Ambergris
by AbdesSalaam Attar Profumo

Okay, this is my first review on Basenotes and because I don't want to overwork myself in the beginning, it will be a short one!

Ambergris Tincture from Profumo.it is the real natural thing, beach harvested and diluted into organic alcohol. To my nose it smells like hot milk with honey in it. I don't smell any bad breath as others have mentioned. It does have a little bit of sea-smell to it, but it's no wonder, after all it comes from the sea. I gave it a neutral rating because on my skin it is gone within seconds. I don't know why, maybe it's my chemistry or maybe I am kind of anosmic to it? I quite like the initial scent when it hits my skin, but the experience is way too fleeting, at least for me.

9th November, 2011. (Last Edited: 10th November, 2011.)

Starts off smelling like bad breath. Honestly, that is just what it smells like. I expected something salty and marine, but that doesn't describe the smell accurately. This is not the smell of the ocean; rather it is the smell of bacterial colonization, of stagnant water, of decaying teeth and gums, of roadkill, of morning breath. In a word, of putrefaction. Which makes sense, as ambergris is literally the loogy (a hard nodule composed of fats, proteins, plaque, & mucus) of a whale that has aged and gone rancid for many years. Is it disgusting? Kind of.

After twenty minutes or so, this bad breath scent dissipates and the fragrance gets much softer and a bit sweeter, yet very hard to detect. I have to put my nose to my wrist and really concentrate to smell anything at this point, but I do get hints of dry tobacco with that slightly sour bile smell playing gently at the edges. The creamy and subtly sweet drydown of Miss Dior parfum (vintage) is supposedly composed with real ambergris, and I can smell just a bit of that same mysterious magic in the drydown of the real Ambergris tincture.

Sniffing real ambergris tincture is a revelation, so fascinating to think that our fragrance forefathers plucked this substance off the seashore and tweaked it to complement and fix other notes, resulting in compositions that are truly beautiful. And in smelling the real deal, it's apparent that it was primarily the FIXATIVE qualities of ambergris that were deemed so valuable; I am deducing this by the fact that there are - mercifully - no perfumes vintage or modern that smell realistically of ambergris. I have also noticed that when layered with other perfumes, ambergris tincture softens the perfume's notes, lassoing them and reigning them in, blurring their sharp edges. I'm so glad I sampled this, it is fascinating.

22nd February, 2011. (Last Edited: 23rd February, 2011.)

Ambergris tincture is a little odd and strikes me as slightly fecal, but it’s pleasant, even addictive. I kept pressing my nose to my wrist to get the sweetness that’s buried inside, because it’s really not that strong of an odor. It has a fluid silkiness. Again, I may be (am) rather suggestible but I also got a salty briny sea vibe from it. Funny thing, but my dog, who HATES perfumes, intelligent creature that she is, kept sniffing me all over when I wore this. Big thumbs up from her because I *might* have smelled like some interesting thing washed up on the beach. And thumbs up from me just for the experience of trying this on its own. I really enjoyed it.

1st July, 2009.

After the alcohol dries, I get a very strong smell of mothballs. I am very surprised because I also smell a similar mothball quality in civet. To my nose, civet is like a combination of mothballs, feces and florals. Ambergris is like mothballs, brine and bile. I can't disagree with other observations on the bile aspect, only my first inclination was to say it smelled of very bad breath (human). Another surprise for me--this is the first animalic that I have not found to be pleasant. Apparently I prefer feces to vomit. Joking aside, I can tell that ambergris could be transformed by blending. I am sure its bitter edge could round out a fragrance, giving it some definition in the same way that bitter herbs and salt make a bland stew come to life. The deep drydown is sweet, not like what is typically considered an amber accord (labdanum, benzoin, vanilla), and it smells quite lovely, a bit like fresh air (but NOT ozonic).

Ambergris is a "single note" of ambergris tincture, and is great for anybody who likes to make their own blends or layer fragrances.

27th June, 2009.