Hermessence Ambre Narguile Hermes for women and men

Question: I'm trying to decide if I should get a sample of this. I geneally like warm amber and soft spices but some smoky/woody perfumes to me smell like campfire or worse dirty ashtray (eg Comme des Garcons 3).

It would be great if the next reviewer would address this. Thanks so much!!!

This is an absolutely stunning fragrance, with which Hermès succeeds on taking me on an incredible olfactory journey.

Ambre Narguilé really captures the sticky, sweet and slightly syrupy scent of the flavored tobacco used in a Hookah pipe.

When I wear this perfume, I'm transported to a Middle-Eastern café, surrounded by apple flavored hookah tobacco and sweet pastries.

The scent of apple is very pronounced throughout, and it does have that "hot apple pie fresh out of the oven" feel to it.

There is a delicate sprinkling of cinnamon too, but the spice never overpowers the other notes, just gently enhances them.

Underneath it all, is a lovely booziness that sets off the rest of the perfume.

Ambre Narguilé is a pretty linear scent. How it starts off is really not so different to how it finishes up, except it gets a little sweeter in the dry down.

The longevity is amazing...with lasting power of 12-16 hours minimum, and good sillage too.

I personally think this is the best fragrance out of the Hermessence collection, and it's my favorite scent from the house of Hermès.

I received a sample last week, and used two tiny dabs to test. It developed nicely as I was dressing; smooth, sweet with something familiar in the background. At first I thought it might be myrrh (my nose is not so precise yet) but after reading the reviews I understand it is tobacco I smell. What a surprise! I always avoided perfumes that had tobacco as a note for fear of smelling like a "smoker". I now realize this is a sweet, rich smell and have a bunch of new scents on my wishlist!

Back to the review. Ambre Nargile is unlike anything I've tried before, warm, delicious and amazing strength and silage. Two tiny dabs from a sample vial under my clothes and my husband (who can never seem to smell my perfume) asked me, "are you baking something?" he thought maybe cookies. He loves the scent, though I think he was hopeful for a dessert at the moment. He's never commented on any scent I wear without prompting, so that's a big deal. Now, will he part with the money for a FB? That remains to be seen. Maybe I better go bake some cookies...

Ambre Narguile is an enchantment that breathes a soul into the art of an evil spirit.
This is STRONG!
It has INFINITE LONGEVITY! Outstanding sillage !

The scent:
If you have ever smoked a narguile, you will realize that this is identical. If you overspray Ambre Narguile, you do feel the chewing tobacco inside your mouth.

Whereas you don´t know a narguile, or if you have only a very small sample, you will only smell a delicious cinnamon apple pie.

This is elegant, its beauty is beyond compare.

10/10

Outstanding scent, outstanding longevity and outstanding originality. I consider Ambre Narguilé one of the smartest perfumes I´ve ever smelled and wear.

Perhaps this scent is not propper for everyone, because of its sweetness (specially the first hour) but in spite of all, I think that no sensitive person would say that this stuff is not well done, that this smells bad or that it´s "PA' LA ROSSI"!

In my opinion, an authentic masterpiece of the modern perfumery.

If u wana smell like a fresh baked apple pie! this is your scent! It smells good but im not gona pay $235 to smell like apple pie..

I personally did not like this scent at all, I got it as a gift, tried very hard to like it especially that its expensive and its a Hermessence!
Didn't work out, mainly because i'm not very fond of amber, which is very pronounced here.
I would personally recommend this as a masculine scent, a gentlemans fragrance. I could not see it as a lady's fragrace, very strong and powerful!

To me this smells like walking into a "Shisha/Hookha/hubbly-bubbly" cafe next to a traditional perfumery where they lit an incense sample along with whiffs of the perfume oils (e.g. pure amber) coming out of the store, aaah

Living in the middle east means that the narguile note would be the most distinguishable to every nose. So basically, whenever i wear this everybody is like "mmm shisha!" lol not exactly the way i want to be remembered.
I get the cinnamon note others are detecting, and i absolutely love the dry down of this, smokey and sweet, so i wear it about 30mins to an hour before leaving the house and i wouldn't reapply because the staying power is awesome and i'm not a huge fan of the the opening notes, where i smell something that has been.. wet or something. I don't know, i just like this stuff but i'm not crazy about it..

Wow!!! I agree with Montezuma. I thought I was crazy thinking this smelled like boozie apple pie, but I'm not alone. After the apple pie this ends up smelling just like Nag Champa on me, which is great because I LOVE incense. This has amazing sillage, and lasts forever.

Ambre Narguile is the best seller of Hermessence line and probably the nicest of this exclusive line.Smells EXACTLY like an apple pie.Lots of cinnamon in the beginning,honey and a hint of incense.The drydown is not so cinnamon-y,way sweeter than the opening and more honey-sweet amber combo.It gets creamier,softer and sweeter as time passes.What bothers me is that cinnamon fades until the drydown so it tends to smell more like a cake!Also,it doesn't last more than 2h on my skin..Overall it is a very nice scent but I doubt if its high exorbitant price(170 euro) reflects its scent.I had it on my wish list..Not anymore.

- what a wonderful unique scent!

- very warm and cinnamony.

- great staying power, one single spritz on the wrist lasts forever and makes all the surrounding of you smell amazing.

- very very beautiful glass bottle with a nice hand-stitched leather cap!

Right, there is me playing the devil's advocate here... I know this one is expensive, and I know most people adore it. And while I like it, the more I test it, the more I wonder- what do people see in it.

Ambre narguile is a scent of an apple pie. Fresh, fragrant, straight from the oven. I am not sure if American people will get the same reference, I think apple pie where I live is a bit different, with a layer of dough and then crispy crust on the top rather than pastry. So Ambre Narguile smells like the apple pie I know from home- cinnamon, spices, honey, lots of sweet and sweetness, here a nice touch is also the slight smokiness coming from the (edible it seems) incense.

So that's about it. Yes, it is mouthwatering... but at the same time, it is only an apple pie. Nina Ricci Delice d'Epices pulls it off quite well too, for 1/3 of the price. Ambre Narguile, while beautiful, is just a touch too foody for me, and a touch to expensive to drool over it. That being said, it is the best of the whole Hermessence collection.

Is there anybody who can help me to get 1 bottle of this perfume?
Please mail me.

deeeee-licious!! this is my fall fragrance but i find myself wearing it to bed more than out!! it's a pretty linear fragrance, cinnamon, amber, a smaller dose of honey throughout wear. it's gourmand but grown up!

actually one day that i wore it to work, later in the day i did get a whiff of musk, which is odd because it's not listed as a note but maybe something to do with my body chemistry.

Also, I'm a woman and I think it smells great on women, I do get a lot of compliments. I think this is a true unisex.

I would not recommend this for women, but for a man, yes, it's a delicious, warm, boozy scent that is very powerful. It starts out like raisins or tawny port but it quickly changes to spicy, with a strong hint of alcoholic some-thing.
A masculine version of Botrytis.

Oh my fucking God, this stuff is gorgeous. Best gourmand I've smelled yet.

Ambre Narguile's honey-incense-coumarin accord is to die for; it's delicious, never too sweet, and goes on for ages.

Edmond Roudnitska, probably the best perfumer of the past 50 years, once said that fragrances shouldn't smell like food. Ambre Narguille goes one step beyond food and enters the realm of olfactory delicacy. It's brilliant, and extremely comforting.

Ambre Narguilè: its smokiness, honey-like sweetness, and spiciness (the kinds that you would smell in desserts) gently hit my nose once applied on my wrist.

The scent is comfortably soothing. Although I have never been to an exotic spices bazaar in the middle east--I imagine Ambre Narguilè must be the way that the bazaar would smell like. The “amberish” dry down is old fashioned and it whispers “I’m classy.” Sweet, sensual, and gently spicy in a good way .. that is

Ambre Narguilè is not my type of perfume. I have not decided whether I like it but I do not have anything bad to say about it. Ambre Narguilè’s sillage & longivity score 10/10. There are only a few perfumes that last more than 12+ hours on my skin.

Ambre Narguilè, belonging to the luxury collection called Hermessence, from Hermes, begins with a strong aroma of honey with a touch of cinnamon. SENSATIONAL!

Over time, honey decays giving space to a slightly incensed tone, with a dominance of a note not mentioned, tobacco. Again ... SENSATIONAL!

And so the scent lasts for it's entire lifetime (which by the way is huge).


It is a fragrance that looks much like Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, but without the vanilla giving the gourmand touch, although the honey in here, is always present. A fragrance that is more like a food than a perfume itself, in my opinion! A warm, rich aroma, perfect for low temperatures. A real masterpiece from Jean-Claude Ellena.

On me this opens slighty mentholated for a few minutes in the topnotes.This is mixed with and then drowned by the tobbacco and vanilla .
I like it -it is a beautiful oriental.One of the other reviewers is right it IS very like the drydown of Opium -Opium Pour Homme edp that is.
I think I would love this on either gender and I intend to get a bottle or decant soon.

-A true Ellena masterpiece. Ambre Narguile is a gender-neutral sweet warm delicious fragrance. For the first 10 minutes it can be a bit to sweet, but after that it`s all about magic! Cinnamon, honey, caramel, amber, tobacco and spices.. I can`t imagine someone disslike this fragrance. 10 points!

Oh how much do I own an apology to Mr. Ellena...After trying his L'Artisan Ambre, I was quick to dismiss this beauty, until I've tried it with my skin.

Ambre Narguile opens up with a boozy, middle eastern pastry hit. And its' true, this is a linear fragrance, but it's a linear complexity. It's a combination of middle eastern spices, deserts, and applie pies. There is really not much Amber in there, but hey, I don't care.

It is worth mentioning that Ambre Narguile is not a sexy gourmand, it does not smell like a perfume, but rather like food. It reminds me of a fragrance that I've wanted to own for a very long time, but could never wear; Serge Lutens Arabie. Of course, Ambre Narguile is much more pleasant and a hundred times easier to wear.

Longevity and projection? Magnificient for something by Ellena. I only wonder why he doesn't manage to do so with his other creations, they're all lovely, but the price versus amount needed per application is insulting.

Ambre Narguile is a dream come true, a sweet, yet non-cloying, very spicy oriental; a wearable version of Arabie.

---//

Presentation: 9/10
Uniqueness: 10/10
Value: 9/10
Longevity: 9/10
Projection: 7/10
Smell: 10/10

Overall: 9/10

Me sorprende que en las notas de la fragancia no se incluya "cinnamon" y "cedar". Es verdad lo que se dice de este perfume, huele al paraiso(nunca he estado ahi pero lo imagino, ja,ja,ja.

Es una fragancia, simple, limpia, divertida, agradable y aun despues de todo eso, elegante!...como un billonario chupando una tootsie pop...

edit: Ahora se a que me recuerda exactamente esta fragrancia!, al "Vainillino Cotorro" desodorante de ambiente ^_~

Amber honey with swirls of smoke from the East. wool/cashmere.Turkish coffee/rum.Amber Honey.I love it !!!

Tom Ford er Hermes HERMESSENCE AMBRE NARGUILE opens very boozily on my skin and settles down to a rich, thick, voluptuous amber accented with delicious tobacco. This composition could easily have been put out by Tom Ford--not just because of the tobacco note, but also the general sumptuousness and governing aesthetic.

I do not smell apple pie or apples per se, but maybe the booziness could be an apple brandy? Anyway, I wore this on my courageous venture out to run a couple of errands today in yet another blizzard, and I have to say that the wafts of perfume traveling up my neck really warmed me up and put a smile on my face. This is a beautiful wintertime oriental amber composition: perfect for wearing under thick sweaters as one trudges through the snow. (Note to Geir Ness: THIS should be the essence of Norway...)

This perfumic, seductive elixir has pretty big sillage and excellent longevity. AMBRE NARGUILE is both intoxicating and comforting and definitely belongs on my wishlist!

cinnamon!!!!!!!
canela!!!!!!!

exquisito

I agree with ScentLover, this is applepie with lots of cinnamon ;) Really sweet. Skin chemistry have alot to say with this one! I do not at all recognize the notes my friends get from this.. Perfect for winter!

A very nice scent overall. For Fall/Winter months (Cold Weather). This scent's strength rest in the drydown when it becomes warm/apple/sugary/smooth incense type feel. However, the opening has some similarities to Thierry Mugler's Pure Malt. It is a little to sweet in the beginning and harsh to to senses.

Honey buns with sweet cinnamon! An arresting fragrance that progresses from the sweet beginning to amber in the drydown. Great fragrance and people want to know what you're wearing. It is so pleasing in the morning, I find myself sniffing my wrist just to enjoy it.

It opens incredibly sweet- almost too sweet but luckily it settles down quickly. Initially it smells like estee's amber ylang crossed with serge's chergui due to the pipe tobacco smell. But it is ultimately much easier to wear, warm and yummy with a hint of almond.

Fall is approaching and I have been trying many perfumes with a tobacco note to no avail, each seemed too pronounced and masculine. Until now.

To me this is the perfect for one of those cool autumn days where you break out the wool sweater. I also associate the scents more with Autumn than winter.

At first I get cinnamon and sweetness that is more like sugar than honey. It does progress into a honey note as it mixes with my chemistry. I also get the crisp apple as well. Then its warmed even further with just enough tobacco to comfort and add more warmth. Too many scents w tobacco are so in your face about it that it ruins it. Not this one. It's like a hug.

Picture it being cold/brisk outside, winter is coming, you are inside the warm cozy cottage looking out the window while sitting on your dad/gramp's favorite, well worn, comfy leather chair that smells faintly like the pipe tobacco he keeps on the table nearby as the aroma of apple pie baking wafts through the house.

Very comforting unisex late fall scent.

This is one of those scents that’s comfortable feeling right out of the vial, full of apples, cinnamon, and warm, moist, tonka-laden pipe tobacco. I find this perfume especially interesting because a couple of days ago I sampled Brandy (not listed on Fragrantica, so no review), a perfume that supposedly was formulated based on the preferences of a horse named Brandy. Brandy is also mainly about apples, cinnamon and pipe tobacco, so there’s a great similarity between the two fragrances. Not being a horse person, I have no idea what horses like, but I can imagine that the same horse that likes Brandy would also like Ambre Narguile. As a human, I find Ambre Narguile more appealing because it’s got better sillage and longevity than Brandy, and it’s also got some incense-like notes in addition to the horse treats. This will be a great addition to my rotation of wear-to-work scents, ones that I like a lot, that last all day, and that I don’t think could possibly offend anyone.

This is the smell of a warm Middle Eastern coffeehouse-not the coffee-but warmth from baking baklava and the incomparable smell of top-notch tabacco from a shisha/ghalyun/hookah...whatever you want to call it. I'm not a smoker, but I've tried the hookah-I recommend it as an experience, but of course it's unhealthy-so if you haven't tried it, just dab/spritz on some Ambre Narguilé-it is intoxicating, but balanced.
Sublime.
Not a normal gourmand, if you want to call it a gourmand. Definitely not an Escada Private Collection kind of scent-gourmand as much as you can eat the coil of spicy and vapory apple-tabacco smoke from a gigantic outlandish glass waterpipe-So if you hate gourmands, try a high quality hookah with hot burning charcoals first, and then try this ;)

I had read about you but was a bit intimidated. You are a member of the Hermessence family and that made me very insecure. Sure, I have a few small accessories from Hermes and had smelled a few of your fragrances in department stores but I had never ventured into an Hermes store for fragrance. After reading so much about this Ambre Narguile, I simply had to try it for myself.

The Hermessence display is in the middle of the store with its bottles lined up so orderly and simply. Approaching it was difficult for I feared I would trip and somehow break it. I scanned the bottles and there you were. It was tempting to try the other fragrances in the Hermessence line but I was sticking to my mission.

The first spray surprised me so much it nearly knocked me over but then it enveloped me with its comforting warmth. It was like I had opened a piping hot oven filled with pastries being baked. The cinnamon, amber and was that apple (or did I imagine that from the cinnamon)surprised me and then I leaned in for a better smell. Was that tobacco? It couldn't be but later on that day I definitely smelled tobacco. What a strange combination I thought but as the day went on I just couldn't get over it. I was constantly sniffing my wrist. Was that vanilla? Incense? I knew it was love and marched back to buy the 100 ml bottle.

Spicy and warm seems like a better words for a meal than a fragrance but there is no other way to describe this one. The sweetness of this fragrance is not cloying nor sickly. It is more of a natural one that would be found in tamarind where the sweetness is tamed by its natural state and not tampered with by unnecessary sugar additions.

The bottle dwarfs the 30 ml bottle of Lolita Lempicka and I know LL might be a little jealous but I blame her. She is the one who introduced me to the concept of gourmand fragrances. I couldn't help but be enticed by this cousin of hers whom is more approachable but, oh, I pay for it just like anyone does for any unfaithfulness. Hermes Ambre Narguile has convinced me she is worth it and I now have been through several bottles.

When I wear it, which is often enough but sparingly applied it would be common enough that after a few minutes in conversation I will be asked "What are you wearing? It smells so good!" This is an edt and not edp but the staying power is exceptional.

This is a fragrance that smells good on a man but it has to be a certain kind of man. I have a male friend who wears a three price suit, smokes a pipe and is more gentleman than metrosexual and it smells fabulous on him. In fact, I would have to say it probably is a better match for him than me but I refuse to admit this perfume is not perfect on me and *gasp* possibly better on someone else.

Oh, this is definitely a cold weather fragrance in my opinion. It should be taken out for use when the summer wardrobe is replaced by the winter one. This is the kind of fragrance that enhances the wools and dark winter fabrics, something summer clothes with their patterns and lightness don't need.

Like another reviewer, when my boyfriend smelled this on me, he immediately associated it with apple pie. While I can see why, to my nose, this is more of a spiced coffee cake dessert, laced with cinnamon and more butter than apple.

Like Tom Ford's Private Blend Amber Absolute, this is one thick, heavy, sweet perfume. Of the two, I definitely prefer Ambre Narguile, as it's more complex than the former. If you don't like cinnamon, don't bother sampling Ambre Narguile but if you do, be prepared for a decadent splash of heaven. The cinnamon is blended so well with the amber that it smells almost edible and quite sugary. It's definitely a gourmand and very, very foody.

There's a faint apple in the background, to my nose, but on my skin, I get mostly amber, butter, cinnamon, sugar, and a spice I can't quite place. It must be the ginger, though I can't say that it smells exactly of ginger - it's much smoother and less sharp than the ginger accord typically used in perfumes. This is a very "wet" scent, and it's dryer woody tones (the incense accords) don't show up until much later in the dry-down.

I don't know that it's worth the price of a full bottle, but I'll do my best to snag a 15 ml bottle when fall rolls around again. The lasting power is amazing and you won't smell this on a ton of other people. I know it's unisex but, to my nose, this one is undoubtedly a feminine (sorry, guys)!

This is my mystical gourmand.Although those stewed fruits and burnt sugar smells most of the time have a "sweet home" comforting nature, Ambre narguile sucks me in it's exotic style and give the whole picture a bronze mysterious tint.Still it's a nice honeyed amber, spicy but in certain moments slightly cool, that it's easy to like although i do'nt love it as much as i thought before!

First on, I get Amber and spice and sugar. Mid dry, raisons arrive. Long drydown, warm beeswax and faint almonds enter the mix. Overall, this is a strangely soapy scent, but also warm and edible. I know it's too too much for many, but when it works, it works like a miracle, and I love this one. It truly is worth the outrageous price tag if it works for you. If you like Amber at all, try this one. If you don't like amber (many don't work on my skin) but you like spiced gourmands, try this one. If you like layered, edible soapy cleans, try this one.

Now I am sitting here with my small (15 ml) bottle of Ambre Narguilé and it is worth every penny, actually I could have paid more than I did.

My first impression is that I want to drink it straight out of the bottle, and having slight problems not to spray the perfume in my mouth. Also I cant imagine any fragrance better suiting this time of year, the weeks just before christmas, it is kind of the optimal (The One) Christmas Fragrance, but without being to much. It is spicy, yet light, it is warm yet not cloying it is gourmand but not to sweet, sensual, a bit buttery, the most delightful spices and the basenote is so magical with soft spice and lingering incense.

Even if I found it very good for Christmas time, I do belive it could be wear all year round, but best suitable for the colder months.

I think it smells so good I imagine I have a golden, glowing aura around me when I wear it.

So, get your hands on a sample of this as fast as possible and then start figuring out a way to get your hands on a bottle of it. Really, really good and pretty and jummy and longlasting and amazing and I wonder if there is anyone out there actually NOT liking it?

Sorry, but now I´m off to have my nose against my wrist for some hours or so.

Oh, I am testing this right now for the very first time and it is sooooo gorgeus. It almost make me drool... You must try it, and I must figure out a way to get a big bottle of it. :) I will write a better review later, when I have wear it for longer than 10 minutes!

I love this cheery pie, very warm with plenty of cinnamon :) That's how I would call it. The lasting power is amazing and I tend to get plenty compliments for it.