Ambre Noir Sonoma Scent Studio for women and men

True to its name, Sonoma Scent Studio AMBRE NOIR is a dark, thick and viscous, YOUTH DEW-like perfume. One look at the contents of the vial, and it becomes clear that this is a serious elixir. The opening is briefly medicinal but then the composition smooths into a “dusky” (as they put it—and rightly so!) labdanum-rich amber perfume. This is strictly a winter affair, with an oily incense note along with the other hard-hitting oriental components, but we in Boston have no spring, so we're trapped in winter basically until the day that summer dawns (sometime in May, we hope!). So far so good. I'll update as the evening progresses...

...It's a winner: smooth and seductive: I want it!

Oh, this is gorgeous! It’s a full blast of labdanum, sandalwood, fir sap, cedar wood, and a little incense. The first image that came to mind was a forest of big, tall, dark evergreen trees, the kind of forest that’s so dense and dark nothing can grow on the ground, a forest that surrounds you with darkness.

As it dries down, both literally and in the olfactory sense, I can smell oud and vetiver, as well as more cedar, and the labdanum resin that is always there. It’s as if Laurie Erickson had captured the bare-bones spirit of an Arabian perfume, removed all the lavish decorations, and distilled it down to its dry, ethereal, woody essence. The sillage is magnificent.

This is far and away the best perfume I’ve tried in recent memory. I cannot praise it highly enough except to say that everyone should try Ambre Noir. It has a strong personality so you may love it or you may hate it, but in either case you will have had a true olfactory adventure. I almost never buy full bottles of anything, but after testing it I did buy a bottle of Ambre Noir.

Ambre Noir is amber, amber, and more amber. It’s at first sweet and then becomes resinous. In the first hour, this resinous smell deepens into a back-of-the-throat alcoholic aroma, reminiscent of hard liquor, like gin. The amber does not go away, but takes on a darker hue, and I suppose this is where the noir comes from. There’s also a bit of smokiness that’s present as well. If you’re thinking of smoky back rooms, femme fatales, and hard-boiled detectives, this scent conjures up that atmosphere.

Is it a unisex scent? Yes, but I’d say it’s decidedly smack dab in the middle, being neither excessively female nor male. Now that I know what amber smells like, I can’t say that I’m the biggest fan of it. It also makes me occasionally nauseous.

It's fairly loud in its projection (two sprays is plenty). By six hours, it has become a sweet alcohol-amber mix that mingles with the scent of your skin. By eight hours, it smells almost cologne-like. Ambre Noir follows the usual scent trajectory by starting off mysterious and ending up more romantically inclined.

The right person could really do this scent justice, but alas, that person is not me. If you’d like to buy my spray sample, let me know.

Amazing, mysterious pure amber and labdanum. Unbelievable how deep and resinous is this masterpiece. When I tried the AN first time, it was like electricity flowing throughout my body. Real darkness that stays unchanged for hours. Than it develops to the woody smokiness and the resinous dirtiness. For sure the AN is worth its name. Not too many fragrances with the name “noir” is really dark but this one is for sure. My lovely bottle is waiting now for colder weather because during the spring time it can be a killer for me and the entire environment around. Silage is unbelievable; the power is amazing, silage as the nuclear weapon.

Resinous myrrh incense and dirty wood. A fabulous mix of dark and golden. Has a bit of Christmas candle/ winter incense in feeling. Nicely done.

I never ever imagined that amber smelled like this. After sampling this scent twice, here's what i can make of it. Here's my visual interpretation of it:

Imagine a woman dressed all in black with a black lace veil covering her face walking in a cemetery on a cold January day. This fragrance, imho, exudes somberness.

If you wonder what it smells like, i'd say it's a combo of incense and amber rounded by a hint of a rose note.

This should be worn mainly by women; i don't think it's suits men.

Update: i tried it on a rainy day and i got a smokey-vanilla rose accord. it's completly different to what i experienced the first time! Wow!

hmm... I find myself in quite a pickle wiht this one. I was quite sure Winter Woods was my favorite woody from this house, but now I'm not so sure.

Amber noir has a sweet note, obviously, with that rose, myrrh and labdanum addition. To be honest this sits just below the 'too sweet' on me, but never quite tips the scale, which is why I loooove it. After wearing it 5-6 times now, i realize what I'm loving here is Frankincense, this note just can't be beat when done well, it's so intoxicating.

Amber noir is an interesting, sultry, resinous floral. It's not deep and luscious, but more incens-y and smooth.

Edit: I chose amber noir over winter woods; WW turned too ?? to me, maybe the sample went bad from exposure to air, not sure. but Amber Noir has become more addicting.

I was testing it today - Ambre Noir on one wrist and Profumum Roma's Ambra Aurea on the other. When I applied them, I was instantly taken by the dark, dry and dusty nature of Profumum's Ambra Aurea. Ambre Noir seemed far too sweet and aggressive in comparison.
Half an hour later, however, I was stunned by the personality swap they had gone through. The amber in Ambra Aurea got strangled by sweet, generic vanilla. Those slightly smoky 5 minutes aside, it was now nothing more than an average vanilla-amber scent - lovely, yes, but nothing new. For 240 bucks? Please.
Ambre Noir, however, had evolved into something marvellous. The initial overbearing sweetness was passe and it had taken on a mesmerizingly dark and raw quality. I know just what Miss Nightingale means by the medieval times comparison. Dark, dry, dusty, incense-y, leathery indeed. Amber at its best.
Another winning scent from Sonoma Scent Studio. What a brilliant brand!

Oh my! Now THIS is a true Amber, and whilst many perfumes slap "Noir" on the end of their name in the hope of imparting a darkness that the scent does not, in fact, contain... we have all manner of shadows contained within this delicious, dark gold liquid.

So many amber fragrance creators wimp out and start dropping vanilla into the mix "surely most people wont be able to take this unless I make it sweeter?" they panic. Now, I love vanilla, but I don't want every single base of every single perfume to go mad with it. There's perhaps a hint of vanilla here, but it never fully appears in the dusky shadows.

The labdanum is very apparent and holds this fragrance together, along with that fabulously erotic note of leather. Somehow both comforting and stimulating. A little goes a very long way - I merely touched the dipper to my skin and am surrounded by an all-enveloping veil of amber & moss. It feels like being transported back to medieval times.

This is a bone-dry, dusty piece of sculpted wood from an ancient church-pew. Slowly, methodically infused with incense over hundreds of years. The first hit is almost overwhelming, but somehow melds with your skin to become an absolute MUST try for both Amber & Incense lovers.