Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while might remember that just a couple of years ago I did a whole month of amber perfumes… At least I thought so until I checked: I published a post about it 4 years ago to the day. Time seems to be even more fleeting than perfumes…
Since I have a penchant for cold weather perfumes and almost no cold weather where we live (it’s 14C/56F outside now), if I want to wear my favorites, I cannot just sit and wait for the proper weather. So I decided to do another NovAmber month.
I purposefully didn’t check which perfumes I’d chosen last time: while I still don’t have 30 bottles or decants of amber perfumes in my collection, since for such projects I allow myself to wear perfumes from samples (which I normally don’t do), combined number of all amber perfumes that I have access to would be sufficient for a couple of months, so I was curious which perfumes I’d choose for the line-up.
For thirty days I wore only amber perfumes. Not all of them were “amber forward” but they all had amber as a part of the composition.
Half of the perfumes that I chose were the same as I wore four years ago: Montale Blue Amber, L’Artisan L’eau d’Ambre Extreme, Jo Malone Dark Amber & Ginger Lily, Annick Goutal Ambre Fétiche, Bvlgari Black, Dior Ambre Nuit, Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan, Armani Prive Ambre Orient, Ormonde Jayne Tolu, Dior Mitzah, By Kilian Amber Oud, Eau de Tommi Sooni II, Royal Apothic Dogwood Blossom, Amouage Ubar and L’Artisan Eau de Mandarine Ambrée.
I won’t repeat my impressions of these since they are not much different from what I described in the previous post. I just wanted to mention that Ubar, which many of the commenters didn’t associate with amber perfumes, is still one of my most favorite amber perfumes. Two other perfumes that I predicted would join my collection – By Kilian Amber Oud and Dior Ambre Nuit – did: the former as a refill bottle (see In the Search for the Perfect… By Kilian Perfume) and the latter as the next decant (I still plan to get a 40 ml real bottle one day, I just can’t do 120+ ml now).
The next group consists of perfumes that, most likely, do not need an introduction (but I’ll still link to the stories that I told for some of them before): Chanel Coco EdP and Bois des Iles EdP, Serge Lutens Chergui and Jeux de Peau and Teo Cabanel Alahine. I enjoyed wearing all of them though I confirmed for myself my recent conclusion that I do not love Jeux des Peau enough to warrant a full bottle (I’m still not done with that first decant I bought 7 years ago).
Floris Honey Oud and En Voyage Perfumes Captured in Amber, both new to my collection compared to it four years ago, were perfect additions for this project. In the earlier post I promised to share a picture of Rusty sniffing Captured in Amber once I decide on the concentration and get a bottle. I ended up buying pure parfum but since the bottle is tiny, the best I could do was to capture a photo of Captured in Amber captured in amber-y Rusty’s fur.
This project brought a couple of personal discoveries. First, I finished my sample of Aedes de Venustas Cierge de Lune and realized that I want more. Probably not a bottle-worth more but I really hope Aedes will release it in travel spray format. Another surprise was Van Cleef & Arpels Ambre Imperial: while at a store, I allowed the SA who had just made me a couple of samples to spray my wrist with this perfume. I think I didn’t expect to like it so it was easier to just agree with her and be on my way. I should have been greedy and asked for the third sample! Either I just had amber on my mind, or it was actually as good as it seemed in the moment… Now I’ll have to go back and test it again.
I’ll skip mentioning several perfumes that I either didn’t like or, on the contrary, liked and plan to tell you more about them in future posts.
During November I wore more than 30 amber perfumes. And I’m not done yet. It probably means that I really like amber in my perfumes, right?
How about you? Do you like amber in your perfumes? What are your absolute favorites? Were there any recent discoveries?
Images: my own
Undina's Looking Glass 
I love amber! Right now I am enjoying my homemade amber body oil…I infused Eden Botanicals Labdanum 10% essential oil with two cut open vanilla beans…it’s a dark smoky amber and it has a churchy vibe like incense. I use it to moisturize my entire body.
Perfume wise, always loved the discontinued Pacifica Spanish Amber and Egyptian Bergamot Rose which has amber in the base. Victoria, the original release of VS was an elegant rose and amber, Kumbaa Made Amber Paste is a beautiful and inexpensive pure amber. I remember loving Amber Sultan and thunked the decant you made me years ago. And SSS Winter Woods which is full on amber on my skin which amps up the sweet notes. SSS Amber Incense is also fantastic and wears beautifully in the cold weather. I am sure I can come up with a lot more but I don’t want this post to be too long :)
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I wonder: if you use the moisturizer you made, doesn’t it add amber base to any perfumes you wear after that? :)
I look forward to cold weather to wear my Winter Woods.
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Yes it does! And also gives longer life to what I apply due to my scent devouring skin😼
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Wow! Undina! Sweetie!
You did a NovAmber on your own and you didn’t tell a word so that some people (me included) could join you as we did in FebruIris for example.
I am okay to wear amber but I wear it almost exclusively in the winter and in late fall as any other time of the year it’s just to warm outside and amber doesn’t feel fitting.
I love Aedes Cierge de Lune! Why do you always mention a perfume I could share with you as soon as I’ve sent something your way? I also happen to own a bottle of VC&A Ambre Imperial but this is not my favorite.
My number one amber is Prada Amber Pour Homme (though it’s not amber-centric), then Prada Day for Night and Marienbad, Ramon Monegal Ambra di Luna and MFK Grand Soir.
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Sorry, dear. The month was so hectic work-wise that all I could manage was to choose perfumes and wear them. I just didn’t have energy or time to organize anything – that’s why I didn’t even think of inviting anybody else. Sorry. We’ll come up with another joint project, I promise!
I love getting packages from you so much that I just had to leave something for the next time ;)
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Don’t worry, I know you’ve been very busy.
Aww, that’s nice of you to say
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I love ambers!! My most worn are MPG Ambre Precieux, Ambre 114, Alahine, SSS winter woods, Chergui, Barbara Bui. I’m sure there are others in my collection that I’m just not thinking of. BTW Rusty is looking quite fine in these photos!
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I just realized that somehow I managed to never try Ambre 114: this brand with their numbers constantly confuses me! :) I wonder if I should get it from the ScentBird one of the months.
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It’s probably been reformulated in recent years, but I always loved the amber richness of Estee Lauder Youth Dew (which struck me as being poorly named, as it is neither youthful nor dewy, but has a thick, golden, vanilla-meets-bourbon splendor about it).
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I’m not sure I’ve ever tried this perfume because I never liked the name :)
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I love Ambre Russe, Grand Soir and Ambre Fetiche best I think. There are so many! I also enjoy the Kilian Amber Oud, Ambre Nuit, Mitzah Blue Amber, Winter Woods and Ambre Narguile. So many to love.
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Our tastes overlap a lot. Ambre Russe and Winter Woods didn’t get into the project this year because they are not my office friendly but I plan to wear them in December and January during holidays.
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I love perfumes with amber in them, and DSH Foxy and HOCB Immortal Beloved are two recent discoveries in that vein that I absolutely love. Am also a big fan of many you mention – notably Captured in Amber and Ambre Nuit – and have discovered that one or two faves of mine unbeknownst to me also had amber in them, such as Bois des Iles. All in all, a most informative post, and I am glad you enjoyed your ambery month!
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Foxy! I remember now that I planned to look into getting some (and write about it!) – thank you for the reminder.
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I love this! Thank you for your list, too. What great photos of Rusty the Cat!
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Thank you! He was properly rewarded for his participation.
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I can understand your love of amber and not getting enough of them. I’m so happy that it’s finally cold here and I can wear all my warm, soft (ambery) perfumes. :)
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I don’t really like “cold” but “coldER” is fine – just because of perfumes. And Winter Holidays :)
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This is really impressive, Undina! I love that you were able to go back and check what perfumes you had worn last time as well. So many good ones: Ambre Russe, Ambre Fetiche, and I love Jo Malone Dark Amber & Ginger lily. I saw that Mitzah is not being continued over to the new Dior Privee line (Ambre Nuit is though) and I’m so disappointed.
Such perfect photos of Rusty, as usual! The amber theme really suits him!
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In this particular case not only I had a database of my perfume use, but I had a detailed public report on what I wore back then :)
Mitzah was on a chopping block for a while now. Either it’s too expensive to produce (which I doubt but who knows) or, which is more likely, it wasn’t that popular.
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I’m always impressed by your very analytical approach to such things, Undina. I like amber, but nowhere nearly as much as you.,
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Thank you, Richard.
Let’s see what you think when it winter where you live ;)
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Good idea, Undina!
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A very informative post, thank you! I should try to get hold of a sample of some of those I haven’t tried. I have grown very fond of amber over the last 3-4 years, but have only few amber-centric perfumes in my collection so far.
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Oh, then you have so many great discoveries! I almost envy you :)
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