L'Ambre Des Merveilles

L'Ambre des Merveilles is a gorgeous fragrance that is sadly just too fleeting. I continue to purchase it and have probably used 2 or 3 bottles over the past 8+ years since it's launch but it's the type of scent you have to re-spray every 2-3 hours to smell it on yourself. I honestly find these types of scents pretty frustrating; when you love (adore) it but it disappears too quickly. L'Ambre is definitely an amber-vanilla version of the original Eau des Merveilles. It still maintains the sea salt-balsamic-orange rind-oriental vibe but surrounds the whole thing with a transparent vanilla-amber accord. I think it's unisex - doesn't lean feminine or masculine and I think it is restrained and classy in a conservative way. I like a lot of amber focused scents and most of them are actually a little too weird for day to day office-type wear. L'Ambre is suited for all occasions (perhaps mostly because it's a skin scent and hardly anyone can smell). I do spray my clothes and scarves which helps ever so slightly. I wish so hard Hermes would make a beast-mode version of this (or of any of their scents which are all so fleeting). I found Van Cleef & Arpels Ambre Imperial to be an almost duplicate of this scent but that one also disappears. The bottle is a treasure. My recent re-purchase is one of the special collector's editions (Calligraphie) and it's just so beautiful. So I'll keep on spraying (while Hermes laughs all the way to the bank!).

Beautiful, understated elegance. This used to be my signature scent, and I'm now going back to repurchase my third bottle, despite alternating with many others over the years. A bit of citrus, salt, vanilla sweetness, gorgeous sillage. Sexy, yet still approachable, classy, unique, and even office appropriate when applied with a light hand. Perfect for Fall, but works well in Winter, and even Summer (I prefer crisp green florals in Spring). I have received SO many compliments wearing this, and I'm surprised people don't talk much about this one anymore. Great longevity- When sprayed on clothes, I can still smell it the next day. Such a beautiful scent, and a flanker that surpasses the original. JCE at his best. I will always have this in my collection.

I really love the DNA of this whole line, and I love ambers- so of course I like this one. After owning it for some time I have decided that it is a bit too fluffy sweet for me. I frequently reach for the original Eau des Merveilles in summer, with it's sheer salty woody sparkle, and in cooler temps the Elixir flanker- which builds on the original by adding a syrupy orange, resinous depth, and patchouli (that one is also sweet, but in a different way- from cooking I would say it's more like a reduction than sweetened from added sugar). If I didn't have a whole shelf of other ambers I would keep this- but as it is it gets neglected, and when worn I think of other perfumes I could be wearing instead. Into the swap/sell bin this one goes.

Really light amber-vanilla not really much more to say on it. It’s pleasing but not terribly interesting and sometimes you need a fragrance like that. Some may not like the patchouli but there isn’t too much in it. Theres really just enough there to give the fragrance a feeling of volume and still the fragrance is light. I do have a problem with the labdanum though since it has an ambergris quality to it and I’m just not that into animalic notes and this is kind of fatty, even if barely perceptible. Since it’s kind of light I feel better about wearing this on warmer fall days without feeling choked out. Sillage, it’s detectable to me without sniffing my wrist but I doubt it radiate very much past arms length.

I’d expect L’ambre Des Merveilles to obtain more warmth, in my imagination, it was a cuddly warm, sophisticated, deep amber-vanilla fragrance. Despite having all the way warm ingredients, it is mildly a cold fragrance to my nose. Opening has very sharp amber notes, it’s stingy, and way too concentrated. By time passes, it starts to gain it’s warm character with the help of vanilla. That’s when magic start to happen. Not as great as i imagine it to be (i never found a fragrance as i described, i think it’ll remain in my dreams) yet beautiful. Slightly warm, slightly deep, snuggly amber vanilla. It is great enough for me to keep buying new bottles, i’ll always have one of these, great for winter and fall.