Areej Le Doré - Al Ambar Extrait De Parfum 35ML

Fragrance Description

Al Ambar by Areej Le Doré is a Oriental fragrance for women and men. This is a new fragrance. Al Ambar was launched in 2024. The nose behind this fragrance is Russian Adam. Top note is Ambergris; middle notes are Oakmoss, Opoponax, Orris and Vanillin; base note is Ambergris.

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes

Ambergris

Middle Notes

Oakmoss

Opoponax

Orris Root

Vanillin

Base Notes

Ambergris

Al Ambar is a study of a lump of a grade of ambergris that sits between the ghostly, vanillic newspaper of white ambergris and the turd-like foulness of soft, black ambergris, meaning that this mammalian secrete has been partially but not fully cured by years bobbing around in the ocean. I have smelled ambergris of all grades (see article) and to me, this smells like what ambergris hunters call brown or grey ambergris, highly prized in Middle Eastern perfumery for its retention of the animalic funk of black ambergris without falling to pieces in a tincture as black ambergris does. 

Now, disclaimer. Whether Al Ambar smells good or bad to you will depend on how exposed you’ve been to the strong smells of the countryside, coastal tides, and to a lesser extent, rural machinery. To me, therefore, Al Ambar doesn’t smell bad, per se, but it does smell incredibly pungent. It smells like the marshy soil near the harbor at low tide, the bleached bones of dead seagulls, the piles of rubber tires and tackle in sleepy farmyards, dental floss after a good cleaning, and the closed up gunk scraped out of a horse’s hoof with a pick. The sheer intensity of this collective of organic smells is hard to take at first, even for someone who has dug lambs out of sheep with her bare hands. 

But when the wall of sound effect starts to loosen up a bit, there is pleasure to be found in examining the smaller, quieter notes in the after trail – a hint of powder, something resinous, a vein of sweetish, melted tar. I have smelled ambergris tinctures that smelled like the first half of this fragrance, but the far reaches of Al Ambar reveal a supporting cast of other materials not present in a tincture. So, though never truly a complete perfume, you do get glimpses here and there of the scaffolding put there by the perfumer to position the ambergris. 

Al Ambar is mostly a curiosity piece, however, something a collector in the Middle East might pull out to mull over with his friends (or to shock the uninitiated) rather than something one could seriously wear. It is not dirty or foul-smelling, per se, but there’s no avoiding the fact that it is the sort of pungent, environmental pong that makes you roll up the car windows on a drive.