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Histoires de Parfums Edition Rare Ambrarem ~ fragrance review

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Histoires de Parfums Edition Rare Ambrarem

Amber fragrances are the buttercream frosting of the perfume world. They’re easy to like and easy to get sick of. Nonetheless, it’s hard to imagine not having a little amber in your perfume collection to reach for when you’re cold and cranky and need the perfume equivalent of sweet comfort food.

The thing with amber fragrances, though, is that they’ve been done over and over. How do you make them new? When I saw the tome-shaped bottle for Histoires de Parfums Edition Rare Ambrarem, I wondered what the spin on amber would be this time. Citrus? Spice, maybe? No. I should have guessed: oud.

Histoires de Parfums nose Gérald Ghislain created Edition Rare Ambrarem, released in 2011. It includes top notes of pink peppercorn and elemi; heart notes of iris absolute and saffron; and base notes of castoreum absolute, Bourbon vanilla, sandalwood and amber.

Just after it’s sprayed on skin, Ambrarem’s amber-oud combination is cool and almost herbal…

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Hermes L’Ambre des Merveilles ~ fragrance review

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amber-ish background

Flankers are much maligned by perfumistas, here as much as anywhere else. At their worst, they’re endless — and often, mindless — series of minor variations on perfumes that weren’t all that interesting to begin with. There are flankers of flankers, and flankers of flankers of flankers. There are good flankers and bad flankers, flankers I hope never get made (anything having to do with Diorissimo, thank you) and flankers I can’t believe ever were made. There are flankers that outsell the original pillar fragrance, flankers that eventually elbow the pillar aside, and flankers that just can’t hope to best their elders. Flankers do well, of course, but they’re annoying, not least because there are just so very many of them.

In theory, of course, it’s not a bad idea: take a beloved fragrance, and explore some facet of its composition in more depth. And sometimes that works. There are flankers that I like better than the pillar fragrance…

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Aroma M Geisha Amber Rouge & Atelier Cologne Ambre Nue ~ fragrance reviews

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We’ve seen a few amber-focused fragrances surfacing amongst the new releases of late 2011 and early 2012, and that’s fine with me: I’m tired of oud being the “it” note, since I don’t care for it at all, and I usually enjoy some amber in my floral fragrances. Two of the recent arrivals are Aroma M Geisha Amber Rouge, a sister fragrance to the line’s Geisha Rouge, and Atelier Cologne Amber Nue.

Aroma M’s Geisha Amber Rouge (shown below right) perfume oil is packaged in a roll-on dispenser wrapped in the line’s signature Japanese paper, and the notes of its composition include amber, cinnamon, clove, star anise, resins, and incense. It’s much less peppery-clovey than the original Geisha Rouge…

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Laura Mercier Ambre Passion Velvet & Ambre Passion Elixir ~ fragrance review

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Laura Mercier Ambre Passion Velvet Eau de Parfum & Ambre Passion Elixir

Amber fragrances can pose a conundrum. On one hand, amber is warm, easy, and seductive — a crowd pleaser. When it’s cold out, a spritz of an amber-based perfume or burning an amber-scented candle are almost as good as pulling up a thickly knit blanket. When I wear amber, I get compliments. Everyone should have an amber in his fragrance collection.

On the other hand, amber is sweet and can cloy, making for suffocating, cilia-searing juice. After a few hours of wearing some ambers I feel like I’m clamped in a trap in a cheap candle shop and the ventilation has shut down. I have to gnaw off my arm to escape. Plus, amber can be boring. (Vanilla fragrances can have these same advantages and drawbacks.)

In my opinion, with Ambre Passion Velvet Eau de Parfum (shown above right) and Ambre Passion Elixir (shown above left), Laura Mercier does a great job highlighting the best parts of an amber-based perfume while minimizing potential shortcomings…

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Prada L’Eau Ambree ~ perfume review

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Prada L'Eau Ambree fragrance advert

L’Eau Ambrée is the latest in Prada’s series of amber-based perfumes (see Prada Eau de Parfum, Prada Intense, Prada Eau Tendre and Prada Amber Pour Homme). It’s supposed to “modernize traditional amber” and to have a “…graceful presence, empowering but never demanding”. If that sounds sort of like L’Eau Ambrée is meant to do for amber what Prada’s Infusion d’Iris did for iris, that’s exactly how it turns out, in fact, for the first few seconds on skin, it smells vaguely like Infusion d’Iris — enough so that the first time I tried it, I was confused for a moment and had to check the bottle to be sure I’d sprayed the right fragrance…

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