Rania J - Ambre Loup

Picture: Gum rockrose, Capsule and seeds, (labdanum)
Photo: Roger Culos (cc) Wikipedia Commons,
some rights reserved

Ambre Loup is as the name indicates, the ambercentered fragrance in the  Rania J:s natural perfume line. Ambre Loup is composed by Rania Jouaneh, just as all the perfumes of the house. Rania, while growing up, was livning in the Orient as well as Africa, is now living in France. She is inspired olfactory by her multicultural background.

Ambre Loup starts with relatively dark animalic notes, this part reminds me of the opening of one of my most favorite amberfragrances L'Ombre Fauve by Parfumerie Générale. But where L'Ombre Fauve goes further in investigating some weird notes, Ambre Loup suddenly turns in a lighter, very pleasant, almost bubblegum, a tad smokey, rubbery ambery accord. This accord is IMHO close to what could be smelled in the lovely bubblegum-amber fragrance Jean Paul Gaultier 2, but it is less sweet interpreted in Ambre Loup.

Ambre Loup is a fitting name for the composition as the fragrances seems to loop around, after a while the deep animalic amber is appearing again, then the lighter amber. The longer Ambre Loup dries down, the more of both the animalic and the bubblegum amber notes are blended together to a quite dark, distinct ambery, slight musky harmony which is very comfortable and relaxing. In the basenotes Ambre Loup reminds me of another excellent amber from the latest years which also contains a wellbalanced amount of oud: Ambre Doré by Maître Parfumeur et Gantier, also a real wristsniffer just as Ambre Loup. The oud in Ambre Loup is also similar to the note in Oud Assam (will be reviewed in a coming post) but more subdued. In texture and spirit, Ambre Loup also reminds me a bit of another favorite, Le Labo Labdanum 18. Ambre Loup has an excellent longevity, the basenotes are left unfragmented 24h after application. The sillage is quite close and it is definitly officefriendly, if properly applied it could not disturb anybody. Ambre Loup is perfect for the colder months but also for a rainy and cold summerevening.

Picture: Glass vial containing Cistus Essential Oil (labdanum)
Photo: Itineranttrader, Wikipedia Commons

In summary Ambre Loup is a perfect basic amber, straightforward without any oddities. It never gets too vanillic sweet as some ambers, nor too herbal as others. The animalic notes are tempered and lends a dark dept to the fragrance. Could be recommended to those who are searching for a staple amber.

Rating: 4+

Notes: Peru balsam, labdanum, vanilla, oud, guaiacwood, cedarwood, musk

Fragrances for cold winter

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

After a green, rainy and green winter (with tempratures about +5-10 C) which spanned over the year end and nine days into January, the regular snowy and cold winter is now here and seems to be permanented. Even if the white snow is beautiful, everyday life gets much more tedious (all the clothes one have to wear, scraping the car windows, slippery outside, shoveling snow etc). But one thing is very positive, at last I really carve the hard core orientals. Here are some favorites at the moment.

Labdanum 18 (Le Labo): Thanks to Sigrun (Riktig Parfym) I got a sample of this and it was instant liking. Dense, warm, like dark brown, viscous, chocolate, even if not smelling of that. To me it smells of resins, a bit powdery, animalic and balsamic. Reminds me of Shalimar but not as complex and darker. Which leads to:

Shalimar (Guerlain): Cold weather is the right condition for this multifacetted beauty. I get less of the lighter notes as bergamot/citric and more of the dark, balmy, resin and animalic ones. "Shallan" is a true follower which could always be trusted.

Ambre Doré (Maître Parfumeur et Gantier): This is a dark, velvety, slight dirty amber with oud deepening the creation and givning it an interesting twist. The oud is very discrete, one doesn't think of it as oud. The dirtyness is also discrete, not as much as in another amber favorite L'Ombre Fauve from Parfumerie Générale.

Rêve d'Ossian (Oriza L.Legrand): Ossians dream has emerged to be my favorite Oriza in very hard competition as they are all so good. Amber, incense, pines, resins and some spieces are creating a comforting, warm and snuggly texture which warming up the coldest of days.

Opium (Yves Saint Laurent): As I'm saving on the little which is left of my vintage version, I'm mostly wearing the current version which I think is a very good woody-spicy oriental on its own merits. Can't understand all the complaints about it.

What is your comfort cold, winter scents?