Cologne Pour le Soir

The amber used in perfumery has nothing to do with the yellow amber stone, which is ornamental but has no smell, nor with ambergris, which refers to an animal extract from the sperm whale. The amber accord inspired a series of successful perfumes launched at the beginning of the last century. It included two flagship ingredients, cistus labdanum, with its warm, resinous, animal facets, and vanillin, a new, sweet aromatic compound, which is the primary component of vanilla. Since then, the combination of these two warm and persistent notes has been considered to form the amber accord, generally enriched with tonka bean, coumarin and resins such as benzoin or incense, which are all base notes.

This wild shrub grows in arid soils around the Mediterranean. When it is hot, its leaves and branches exude a sticky animal-scented gum called labdanum, close to ambergris in high dilution. There are several ways of extracting Cistus Ladaniferus: steam distillation of its branches yields the aromatic, resinous and woody cistus oil. Extraction with volatile solvents results in the heavier cistus-labdanum absolute, at once balsamy, pyrogenic and resinous, used in the heart and base of a fragrance. These two products are pivotal notes in “chypre” accords and add character to amber accords and “oud” compositions in both women’s and men’s perfumes.

Originally from the Mediterranean basin and India, cumin, Cuminum cyminum, is a spice with very recognizable characteristics. In perfumery, the crushed seeds  are steam distilled to obtain an essence with spicy, powerful and slightly animal notes. The cumin note is used in very small quantities, both in Eaux fraîches, men’s perfumes and in amber perfumes.