Amber?

[The Snark Hunter]

So I'm confused when this description is used in describing fragrances. Does it typically mean ambergris or resin (plant based) amber?

[BTrack]

Plant based resin. Ambergris being an expensive ingredient is never abbreviated.

[The Snark Hunter]

I agree that real ambergris wouldn't be shortchanged. I have samples of Montale Blue Amber and Tom Ford Absolute Amber. What is supposed to be going on here? I smell lot's of baby powder in the Montale so far....

[p.m.a.]

I'm interested in this thread as well. I know what amber smells like, but I've got a sample of MPG Ambre Precieux which also has that baby powder aspect. I don't get amber at all. What gives?

[Evbo]

Interesting question. There was a discussion on Basenotes sometime last week about just this subject. Here are some of the more informational nuggets picked out of that conversation:

• I am pretty sure I have read that some western perfumers have used the term "amber" or "amber accord" to mean a blend of oils that have some of the aromatic qualities of ambergris - blends that include clary sage absolute, labdanum / cistus, and some balsamic stuff.

• Yeh there are basically three ambers that I know of. Indian Amber which can be called Amberri Attar like what Chistopher sells, [Ed: White Lotus Aromatics] Shamamatul Amber which is spicey and earthy/nutty, Hinna which is spicey/woody and floral, and Indian Amber which is spicey/musky,woody. All of them share very similar characteristics. This also includes Ruh Amber Maliki and Ghawar al Amber.

Then there is Ambergris which we all know and then fossilzed amber resin.

• The fosillized amber resin we know of is actually fossilized tree resin, and the one from Himalayas are used in the Indian attars. It is balsamic as opposed to the blend of amber attars which are recipes made of various herbs and spices (styrax, benzoin etc.) which they also call amber, which is rather spicy. It is used in Ayurveda and Amber dhoop (incense)

• Then there is the 'resin' made from various other resins and spices etc. Also called amber. They distill this to make Amberi Attar. Used as incense you can also use this as solid perfume.

So as you can see, depending on the ingredients used the smell of "Amber" can vary pretty widely.

[john parker]

Thank you, Evbo! Very informative! And I just received a sample of Amber Precieux; don't get baby powder at all. A bit of medicinal I get. I know many people comment on baby powder scent, but all I have ever gotten it from has been baby powder itself. Guess my nose isn't sensitive to it; for which maybe I am thankful!

[Master-Classter]

there's a very long and somewhat confusing thread here - at least I think this is the one
http://www.basenotes.net/threads/206...ber-smell-like
http://www.basenotes.net/threads/261...smell-of-Amber

particularly based on these posts, I believe it's the correct info... read these two carefully and I think you'll learn a thing or two (I did!)
http://www.basenotes.net/threads/206...=1#post1232830
http://www.basenotes.net/threads/206...=1#post1669445
http://www.basenotes.net/threads/206...=1#post1685665

from what I've understood there's some confusion about this term. Basically there's:

Amber, a color that's light brown and red, etc.... not relevant.

Amber which refers to a fossilized resin from trees, which is a real substance but not really related to fragrance since there's no good scents that come out of it.

And Amber, which is what Ambergris used to be referred to as but it got confusing so the french added the gris (means grey) so people would know they were referring to the whale stuff. Real Ambergris has many variations since it's natural. It can smell oceanic, but also then animalistic and has some earthy/spicey tones as well... It's used for it's smell, but mostly actually used for it's fixitive properties since even a tiny amount seems to really bring out the smell of many other notes and make them last longer.

Nowadays it's extremely rare for the real stuff to be used for a number of reasons. It's in short supply, expensive, and most importantly it varies from batch to batch. It's mostly synthetically created I believe with a mix of Vanilla, Labdanum, and a few other things depending on the recipe. It uses various plant extracts, but don't confuse that with it being the tree resin.

what does the "real" stuff smell like... well over the years there have been so many interpretations and spins put on it that it's hard to know which "amber' frag even smells like the real Ambergris, and even then the real deal smells different depending on the particular chunk of Ambergris you're smelling. Apparently L'Artisan's is actually a good aproximation for what it's meant to smell like. I personally seem to get a sense that there's vanilla focused ones (MPG, L'Artisan), more herbal/medicinal/spice (Ambre Sultan, Tom Ford), and more honey/gourmand (Ambre Narguile)...

hopefully this is all correct above, just based on waht I remember.

[Archerfire]

There's a lot of great information here. It's simply another reason why I love this place. Excellent reading. Thanks guys!