What's That Smell? AMBER

In the "What's That Smell?" series,  I'll explain some of the less obvious perfume notes that crop up in many indie perfumes. Keep in mind my descriptions and comparisons are based on my own experiences and your impressions may not be the same. Perfume notes are NOT ingredients. They can be natural essences, artificial isolated compounds that imitate the natural substance, blended accords, or a combination. Therefore, the note you like in one perfume may be unrecognizable in another. As with all sensory, subjective things, your mileage may vary.

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Amber is one of the hardest notes to encapsulate, because it can represent so many different things in a fragrance. Simply put, amber is a hardened resin produced by trees, and the word "amber" can be used generally the way the word "resin" is. It's not specific to any species of tree or geographical/historical point. It's a mixture of a real thing and a "fantasy" note. It exists both in reality (if not as one specific thing) and in the mind of whoever is creating the perfume.

Amber almost always smells sweet and rich. It can smell more powdery and dry, with a pale white feel, or it can be drippy and dark like honey. You'll often see it used to sweeten blends where vanilla would be too assertive and musk would be too light. While it's a non-gourmand note (you couldn't eat a chunk of amber) its sweetness works great with foodie notes. Obviously, its origins as a tree resin make it a perfect complement to woodsy notes. When combined with florals, amber adds richness and smoothness without making you think of floral cakes.

If you see someone refer to White Amber as a note, they are attempting to showcase a pillowy, dry amber that smells like soft powdered sugar and flour mixed with the warm, fresh smell of clean sheets. It's a non-cloying sweet, smooth scent. If you see Golden Amber, Dark Amber, or Black Amber in the notes list, the perfumer is most likely referring to a more syrupy, sticky, honey-like amber note.

Perfumes featuring amber:

• Alkemia Carmen 7: A great example of the white amber type of note. The amber is used to create a sweet, but not overly sweet, background for the sugary praline, vanilla, and fruit notes. It maintains the same overall sweet feeling without feeling clunky or out of place, but it doesn't add more sweetness on top, which would take it to a cloying place. You also definitely get the clean-sheet vibe from the amber here, as the overall blend is warm and fresh-smelling at the same time.
• Arcana Genteel: This amber, described as a "dry amber," sits right between my descriptions of white and dark amber. It reminds me of a beige cashmere blanket, dry, soft, sweet, but neutral. The spice and wood notes in this play very well with the smooth amber, which is a bit dark but not wild and sticky. 
• Deconstructing Eden Lakshmi: The amber notes in this rose-dominant perfume are used mainly to create a soft, warm bed for the floral notes to float on. You get the impression of pale golden honey, liquid and rich, but not dark/sexy. Neutral and elegant, neither youthful nor mature.
• NAVA Mists of Arcacia: This scent is gothic, incensey, and woodsy. It uses a blend of cedar and sandalwood as its main notes, and keeps it from being too dark and strong by wrapping the base in blackened amber. Here, the amber serves to sweeten the blend, as it's more rich and honey-like, but the overall scent remains masculine, deep, and mysterious from the dominant wood notes.