Ambra del Nepal
by I Profumi di Firenze

Ambra del Nepal is a really nice vanilla scent. I don’t actually want to smell like vanilla, but if I did this would be a good one. It opens with a faintly bitter and medicinal cardamon note with smooth, sweet vanilla that isn't synthetic but rather reminiscent of real vanilla pods. After a while amber starts to come out - resinous and very slightly bitter. After that it goes back and forth between whiffs of smooth vanilla and resinous, slightly smoky/bitter amber. Alone neither smell would be bad, but they're much better together! This is not a complex fragrance in terms of notes, but the ingredients are high quality and very smooth. Moderate silage and longevity.

29th January, 2012. (Last Edited: 30th January, 2012.)

I don't enjoy smelling this up close - it's rich and it's sweet. But in sillage it's a different creature altogether - the creaminess much more subdued, allowing the cardamom to lift the composition and give it a much needed levity. There is also a dustiness to the amber and vanilla combo that falls just shy of 'powdery'. Unfortunately as a non-fan of gourmands, I can't quite shake off the gourmandish vibe well enough to give this a thumbs up. But I can appreciate why others might enjoy it.

4th August, 2011.

This is a beautiful, simple fragrance. It takes the powerful notes of amber and vanilla, sprinkles a pinch of cardamom on top to give an almost dried, green edge, and lets them loose into the bottle for us to enjoy.

The notes are well represented, and flow seamlessly. The overall smell is of rich, yet almost dusty, amber and vanilla - the amber forefront first, and then the vanilla shares stage for the second half of the act.

Longevity and projection are not quite what you might expect from these big hitter notes, but this is a great comfort scent, and very versatile due to it's subtle nature. Easily worn in all but the hottest of temps - long after I have put away some of my heavy ambers.

20th May, 2011.

Creamy, sweet amber and vanilla...but not cloyingly so. It has a slight smoky, dirty quality to it, that makes sure you don´t just smell like vanilla cake. I love this in the winter and at one time my neighbor at the table remarked on the lovely smell (everybody had to sniff after that). The best remark of the evening: "it smells like a real women, not sickly girly sweet and not stinky fierce like other women perfumes"!

25th December, 2010.

This Is NOT Just For Women. Absolutely Love This Amber, Cardamom, And Vanilla Are Perfect In This! Beautiful Fragrance!

3rd May, 2010.

So this is the one that started it all for me. It was my awakening to the idea that perfumes are more than just something that you dodged as the vampire-like saleswomen in the department stores aimed their chemical blasts in your direction. Something other than what you settled for after rummaging through the clearance bins at the discount store. Something other than the heavy, sickly oils that at first seemed so charming when you entered the gift boutique, but became one-dimensional and tiresome almost immediately after bringing them home.

Is my great epiphany any reason at all for you, the poor reader who suffered through that abysmal first paragraph, to try Ambra del Nepal ?

No, but the superior craftsmanship of i Profumi di Fireze most certainly is. Ambra del Nepal is a masterpiece - a perfect balance of sweet rich amber, cardamom in it's most non-foodie role, and a vanilla so elegant, so pure, so very removed from the ice cream and cake vanillas so routinely offered up by others - there is a point at which I simply sigh and again repeat the word "masterpiece".

There are other cardamom-amber scents roaming around, and at least one other "amber of nepal" out there, but there is one other key ingredient in iPF's Ambra del Nepal, found also in Vagniglia del Madagascar, Talco Delico, Musico et Ambra, and several others from this fine house.

What is that amazing base note, that lingers so richly, yet ever elusive of analysis? No one to my knowledge has yet coined a phrase for it, and I'm feeling rather ambitious this evening, so why not: "Firenzenade". there ya go. The signature note in so many of their magnificent fragrances. An indescribably feminine note, yet never girlish, never vampish, never too frilly. What is it? Some hint of ethereal talc, some restrained vanilla blend, and some medieval touch of freshly hewn blond wood, some ........ ah, there it goes again eluding me.

Ambra del Nepal is a continual adventure in layers and development throughout the hours of superb silage. Deceptively simple, rich without gluttony, depth without becoming overpowering. A fantastic niche frag, so sadly hard to obtain here in the states.

oh yes - did I mention the word "masterpiece" ?

3rd December, 2009.