What does amber smell like? Warm and resinous, with a honey-like sweetness. Amber in perfumery is an accord, a blend assembled by a perfumer, not a single material you could buy in a bottle.
The amber smell, in plain words
The word amber is loosely used for a scent that is warm, rich and honey-like, with a resinous, balsamic character. Because it is a blend, how it is built changes how it smells.
Amber is an accord, and the word means three things
Much of the confusion around the amber scent comes from one word covering three unrelated things.
The amber accord
A perfumery construction, now largely derived from labdanum, with benzoin usually part of the recipe and vanilla sometimes added. It has no botanical name, no molecular formula and no CAS number, because it is a blend and not a substance. When a perfume lists "amber" as a note, it normally means this accord.
Fossil amber
Tree resin hardened over geological time, the golden material of beads and jewellery. Baltic amber, or succinite, is found in the Sambia region near Kaliningrad. Amber also comes from the Dominican Republic, Myanmar and Ukraine.
Ambergris
A waxy substance produced by sperm whales and long prized in perfumery. The English word "amber" first meant ambergris and was later applied to fossil resin, which is why the two get mixed up. Ambroxide, a molecule commonly made from sclareol, is used in perfumery to create ambergris notes. See also ambergris.
What is an amber accord made of?
There is no single recipe. Amber can be made from combinations that include labdanum, benzoin and vanilla. Labdanum is a sticky resin from the rock-rose shrub Cistus ladanifer, and the amber accord is largely derived from it. Benzoin is a balsamic resin with a sweet, vanilla-like aroma. Vanilla is sometimes added.
Ambroxide (see ambroxan) is not the amber accord but a single molecule. (-)-Ambroxide has CAS 6790-58-5 and formula C16H28O (PubChem CID 10857465). It is used in perfumery to create ambergris notes and as a fixative, with a woody, musky and slightly salty scent. It is commonly made from sclareol, a compound found in clary sage (Salvia sclarea): sclareol is degraded oxidatively to sclareolide, reduced to a diol, then dehydrated to close the ring. A route from homofarnesol has also been described. A related registry entry, CAS 3738-00-9, has the same formula and does not specify stereochemistry. These numbers identify those molecules. They are not a CAS number for amber, because the accord has none.
Amber as a fragrance family
Amber is also the name of a fragrance family.
How amber behaves in a perfume
Amber typically sits in the base, where notes bring depth and solidity to a perfume. Because it is built and not extracted, there is no single recipe, and two perfumes that both list amber can smell different.
A short history of the word
"Amber" began as the name of ambergris and was applied to fossil resin later. Pliny the Elder called fossil amber succinum, and the Greeks called it elektron.
Amber in PREMIEREPEAU perfumes
Four PREMIEREPEAU perfumes list amber among their materials. Doppel Dancers, composed by Claire Liégent, lists amber and woody amber. Albâtre Sépia, composed by Florian Gallo, lists amber alongside ambroxan. Gravitas Capitale, composed by Grégoire Balleydier, lists amber and ambroxan. Rose Monotone, composed by Claire Liégent, also lists amber and ambroxan.
Read more: What does amber smell like? The amber accord guide, our long read on the accord.
Related notes: Ambergris · Labdanum · Benzoin · Vanilla · Ambroxan
