUCCI (Alchemist's Garden)

I recently discovered the swooningly lovely amber of The Tiger's Eye by Gucci, from their new series The Alchemist's Garden.

It's beautifully produced visually, expensive - the materials used are all very high-quality and at £240 per 100ml I won't be buying a bottle any time soon! Thanks to a generous assistant at Edinburgh's Harvery Nichols though, I walked away with a 2ml sample in an exquisitely designed little box.

Medieval alchemy is the inspiration for the series - an irresistible aesthetic for me as I've always had a penchant for all things Medieval.


In the Eyes of the Tiger I experience the alchemy of perfume turned to gold, metaphorically anyway. As the perfume aficionados among you will know, amber is the term used to describe an accord of tree resins, such as Labdanum or Benzoin, in accord with vanilla. It originated in the east and was gradually incorporated into Western perfumery.

The key to good amber is quality of ingredients and this is part of what makes the Eyes of the Tiger last on skin, a little goes a long way. It's sweet in dry-down, but with a lightly torched quality that's almost creme brulee-like. The texture and colour impression is of gold-dust; soft, velvety, light and warm.

Alberto Morillas is the 'nose' behind The Eyes of the Tiger. Something of a giant in the perfume world who created Bulgari's Omnia and Cartier's Le Baiser du Dragon, also other popular classics including Daisy, Light Blue and Kenzo's Flower.

It's one of those perfumes that's delightful on a silk or wool scarf where it retains the more crackly, woody and less sweet notes, or on skin, where it melts into sinuous gold-dust toasty amber sweetness!