In Vietnamese, “amber” in perfume is usually translated as hổ phách, the word for fossil amber. The translation is right about the word and wrong about the smell. The amber note on a perfume box is not taken from fossil amber, nor from ambergris. It is a smell built by a perfumer: warm, sweet, resinous, slightly powdery, and usually the longest-lasting part on the skin.
This article separates the three things called amber, then shows which materials an amber accord is built from, and how to smell one for yourself.
Three things with one name
Fossil amber is tree resin hardened over millions of years. At room temperature it has almost no smell, because the original aromatic molecules have either escaped or polymerised into the solid. Dry distillation of amber gives an oil that smells burnt and tarry, nothing like the amber note in perfume.
Ambergris is a waxy substance formed in the gut of sperm whales. Its smell is dry, slightly salty, somewhat woody and like clean leather. In perfumery today that note almost always comes from ambroxide, a compound semi-synthesised from the sclareol of clary sage.
Amber in perfume is the third thing: an accord, a smell assembled from several materials to evoke an impression. The impression is the warmth and sweetness of tree resin, not the smell of any real object.
The two words most easily confused are “amber” and “ambery”. In perfumers’ language, “ambery” also describes the dry, slightly mineral woodiness of the ambroxide family, that is, the ambergris note. A note list saying “amber” and one saying “ambery woods” may be describing two different smells.
What an amber accord is built from
The classic amber formula rests on three pillars:
| Material | What it brings to the accord |
|---|---|
| Labdanum | Dark resin, honey, leather, slightly animalic |
| Vanilla or vanillin | Sweet, creamy, warm |
| Benzoin | Sweet balsam close to vanilla; softens and fixes |
Labdanum is the resin exuded on the leaves and twigs of the rockrose (Cistus ladanifer) around the Mediterranean. Smelled alone, it is heavy and somewhat forbidding. Vanilla alone is sweet to the point of confectionery. Together, each covers the other’s edges, and the result is a rounded smell that neither material has on its own.
Siam benzoin is the resin of Styrax tonkinensis, traded mainly from Laos. According to the FAO/JECFA assessment, its main constituents are esters of benzoic acid, with free benzoic acid and vanillin. That vanillin is why benzoin smells close to vanilla, and why the two fit together so well in an accord.
Beyond the three pillars, perfumers often add:
- Peru balsam or tolu balsam for cinnamon and caramel notes. Crude Peru balsam is a well-known contact allergen, so it is used only in treated forms and within limits.
- Opopanax for a sweet, balsamic, slightly leathery note.
- A little ambroxide or a related material to pull the accord towards dry and clean.
- Warm spices such as cinnamon or clove to heat the opening.
The proportions decide where the accord leans. More labdanum gives a dark amber with a leathery edge. More vanilla gives a sweet amber close to the gourmand family. More ambroxide gives a dry, transparent amber.
Amber and “oriental”
In fragrance classifications, the family of resins, vanilla and warm spices used to be called “oriental”. The name rested on a European image of the East rather than on smell. More and more industry sources now call this family “amber”. If an older description says “oriental”, it is in most cases talking about the same territory.
Smelling an amber accord for yourself
If you have labdanum, vanilla and benzoin, the quickest way to learn is:
- Dip three separate smelling strips, one material each. Smell each strip and write down a word or two for each.
- Hold the labdanum and vanilla strips close together and smell them at once. Notice whether labdanum’s leathery edge is still clear.
- Add the benzoin strip. Most people find the smell rounder and more seamless, as if three smells had become one.
- Leave the three strips overnight and smell them again. Amber is a base note, so this is when it is clearest.
The exercise needs no exact ratios. The point is to hear that “amber” is not in any of the bottles; it is where the bottles meet.
Reading “amber” on a box
When a note list says “amber”, read it as a warm, sweet, resinous territory, not as a raw material. The note list cannot tell you whether the bottle contains real labdanum or benzoin. The INCI ingredient list on the packaging sometimes gives the Latin names of these resins, or the names of declarable substances such as benzyl benzoate and benzyl cinnamate, the two main compounds of Peru and tolu balsam.
The article on perfume note names has a full table of which notes have a real material behind them and which are only accords.
Sources
- FAO/JECFA (2011). Benzoe tonkinensis: Chemical and Technical Assessment.
- Ohloff G., Pickenhagen W., Kraft P. (2012). Scent and Chemistry: The Molecular World of Odors. Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta, Wiley-VCH.
- Chalvin C., Drevensek S., Gilard F. et al. (2021). Sclareol and linalyl acetate are produced by glandular trichomes through the MEP pathway. Horticulture Research 8, 206. doi:10.1038/s41438-021-00640-w