Beauty Care: Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Ambre Precieux Perfume Review

Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Ambre Precieux Eau de Parfum is a warm, ambery fragrance that was heady and rich toned down subtly by balsam. It has a more aromatic, lightly creamy lavender opening with the faint play of spices, like cumin and nutmeg, but the amber shows up early on in the journey and gets deeper, more resinous, and richer until the drydown where it softens and sweetens with vanilla. The brand described the note structure as:

top notes: myrtle, lavender
heart notes: coumarin, vanilla, nutmeg, labdanum cistus
base notes: Peru balsam, Tolu balsam, ambergris

It opened with a cloud of smooth, creamy lavender, not quite sweetened, but it was nowhere near as herbaceous as pure lavender. The creamier lavender slowly sweetened with vanilla, grew heavier and headier as the labdanum came forward, and then after about 15 minutes of wear, a blend of earthy, nuttier spice came through (cumin and nutmeg, cumin being more discernible for my nose). As the spices trickled through, the vanilla played a subtler role, so it is was just barely sweet.

The progression from opening to dry down was subtle, so much so that it wasn’t as easy to determine where one stage ended and the next began. The lavender receded as the spices warmed up with lightly smoky, spicy amber teased at the edges.

The longer I wore Ambre Precieux, the stronger the amber became; within two hours, the scent became a rich, golden amber with a hint of smoky, spiciness and rounded out with balsams. It stayed in this vein for the next few hours–sometimes it leaned more resinous, sometimes woodier–before eventually drying down to a smoky, amber-vanilla concoction that was sweet, spicy, and a touch powdery.

For testing, I bought a travel-sized spray, and I used three sprays for each wear test, which were applied to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise. It was long-lasting (over 10 hours and still detectable as a skin-scent) with moderate sillage for the first two to three hours and moderate projection.

Subjectively, I was very happy I bought a larger size of this over a decanted sample vial. I only did so because it was on sale through the brand’s website, and I loved that there was a travel-sized option available. I love the smell of lavender, both more vanilla-lavender as well as very herbaceous, almost medicinal, lavender. I felt like this was an excellent execution of a fragrance where amber was the star with other notes really working to accentuate and play up amber’s best qualities. I bought mine directly from the brand, and it did take a couple of weeks to arrive, which was longer than typical in my experience for an international shipment; I also purchased two other travel-sized sprays, which made the international shipping cost worth it.