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The Origin of Ambergris (2012)

press.uchicago.edu

1–10 of 36 posts

Re: The Origin of Ambergris (2012)

#3
Up until not too much ago we also extracted musk essence from the anal glands of white belly musk deer. Another interesting thing is oud. It's a resin produced in aquilaria trees when infected with a specific fungus, and it can cost tens of thousands of dollars per kg. I think one of the first famous commercial Perfumes to use it was m7 by ysl, you can read an article on it on fragrantica: https://www.fragrantica.com/news/Yves-Saint-Laurent-M7-Revis...

Re: The Origin of Ambergris (2012)

#5
post #4

Fortunately for perfumery, ambergris' distinctive odor is principally owed to just two chemicals, ambroxan and ambrinol, both of which are now synthesized.

Ambrinol is really disgusting (source: I have a small sample) and only makes sense mixed with the very nice ambroxide (IIRC, ambroxan is a commercial moniker for it).

There's a curious evolution about abroxan's rep. If I'm not mistaken it was Dior that first used the name instead of ambergris in the publicity materials. I guess they were trying to avoid the "they kill the poor whales to make fucking perfumes". But they ended with the "I can't stand that synthetic ambroxan crap, I must be allergic and everybody's wearing Sauvage now".

New perfumes use some other bullshit names like "driftwood", "marine notes" or just "amber" (a very different stuff).

Re: The Origin of Ambergris (2012)

#7

Up until not too much ago we also extracted musk essence from the anal glands of white belly musk deer. Another interesting thing is oud. It's a resin produced in aquilaria trees when infected with a specific fungus, and it can cost tens of thousands of dollars per kg. I think one of the first famous commercial Perfumes to use it was m7 by ysl, you can read an article on it on fragrantica: https://www.fragrantica.com…

Don't forget castoreum, from sacs near the anus of beaver.

Re: The Origin of Ambergris (2012)

#8
one of my favourite frags 'Kouros' by YSL uses ambergris (or synthesised) shame that over time the formula has changed so much. as per descriptions..it really used to smell like "sweat"/"heavy"...and has changed to much fresher and cleaner.

Re: The Origin of Ambergris (2012)

#9
post #4

Fortunately for perfumery, ambergris' distinctive odor is principally owed to just two chemicals, ambroxan and ambrinol, both of which are now synthesized.

"Ambergris has been synthesized, but its synthetic versions are not convincing. They lack an indefinable something that is gained only after years spent at sea."

Probably a bit like synthesized truffle oil, good enough for most people but lacking richness for a trained delicate palate.

Re: The Origin of Ambergris (2012)

#10
post #7

Up until not too much ago we also extracted musk essence from the anal glands of white belly musk deer. Another interesting thing is oud. It's a resin produced in aquilaria trees when infected with a specific fungus, and it can cost tens of thousands of dollars per kg. I think one of the first famous commercial Perfumes to use it was m7 by ysl, you can read an article on it on fragrantica: https://www.fragrantica.com…

Don't forget castoreum, from sacs near the anus of beaver.

Yep. Funny enough, in Italian beaver is just castoro
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