Ambre Fétiche (2007)
by Annick Goutal

It took a few wearings, but I finally "get" AG AMBRE FÉTICHE (Amber Fetish). This is a dirty amber, with incense, leather & a bit of vanilla. As the strongest fragrance in the Les Orientales line, AF has about the same presence on my skin as AP Strip, which is to say ... ALOT. When you're in need of a skank fest, look her up.

20th October, 2011. (Last Edited: 23rd October, 2011.)

Well, this does have amber in its name and is an oriental in design. Although those things usually have little appeal to me, I do find this to be an interesting scent. It starts off very ambery and rich, with plummy and buttery notes. It is very sweet. The sweetness abates somewhat, and interesting incense and leather notes appear. The scent takes on a brown hue in my mind. The leather note is intriguing – I’d say that people who like leather scents should check this out. Suddenly the sweetness appears, in a new guise: cocoa! I get the definite note of chocolate (blended with vanilla and cinnamon) here. Not my style, but an interesting experience.

24th June, 2010.

I'll let the others gt into the scent of this, but let me just add this...

I made the mistake of using two sprays on my first application. It was overwhelming and my friends were making negative comments and rolling down windows. The opening smell was overbearingly incense-based for me, and almost made me sick to my stomach. I've learn one spray to one wrist, dabbing to the other and dabbing on my neck is PLENTY. The spray is literally around twice what I get out of any other bottle I currently own.

It also sticks around. if you dont like it, youre out of luck. I took a shower when I get back from that trip the first use, and scrubbed my arms HARD with soap and could STILL smell it. It took 4-5 scrubs to get it clear. This one will stick around.

This one is worth wearing out. When the overbearing of the incense fades, I rather enjoy it.

5th February, 2010.

So many mentions of birch tar… When I encounter birch tar in many fragrances, the birch tar is so strongly obnoxious that I have to scrub it off. The odd thing About Ambre Fetiche is that I don’t get the birch tar note at all… And I get very little smokiness or incense. I do get a light frankincense and labdanum in the opening, but they do not come on as strongly as they might: They remain subtle and yet they keep the amber under control. Ambre Fitiche begins as a dry amber and I like that idea – there are more than enough sweet amber scents in the world. Unfortunately, the dryness doesn’t continue… the fragrance picks up a less ambery / more generically sweet powdery character from the benzoin and iris in the heart and vanilla in the base. I pretty much lose interest in this because I don’t understand the exchange of a full bodied rich, dry amber to a thinner benzoin / vanilla watery sweetness. The leather doesn’t save Ambre Fetiche from the thinness and powderiness, either. To my nose this is a very nice amber fragrance – nothing special but well structured and proportioned… one of many…

19th January, 2010.

The opening reminded me of plain biscuits (crackers), weirdly. It doesn't start off sweet, but works its way slowly into a rather conventional smoky vanilla base that is very lightly spiced. While I enjoy it, it is hardly mind-blowing. I would have preferred a little more intensity in this one.

7th January, 2010. (Last Edited: 7th April, 2010.)

An oddly gourmandy amber, odd because it's not gourmandy in the vanilla-sweet and syrupy way usual to amber fragrances but rather due to a buttery freshly baked bread accord. Actually, it's more the feeling than the scent of freshly baked bread it captures - the sauna-like, steamy heat common to amber fragrances is here translated to a freshly opened oven and the hot air oozing out of the bread when you break the slightly burnt crust. The scent is so hot and dry it feels a bit like breathing in dust, or, unfortunately, like hitting your nose against a wall of shiny, white plastic, a similar effect to the one I felt in CB Musc Reinvention although not as intense. I prefer dusty dry amber fragrances to sticky sweet ones, but due to that plasticky feeling I can only give a neutral rating.

20th December, 2009.