Reviews of Amber Absolute (2007)
by Tom Ford

Tom Ford Amber Absolute

Notes: Frankincense, Amber, Woody Notes, Vanilla, Labdanum (from osmoz.com)

I love amber. I love amber. Did I mention I love amber? Amber Absolute is an amber lover's amber. Its primary ingredient is the woody, smoky, peppery, leathery, balsamic note labdanum. It is sweetened by vanilla which also lends its wood, hay and tobacco nature to the composition. It is made resinous with frankincense and benzoin, the frankincense adding a gorgeous smoky incense note that never smells metallic or funky. Amber Absolute is not overly complicated, but it is extremely rich, with a good balance of dry, tannic and sweet. It is amber in its most classic form. The quality of ingredients here is excellent, along the lines of Profumum Ambra Aurea, and equally satisfying. I love amber.

A direct, to-the-point amber powerhouse. The top notes come on quite strong, lightly spicy, but not herbal to my nose, lending a gourmand quality to an amber already with a distinct caramel edge.

Despite being almost entirely focused on amber through its development, it isn't a one-note fragrance, and has a slow but recognizable development as it loses its edge and becomes gentle and vanillic.

Your feelings on this will depend almost entirely on how you feel about the amber genre. It's not complex, but it's high quality.

Amber Absolute: well, for those who say Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan doesnt have amber..should smell this one for reference. It's opening accords reminds one of mid-base notes of Ambre sultan minus the extreme spicy notes of AS. within 10 minutes it morphs into another scent we adore so much, which is Parfums d'Empire's Ambre Russe; ofcourse minus the leather and herbal accords....so, what that leaves us with is a smoldering accord of glowing amber so powerful, it has the capacity to create an aura and sense of warmth by merely smelling it. no wonder it's called amber "absolute". this is a straight ahead, no-nonsense, smoldering amber based scent. a definite must have for someone who admires Ambre Sultan and Ambre Russe. is it worth ahaving all these three scents in one wardrobe...? depends. i do have amber sultan..so, i dont need this one. but, for thsoe who have Ambre Russe, this one is different enough to be in the same WD. just for our info, this has more in common with Ambre Sultan than with Ambre Russe.

Maple syrup? No, wait. That's Miracle Homme. What we have here is an odd duck of an amber with a funky herbal/wood harsh note that makes one wonder if it was intended to make it 'dirty' in the sense that MKK is a'dirty' musk. Or perhaps it's just meant to erase any accusations of being cloying? I don't know but this is sugar sweet and --Naw, not dark. Not amber noire, just amber . . . funky. On the brighter side, no one can accuse this one of having low sillage or poor longevity.
I'll pass.

I was in Las Vegas and sampled this fragrance on a spray card at Neiman-M. At first I didn't find it that exciting but when I got back to my hotel I kept getting the card out and smelling it again. Later, I went back to N-M and sprayed some on my arm for a test-drive while I browsed around the Fashion Show Mall. The longer I had it on, the more I liked itand I eventually bought a bottle before I left town. I always wear a sample/test spray of a cologne for a whole day before I decide to buy it - some of them start out OK and then take an ugly turn a few hours later. Plus, things that smell good on other people can absolutely reek on me.

To me, Amber Absolute is the perfect blend of vanilla and incense - and by incense I mean proper Japanese insence, not that cheap hippie-crap with a bamboo stick in it that you get at the truck stop or the swap meet. The incense components aren't too strong and the vanilla components aren't overpowering - they balance each other and blend together so well that you have to really breath deep and focus to be able to pick each one out.

So far everyone I've asked has said they really like it on me - the most common response when I ask them to have a sniff of my forearm is 'OMG what is that!? I love it!' You know when they actually grab your arm and keep it under their nose that they aren't just being polite. The scent doesn't change much after you put it on and it lasts for several hours before gradually fading away to just a hint of vanilla. Although the Private Blends are ridculously overpriced, the lady at N-M did give me 4 samples of other Private Blend scents when I bought this one. They were generous 1/4-ounce samples in little glass bottles with lids - not those stingy plastic vials with two drops of cologne in them that you usually get.

Extremely thick, syrupy, powerful, and rich. Herbal like Ambre Sultan, but much sweeter with a hint of smokiness from the incense.

What's special about this one is the sillage. It's a sillage monster alright. The good thing is that the sillage is indeed pleasant: resinous and sweet and to my surprise, without being too cloying.

With notes of amber, African incense, labdanum, rich woods, and vanilla bean, Amber Absolute is an incense-laden amber, with a dark and smoky character. It presents a nice study in contrasts, both dry and warm, peppery and...well, not quite sweet. Thick, yes, and maybe even a bit syrupy. But there is nothing sugary here. Wearing it on one arm with MPG Ambre Precieux on the other for comparison, Amber Absolute hardly even budges the sweetness meter.

Except for a smoothing out of the initial strong smoky and syrupy notes, the fragrance remains mostly linear. This is also a heavy sillage scent, so go easy on the trigger.

One of the better releases from the Tom Ford Collection, this is a very sweet amber with some woods and vanilla thrown into the mix. It's quite lovely but it's not as interesting or attractive as Montale's Blue Amber.

This is one of the best and richest ambers I've tried. It's got the perfect amount of sharpness, and dries down to a magnificent, warm amber scent. It lasts and lasts and is pretty powerful so a little goes a long way. If you take the medicinal herbs from Ambre Sultan and add some extra warmth to the base, you'll have something close to Amber Absolute.

A simple, nice, sweet, dry, powdery scent. Dry as cardboard and creamy as pudding. Very linear but it's a lovely smell.

On first application I wasn't too thrilled with Amber Absolute.... too sweet, too syrupy. Luckily I've learned that making judgment calls on one wear is a rookie mistake!

On second wear I put two diffuse sprays on the back of my hand and went to work. The beginning was the same story - sweet, vanilla amber so thick it could be syrup. However, I soon noticed at work that the most wonderful aroma was wafting in front of me, right over my keyboard. At first I forgot the AA was on my hand and thought it was my scent of the day (Egoiste). I then remembered I had sprayed the AA and found that the two sprays on my hand were giving off the most lovely, resinous incense-like sillage. These dark notes are balanced perfectly with vanilla and amber. Never quite gourmand, Amber Absolute is rich and inviting, with terrific sillage and longevity.

Thumbs UP, and on my 'purchase someday' list!

This is a really clever fragrance. All the private collection are marketed as unisex, but in my experience, this one smells either very masculine or very feminine according to the wearer's skin- i.e- not unisex but one or the other as opposed to a fence-sitter. Not an every day at the office type of thing, but could be worn day or night. It has great subtlety in a very distinctive manner. A great blend of amber with wood, a dry / sweet balance with great lasting power. A refreshing detour from the mainstream "ozonic note, low-carbon-footprint, inoffensive, Walmart, boil-in-the-bag " rubbish. Whilst this might be twice as expensive as a bottle of "everyman's juice", do not be put off. It's easy to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Check it out!

Nthny could not have put this any better. This incense is extraordinary and most certainly conjures up some very interesting imagery. I do not regret getting this at all and will be wearing it VERY often. NICE! A HUGE THUMBS UP! :-)

Good God this is what it's all about. Amber Absolute is a fragrance which humbles the eager fragrance lover in me: it makes me pause and realize the true artistry involved in creating these wearable masterpieces. It opens with a thick, rich, mapley, buttery impression which is fantastically countered with a large dose of peppery incense. Eventually the rich sweetness gives way to sumptous woods and more incense.

Amber Absolute brings me to a dark underground crypt, a stone passageway lit with black wrought iron lanterns, the only light coming from the eerie glow of the dancing red and orange flames cast againt the walls. It's melancholic but warm, hence the imagery of the glow of a fire in a pitch black room. It's a gorgeous study of the contrast between the richness and luxuriousness of sweet and resinous amber, vanilla, and labdanum and the burning pepper and wood scent of incense. In a word, Amber Absolute is breathtaking.

I'm an amber fan, but I prefer my ambers dry and powdery like desert sand. This is more of a syrupy, resinous amber. It even reminds me of pine, pine sweetened with vanilla! Don't get me wrong, it's still an easily recognizable amber scent, it's just a certain type of amber, and not my favourite type. It feels a bit too thick and "gooey" for me, gourmandy with some rather sharp wood notes thrown in. A bit unsophisticated, to tell you the truth.

Beautiful - this is as close to a perfect amber as I've found. Amber Absolute is heavy on the labdanum and incense (an African incense, according to the lady at the counter), with a soft, but not powdery, vanillic base tying everything together. There's sandalwood in there along with some other resins I don't recognise, and it's soft and melting on the skin. There's also a feeling of delicious gummed paper (admit it; you love licking envelopes too!) and an echo of the caramel in Dzing! in the middle notes.

This on me is a wonderful 'skin' fragrance. It's expensive, but I'm hooked - I'm driving the 70 miles to buy a bottle as soon as my next paycheck comes in.