At long last, summer is fading, tree leaves are turning yellow and, depending on where you live, you may start to feel the need for a light blanket at night. It’s the ideal time to rediscover scents that give you the feeling of a soft and delicate comforter. Nothing too syrupy, nothing cloying, just a suggestion of warmth.
Turning to amber scents is a given, and although it has taken me quite some time to get into warmer, sweeter scents, being naturally a green fragrance gal, there is objectively something comforting about “amber and oriental” perfumes. These scents are typically built around an amber accord which includes resins, i.e. like benzoin, tolu or peru balsams; and sweet notes like tonka and vanilla, or its synthetic derivatives such as vanillin and ethyl vanillin.
Amber perfumes can also include incense notes such as frankincense, myrrh or olibanum, sometimes some musks, both animalic (i.e. ambergris) or non-animalic, depending on when they were created or the desired effect, as well as woody materials such as patchouli.
Those are the basic notes that characterise amber scents, which can then be enriched by a myriad of other notes, be it woody, floral, aromatic or spicy.
But instead of providing you here with a long list of amber scents that ought to begin with the famous Ambre Antique by Coty, which dates back to 1905, I wanted to focus on scents that feel particularly comforting when the weather turns cold, without being so heavy as to require frigid temperatures to be worn. A delicate balance to strike. Warm but not too rich. So perfumes that act as the olfactive equivalent of a cup of cocoa or a cashmere sweater.
As always, these perceptions are personal and debatable, but if I were to draw a conclusion from the selection I’ve made, is that most contain benzoin, as well as some herbal or spicy notes to balance the sweeter elements of the composition and prevent it from becoming too “flat”, some woody materials to give body and anchor the composition and a moderate use of gourmand raw materials such as vanilla, vanillin or ethyl vanillin.
-31 rue Cambon, Les Exclusifs by Chanel, created by Jacques Polge
Classified as a woody chypre, I start this selection with an exception to the amber list I have just made. No benzoin is listed but there is clearly labdanum, also a resin, and some woody notes such as patchouli, as well as quite strong floral notes and a burst of citruses and aldehydes in the opening. What does it smell like? Like an impossibly chic lady in the 1930s, dressed in a long maroon dress, with a fur stole, leather gloves and carmine lipstick. I’m not that woman and never manage to get out of the house looking immaculate (too much work) but when I’m wearing 31 rue Cambon, I feel enveloped in an aura of luxury and quiet comfort. An olfactive cocoon.
We move now to the benzoin trifecta, all classified as amber scents, all containing heavy doses of benzoin as well as incense-related notes.
–Benjoin Boheme by Diptyque (not sure about the perfumer, maybe the late Olivier Pescheux?)
The easiest to wear, I think, is Benjoin Boheme, unsurprisingly. It is the fresher of the three and the one where the benzoin is balanced with herbal and green notes such as angelica. It’s a joy to wear, won’t smother you in sweetness and will just say, when you smell your wrists: welcome to autumn! (P.S: haven’t tried the new formulation)
-Bois d’Armenie, by Guerlain, created by Annick Menardo
I mean, there are most definitely strong similarities between the Diptyque scent and this one.
BA is quieter, less sparkly, has less of a projection but a stronger iris note, to sum it up in one sentence. So a more stately and introverted perfume with, and this may be due to the suggestive power of its name, a feeling of ancient paper (referencing the famous Papier d’Armenie, the little benzoin-soaked paper people in France, and not Armenia actually, burn to perfume their homes). The angelica of the Diptyque’s creation is replaced here by coriander in its role of the spicy element that lifts the composition. Very gentle and ideal to ease you into cool weather.
It has just been discontinued, which is quite sad, but I was told it might come back as a limited edition, no doubt at (even) greater cost. But don’t despair, if you have only the Diptyque scent you are 80 % there.
– Akkad by Lubin, created by Delphine Thierry
Akkad is a much more incense-forward fragrance from the get-go, more “exotic” if you will. Olibanum, elemi and styrax all meld together to create this rich intoxicating mixture of smoke and incense, evocative of ancient temples and religious ceremonies held in city states long since forgotten by history. Not in the mystical vein of Avignon by CDG but more of an incense and amber scent built around not only resins but also cold spicy notes such as cardamom and elemi, with a touch of an animalic growl through styrax. Very evocative but maybe best for late autumn.
-Mortel by Trudon, created by Yann Vanier
This one is quite a departure from the previous three benzoin-heavy fragrances we have just discussed, but similarities include the creative decision to include fresh spices to liven up the composition, in this case, nutmeg and pimento as well as black pepper.
Myrrh, olibanum and labdanum provide the smokey incense base and heart, while sweet benzoin wraps everything up in its cuddly embrace. Out of the six scents, this is the smokiest and most “glossy”, not a million miles in terms of feeling from Chanel’s Le Lion.
-Finally to buck the trend, an outlier, the strange Nightclubbing by Celine (they never reveal their perfumer, which is a bit odd).
Nightclubbing is not immediately evocative of a cosy atmosphere you might say, but to this I reply that I don’t really think of partying when I wear this scent. I guess the reference is due to the cigarette smoke/ashtray note that is present through the use of galbanum and other notes.
But to me, that’s not really off putting or particularly noticeable, it’s just a new iteration of the iris and smoke theme explored before by Iris Nazarena by Aedes de Venustas (ok, in another league I admit) or Iris Cendre by Naomi Goodsir. It’s just a very “buttoned up” autumn. Ok, it’s not really cosy but it’s a great autumn scent. No real sweetness but the powdery notes that are hard for me to pull off in real heat become manageable with cooling temperatures. See, I knew I’d mange to slip a non sweet offering in an amber selection. Actually, I’m not the most ardent proponent of layering, but this could work very well layered with Bois D’Armenie. They are linked by iris and a smokey aspect but take a different route.
What are your favourite scents for early autumn? Are they also amber scents?
After all, we all picture comfort and cosiness differently. Let me know…