![]() ![]() Ambergris itself is said to have a rather smoky quality, and this was not it. Was it a by-product of “white musk” that I was smelling? It did seem to have that sharp, overly clean aroma that is so prevalent today, and frankly I do not want that kind of clean in my perfume I wanted nothing to interfere with the delicate beauty of the eponymous foundation note in this fragrance. ![]() Okay, the wood in this is supposed to be “smoky Gaiac wood” according to Luckyscent, and I did not detect even a trace of smoke. It smelled like fake wood, the kind you find in “sporty” men's fragrances synthetic woody-amber. This was supposed to be part of Balmain’s return to its roots of high-end perfumery, but I smelled something that seemed very synthetic, and not in a good way. I thought it was True Love for a few minutes, and then something odd happened about fifteen minutes after I applied it. Lo and behold, a perfumista friend included a vial of it in a recent sample swap, so I finally had enough of it to test and figure out if I still wanted it.Īmbre Gris was pleasant right off the bat, no waiting for the delicious warmth of pink pepper, cinnamon, myrrh and immortelle flower enriched with tuberose to expand and surround me, eventually drying down to the velvety ambergris base. ![]() The only place it was (and still is) in stock was at Luckyscent, at full price. I tried bidding for a bottle or two on eBay and I was quickly humbled by how much other people were willing to pay, and the bottles were few and far between anyway. Well, a few weeks ago I went looking for it again and guess what? It was still out of stock at almost every store! Apparently the craze for it had not subsided. I figured I could always find it at a discounter if I decided I wanted it, since it had gone down market so suddenly. Then other scents intervened and I put the idea of buying it on the back burner. I smelled it once at my local shop, but I did not want to pay that much unless I was absolutely sure that I loved it. People made fun of the “disco ball” cap I thought it was very Jazz Age and I loved it, especially in contrast to the smoky gray bottle. It flew off the shelves at the full price of $135 for the large100 ml size, and when it went to the discounters surprisingly quickly it soon was listed as “Out of Stock” on almost every online merchant's site. After its recent missteps ( Balmya, the disappointing Jolie Madame and Vent Vert reformulations, and La Môme for many) the house needed a big hit, and it got one with Ambre Gris, which was composed by the young Givaudan perfumer Guillaume Flavigny, who also did La Môme. When the house of Pierre Balmain released Ambre Gris in late 2008, it got a lot of press - and a lot of hype as well. ![]()
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