Amouage Perfumery, Muscat

Amouage Perfumery, Muscat Overview

At Amouage Perfumery and Visitor Centre in Muscat, you’ll get a chance to witness how this world-famous company creates their amazing fragrances from scratch. Starting from obtaining ingredients from their in-house facilities to distilling, filtering and packaging, this tour will give you a close-up look at everything that goes behind producing Amouage’s signature products. The factory tour is free and quite informative. After the tour, you’ll also get to visit the Amouage factory’s own shop that allows you to sample their large range under one roof and even get to purchase some Amouage Perfumes.

It’s no wonder that Amouage is called the ‘scent of Oman’ - they may be an international luxury fragrance brand, but they’ve opened their factory doors to the public to keep Oman’s perfume-making tradition alive. If you’re in the area of Seeb, it is a pretty fun tour that’ll teach you more about the history and art of fragrances in the Middle East.

Amouage Perfumery Factory Tour

Amouage opened its state of the art factory in 2012 to mark the company’s 30th anniversary. Located in Seeb, Muscat, this two-story factory produces nearly 30,000 bottles of perfume a week. On visiting the center, every visitor is welcome to take a tour of the facilities with their friendly staff to explore the art of perfume-making. Through the factory’s glass walls, you’ll get to watch the workforce extract the flower essence and begin the distilling process. Then, the scents are carefully combined in another room, following which the entire fragrance labor-intensive to their beautifully crafted bottles. Even the wrapping of the bottles is done accurately and precisely.

On visiting the factory, you’ll get to witness how Amouage’s production process is labour-intensive with little use of machinery. However, much of the production actually takes place in France, and the Muscat factory is where the fragrance is combined with alcohol and kept for the maceration period before packaging. From the moment you enter the Amouage Perfumery’s main foyer, you’re hit with the perfume aromas. In keeping with the company’s luxury image, the factory’s displays are grand. You’ll get to learn all about how fragrances are created with top notes, heart notes, and base notes. During the tour, you’ll get to sample their fragrances with a ‘scent tour’, complete with smelling coffee beans between scents to clear your nostrils. The shop’s offerings range from anywhere between OMR 85 (INR 15,600) for a 50ml bottle to OMR 100 (INR 18,300) for a 100ml bottle.

Timings: The visiting hours are 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM from Sunday to Thursday, with no tours being held on Fridays and Saturdays.

Amouage Perfumer Visitor's Centre — Amouage's Visitor Centre
Source

History and Background of Amouage Perfume

Amouage’s very logo is reminiscent of the Oman royal seal while some of their bottles are shaped like the traditional Omani dagger and Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, signalling the company as a royal, luxury brand. The word ‘Amouage’ is drawn from the Arabic word for love or affection. With its headquarters in Muscat, the company is hugely popular in the Middle East and has an international presence with over 20 stand-alone stores and products in department stores around the world. The company has increased its product portfolio in recent years to include room sprays, soaps, candles, and even wallets, purses, and leather bags.

Tips

1. Don’t forget that photography of any kind, even phone photos, is not allowed inside the factory premises without prior permission
2. The shop does not display the prices of their products. Don’t be misled by this and be sure to ask before purchasing anything
3. Although the factory’s shop contains a lot of products (like body oils) that are difficult to find outside, they come at prices much higher than their stand-alone stores. If you’d like to buy their perfumes, it might be more economical to purchase it outside the visitor’s centre
4. The entire factory tour will only take around an hour. If you’re coming by private transport or a hired taxi, it might be useful to keep this in mind

How To Reach Amouage Perfumery, Muscat

Located next to the Muscat International Airport, Amouage Perfumery is on Al Mawaleh Street in Seeb.

By Bus:
There are many public buses that go to the Al Mawalih Bus Stop. Take Bus Route 06 and get off at Al Mawalih South A Bus Stop. From there it is just a 5-minute walk to the Perfumery.
Bus Fare - Starting from OMR 5

By Car/Taxi:
This is the most convenient means of reaching the Perfumery as it is easily accessible and there is parking available too. But it is limited. So most visitors reach there by Taxis as all drivers know the place.