Ambre Topkapi / PB (2006)
by MDCI

A translucent and fluid amber, heavy on ambergris with smoke, spices and a juicy apple note that almost goes under the radar. No powder or heavy amber here - just smokey yet transparent amber. A little bit generic in style, but a great fragrance overall; if you don't expect an amber fragrance, you'll appreciate it more. The ingredients are rather synthetic for such an expensive fragrance, but Pierre Bourdon has succeeded in combining them in a way that gives Ambre Topkapi the feel of an aged scotch whiskey. A fragrance for a cultured and experienced man who has seen it all.

8.25/10

While I completely agree with the first reviewer that this scent does not live up to it's name, I will say that it is the best scent, bar none, that this novice has smelled thus far. I wish I had the fragrance vocabulary to do this review justice, but bear with me and hopefully I can get some of my thoughts across. First of all, on me at least, this is a very simple scent. It doesn't change much from the first spritz through to the dry down. While I do pick up the amber in it, I think I could most certainly smell some of the other notes listed to a similar degree (namely sandalwood, lavender, tea and vanilla). It's a laid back clean and fresh, not a lot of zip to it, but spicy enough to stay masculine. Though I'm not a good judge of sillage, I did receive a fair number of complements wearing only a dab or two to the office. It lasted through an entire working day, which is rare for me except in the case of powerful synthetics. I look forward to reading more reviews of this one over time to see what the general consensus is, and if there is anything similar I should check out.

I hesitate to call this an amber because the amber note is so very light. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, the overall effect is very pleasant: an amber that's warm and fresh at the same time. Too bad it has ZERO projection. Spraying on huge amounts helps, but at $235 for 60ml, that is an expensive endeavor. I'm giving it a neutral thumb because it is a nice, inoffensive fragrance, but as far as value for the money, it's thumbs down all the way. If it's amber you're looking for, there are many better alternatives, the aforementioned SL Ambre Sultan comes to mind as well as Tom Ford's Amber Absolute.

Appealing flowers and greenery above the caramel. There’s a good pivoting in this between the syrupy and the verdant-ethereal, even if that pivot does all come out of a vat marked DIHYDROMYRCENOL. I love dihydromyrcenol and am going to form a league for its defence. Very much in the vein of Bourdon's Great Inca Priestesses, a fruitbasket carried on the head of someone drenched in fake tan, this one has a bit more spine because of the glints of ginger and spice. Grows more fey as it ages, the rascal. A masculine it is not. So ?

I was excited to try Ambre Topkapi, which probably made muy disappointment even greater upon actually using. Luckily I will only waste the 10ml decant and not a whole bottle. The initial amber and spice blast is nice, but average. Reminds me of some Burberry scent I had years ago which I can guarantee retails for a lot less. As surreality mentions, it then settles into a dominate chypre accord which is ok, but fairly one dimensional. And that is about it. I have tried it again nulerous times to see if I am missing anything, but nope, that's it. Very pedestrian. Save your money and purchase the much better Ambre Sultan or Chergui.

Ambre Topkapi is a poor excuse for an amber scent. This starts off with some nice fruity and spicy notes, very fresh smelling for an amber but after the initial blast a chypre-ish accord comes to the fore. This seems to dominate the scent never allowing the notes in the amber accord to shine, in fact the amber notes seem weak and insipid, especially when compared to classics like SL Ambre Sultan. The longevity was less than 4 hours and it had no appreciable sillage. Even when snuggled up with my wife she could not really smell it unles she buried her nose in my chest. While the idea of creating a masculine amber is intriguing, other ambers are much better executed and more masculine (i.e. Ambre 114).