Amber Flowers

As noted time and again over the last few weeks, next to incense amber is the quintessential cold-weather scent. It can be warm and fuzzy, smooth and chic, rich and unctuous ... but always worthy of a repeat sniff. From the fresh-baked gourmand yumminess of Jean-Claude Ellena’s Hermessence Ambre Narguile to the Baroque embellishments of MPG Ambre Précieux, this is a note that runs the gamut. One of my favorite new ambers has been Fiori d’Ambra by Profumum. Very subtly spiced, owing to what the perfumers are calling “opium,” and complex due to the choice of ambergris, Fiori d’Ambra is clean without being hygienic or artificial. It is what I imagine the scent of a noblewoman’s skin to have been in, say, Cinquecento Florence. Some would pigeonhole this as “sweet” scent, whereas I find it manipulates the ambergris (indeed, pushes it to its limits) and just a touch of vanilla in such a way that, over time, these “flowers of amber” blossom on the skin. Like other scents in Profumum’s collection, Fiori d’Ambra has light sillage but excellent longevity. It lives close to the skin, thus encouraging pleasurable olfactory explorations. Quite unisex in its appeal, I think it deserves inclusion on many a holiday wish list.

Fiori d’Ambra is available from Luckyscent.com in a 100mL atomizer spray for $205.