Drawn straight from the fantastical Middle Ages and the legendary pomander – that perfume-jewel used to ensure good health for body and soul – Ambre Liquide, like a precious talisman, exhales a marvelous amber, vanilla and slightly sweet scent with mystical, comforting powers.
Reinterpreted today by Dominique Ropion from an incredible recipe dating from 1348, rich in fragrant ingredients to ward off the Black Death and the forces of evil, its intensely fragrant formula immediately transports us to another world. — Astier de Villatte
For many of us, a ‘pomander’ is a fresh orange studded with cloves (the dried unopened flower buds of the Syzygium aromaticum tree). To express my own opinion on pomanders, I’ll take the liberty of tweaking Greta Garbo’s first spoken line onscreen in the 1930 film Anna Christie — “Gimme a pomander, lots of cloves on the sides, and don’t be stingy, baby!”1 In other words, if you’re going to go easy on the cloves, don’t bother making a pomander!
From the late 14th century thru the 17th century, a pomander (pomme d’ambre) could be a clove-studded orange, a spice-filled orange or cloth bag, an apple-shaped item formed from ground and heated resins mixed in rose water and coated in musks and spices, or a piece of jewelry that housed fragrant perfume materials…
