November was slightly cooler and somewhat rainy but it was still uncharacteristically warm. But with rain I’m fine with “warm.”
I intended to use in this post statistics based on the answers to the question I posed in hajusuuri’s wonderful guest post Beyond Mardi Gras – Perfume Shopping in New Orleans. Unfortunately for me, not too many people were interested in the subject of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping – even though I asked about the perfume shopping. The number of answers weren’t enough even for the entertaining statistics so I decided not to use those. Thank you, everybody who did answer the question. You were entered into the draw for 2 ml of hajusuuri’s custom blend perfume and a block of Pumpkin Spice soap. And the winner is Nemo. Please contact me or hajusuuri with your shipping address.
I could have stopped there but I decided to take a look at the comments I got on my last post – Perfume Diary: NovAmber. I asked you to name your top three favorite amber perfumes.
I’m not surprised: our tastes are different. My readers named 26 perfumes. Coincidentally, it’s exactly the number of perfumes I wore in November though the perfumes were different.
The most popular amber perfume in our small but very representative subset was Hermès L’Ambre des Merveilles. Three people named it as one of their top three choices. I definitely need to revisit this perfume.
The next six perfumes were named twice each: Annick Goutal Ambre Fetiche, By Kilian Amber Oud, Dior Mitzah, Mona di Orio Ambre, Ormonde Jayne Tolu and Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan. I like them all (less Mona di Orio’s one that I need to test) and I think these seven make a perfect list of amber perfumes to try for anybody who just starts their exploration of amber.
Nineteen perfumes were mentioned just once and I was surprised to find eight that I’ve never tried (marked in bold):
| Brand | Perfume |
| Carner Barcelona | Rima XI |
| Dior | Ambre Nuit |
| E. Coudray | Ambre et Vanille |
| En Voyage Perfumes | Captured in Amber |
| Guerlain | Cuir Beluga |
| Hermes | Eau des Merveille |
| L’Artisan Parfumeur | l’Eau d’Ambre |
| L’Artisan Parfumeur | l’Eau d’Ambre Extreme |
| Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier | Ambre Doré |
| Montale | Aoud Ambre |
| Nobile 1942 | Ambra Nobile |
| Parfumerie Generale | L’Ombre Fauve |
| Prada |
Amber Pour Homme Intense
|
| Profumum | Ambra Aurea |
| Ramon Monegal | Ambra di Luna |
| Regina Harris | Amber Vanilla |
| Serge Lutens | Chergui |
| Tom Ford | Amber Absolute |
| Yves Rocher | Voile d’Ambre |
Hopefully, with all the rains I’ll get enough chances to test more amber perfumes this season.
Images: my own
Undina's Looking Glass 
I can’t believe I forgot so many lovely amber scents when answering your earlier question on our Top 3. Ambra di Luna is in fact my current No 1 – doh! I am sorry if I skewed your stats with this omission. ;) I also love Chergui and Rima XI and those amber Hermes and L’Artisan scents that were mentioned. Eau des Merveilles is a recent discovery – I prefer it to the heavier L’Ambre des Merveilles. Anyway, between them, these two posts have been an amber eye opener, for which many thanks!
LikeLike
As the result of this post I decided to wear Chergui from my tiny sample and now I want more :) And I definitely need to test Ambra di Luna: I remember that I smelled it at a store at some point and that you like it – but that’s it.
LikeLike
What did you write???? After seeing Rusty under the umbrella, that’s all I could focus on. He’s just so darn cute!
LikeLike
He is! And very cuddly. And because of that he gets away with a lot.
LikeLike
Sorry, you didn’t get enough answers for a list.
And thanks for the amber ‘sum-up’ , a great reference list for when I crave (a new) amber.
LikeLike
It’s OK, I will think of a more entertaining question the next time ;)
LikeLike
Although you didn’t get the original answers you were looking for, your amber statistics are pretty entertaining, Undina. Because it’s so soft, who would have thought that Hermes Eau des Merveilles would have been one of the top ambers? I love it and hope you will give it another try at some point (I can send you some if you’d like).
Interesting to see the other popular ambers in your poll, too. The only one in that group I haven’t tried is the Mona di Orio. The others do strike me as being very representative of the most beloved ambers of perfumistas … the ones you see gushed about on blogs and in forums. (Deservedly so!)
Rusty looks right as rain, as usual, btw. ;)
LikeLike
Thank you, Suzanne. L’Ambre des Merveilles was the most popular amber, Eau des Merveilles was named only once – which still makes that whole family to be the most popular in this group. I’ll give it a try the next time I’m in the store, no need to send it to me – but thank you for the offer!
Rusty has strange relationships with umbrellas: since he doesn’t see them often, as any new object they attract his attention but they are big and unusual enough to keep his a little tense and watch their moves – to run away quickly if it suddenly opens or closes ;)
LikeLike
I agree, this was a great round of amber perfumes. Like Suzanne, I need to try the Mona di Orio. I also haven’t tried the one by Carner Barcelona but I have a feeling you’d like it from all I’ve read.
I also now what to re-test Chergui – after buying it and then selling it soon after, years ago.
LikeLike
I tested Chergui today and liked it a lot. I can’t believe I didn’t come back to it much sooner.
LikeLike
Undina, when I first tested Chergui in a tiny dose, I dismissed it as bug spray. Having read a number of glowing recommendatioms for it, I decided to retry it in a much higher amount (3 sprays) and I was hooked since then!
LikeLike
I didn’t dislike it but I just never went back to re-test. Now I will :)
LikeLike
Are you sure that’s not a prancing miniature horse disguised to look like a cat?
You have never tried Profumum Ambra Aurea? We must remedy this ASAP!
I think I would have chosen L’Ambre des Merveilles were it not for the fact that I prefer heavier ambers when the weather is colder.
Today, I wore MPG Ambre Precieux from my 100 mL sample bottle and it was instant love.
This is a great round-up!
LikeLike
I’m glad your “sample” was a success but I still think that, in general, a much smaller samples are the way to go (let’s say, 2-3 ml spray sample of Ambre Precieux might help to improve my appreciation of that perfume; at the same time, the sample of Ambra Aurea won’t feel all lonely on its way to me – just an idea ;-) ).
When looking at that picture of Rusty I also thought that his posture reminded me of that of a horse. And the noise, with which he gallops sometimes at night when he thinks we went to bed before he wanted to be left alone, only confirms my suspicions as to which species he belongs.
LikeLike
I also enjoyed seeing the summary of amber perfumes, and I love all the variety! I have only tried a few of them, so they will mostly go onto my list of things to try. Also, Rusty looks SO stylish :)
LikeLike
Thank you, Nemo. Rusty will get tomorrow his extra treats for each compliment he got here :)
LikeLike
Thank you for the roundup of most loved amber perfumes. As to the lack of response to your earlier poll, that may be related more to the time of year than to lack if interest in the subject. I for one keep thinking that I’ll skip posts I might want to comment on for now and instead just read the ones I can delete more quickly, and then the next time I get a chance to sit and read, there are a dozen more posts and the ones I really wanted to weigh in on are even further down the list. Bloglovin says that I currently have amassed more than 150 unread blog posts, and I know I’ve missed some really good ones.
LikeLike
Dear Laurels,
Thank you for encouraging words. I know exactly what you mean: no matter how hard I try I constantly have a stack of posts I plan to read “later.” But in this case I didn’t complain about not enough comments – there was a great conversation on hajusuuri’s post – but since most people didn’t answer the shopping question I guessed that part wasn’t too engaging.
LikeLike
Sorry, I misunderstood. As you can tell, I haven’t worked my way back to that post yet!
LikeLike
It’s fine, no rush! Just don’t forget to look it up if you decide to go perfume shopping in New Orleans :)
LikeLike
Pingback: Entertaining Statistics: 2014 Year Round-up | Undina's Looking Glass