Ambre Tabac

Today I'm going to be taking a look at Ambre Tabac by Daniel Josier. This fragrance, and in fact this entire house, is one I had never heard of before walking into a Perfumania. While browsing I was handed a test strip with this fragrance on it, and from the first sniff I knew what this smelled like; Angel's Share. The recognition was immediate and undeniable. Now it's no secret that Angel's Share is one of my favorite fragrances of all time, so something smelling similar to it isn't a problem in the slightest. However, that means I'm going to be judging said fragrance with a lot of scrutiny. Will Ambre Tabac hold up? Let's get into it and find out; Scent: The opening is warm, spicy, and sweet. The primary notes I get are tobacco, vanilla, amber, and incense. True to it's name, the strongest of the notes are the tobacco and amber. The tobacco takes point on the opening with a warm, cozy, and sweet accord nuanced with some spicy undertones. It's similar to the tobacco note I get in Rabanne's 1 Million Prive. Right alongside the tobacco is the amber, manifesting as a deep, rich, balsamic note with plenty of sweetness and warmth behind it. Up next is the vanilla and incense. The vanilla serves to provide additional sweetness with a creamy edge. It isn't overly powerful or push the opening into being gourmand, instead it blends into the coziness of the tobacco and amber. Lastly, the incense adds a touch of smokiness and some additional spiciness in the background. The resemblance of this opening to By Kilian's Angel's Share, Parfum De Marly's Oajan, and Rabanne's 1 Million Prive is uncanny. The dry down is still warm, sweet, and spicy. The primary notes I get are still tobacco, amber, vanilla, and incense, and the strongest of the notes are still the tobacco and amber. Not too much has changed in the dry down, honestly. The tobacco and amber are a bit richer, and the vanilla is just a touch more prominent, but that's about it. Performance: Initial projection within the first hour is very strong and can easily fill a room. Sillage matches that intensity with a dense and heavy scent trail. After a few hours the performance was largely unchanged. Around the 7-8 hour mark the projection was about 3 feet and the scent trail was lighter but still noticeable. The fragrance became a skin scent around the 10 hour mark. When to wear: Ambre Tabac is a fall/winter fragrance that is best suited for evening wear. This fragrance is an immaculate choice for any special occasions, but can also be worn formally too. I wouldn't wear it casually or to the office, however. Blind buy: If you like fragrances like Angel's Share, Oajan, or 1 Million Prive, this is a safe blind buy for you. Final verdict: The short and sweet of Ambre Tabac is that it undeniably smells like Angel's Share. The scent profile is very similar, I'd say around 90%. When it comes to performance, Ambre Tabac doesn't play any games. Very strong projection and scent trails for at least the first four hours, and lasting about 10 altogether before fading away. Versatility for fragrances like this is never the greatest, but that's to be expected. It's made for special/formal occasions in the cooler months and exceeds in that purpose, but that's about it. Mass appeal on the other hand is high. There's no weird or off-putting notes and most people will think this smells delicious. In conclusion, if you're looking for a good alternative to Angel's Share this isn't a bad pick at all. The only thing that holds it back is the price. $180 is way too high, especially considering you can get actual Angel's Share for under $200 at discount websites. Even at it's sale price of $130 that's a lot of money. I'll just hold out for Angel's Share. But hey, if you don't mind spending money on that DNA, this is a good one. *PS* It is worth noting that Ambre Tabac came out in 2014, 6 years before the 2020 release of Angel's Share. So if anything, Angel's Share is a reinterpretation of Ambre Tabac. If you wanna trace it back even further, PDM's Oajan started the DNA even sooner in 2013, so Ambre Tabac could be called an interpretation of Oajan. Still, I think Angel's Share does it the best. Scent: 10/10 Longevity: 8/10 Sillage: 10/10

I have never, ever received as many compliments on a scent as I have this one. On my wedding night, not only did I myself receive several compliments on how I smell specifically, but my wife approached me later and said "So many people have come up to me and told me how good you smell. I think they didn't want to offend me by telling you." The catch here is that I had already known this would be the case given that I have been wearing this out regularly for the past year. It's like a fresh slice of apple pie next to a glass of whiskey with a cigar sitting across the table. People comment on it nearly every single time I wear it, and I have not been able to replicate that experience with anything else. I know I sound like I'm shilling this but it genuinely has changed my perspective on the impact a fragrance, and particularly a signature fragrance, can have. It makes me feel extremely confident to wear, and I'm happy to finally be able to say and feel as though I have my own signature scent. I live in the midwest, so it's pretty easy to have a unique fragrance if you venture away from the well known designer brands 😅 I came across this fragrance after the discontinuation of One Million Prive. That had previously been my "signature scent," but really lacked in performance and would only last a couple hours. Unfortunately they had discontinued it, and I had been on the hunt for a replacement. Some had recommended Oajan before I eventually pulled the trigger on a 1.4oz of Ambre Tabac, I tried it once and immediately ordered a 3.4oz. It's like One Million Prive on steroids; not in that it's simply more intense, but that it does everything One Million Prive does much better. It is less overbearingly sweet, yet absolutely sweet enough. It leans further into the likeable qualities of tobacco, particularly a nice cigar. It's "booze" notes are more reminiscent of Hennesy or Remy VSOP than One Millions rubbing alcohol or Everclear. It smells elegant, classy, slightly feminine, yet still quite masculine. I would definitely say this perfume's favorite season is fall. Winter is great too, but this scents roots in Fall are undeniable. That said, it can absolutely work in spring and on summer evenings, if to a lesser extent. I'm still on the hunt for a daytime summer or warm spring scent that fits warmer weather nearly as well as this fits Fall and Winter. Nothing has come close for me. Projection and performance are *excellent*. I often smell this predominantly on my clothes and skin the following day. Projection is just right, picking up a couple feet away from you and not filling the room in an overbearing way. It leaves a faint trail that has literally had people find me in the room to ask what I am wearing. Comments about its alcohol-y nature are true though, and this can cause a burning sensation in sensitive areas, especially fresh out of the shower. This has become an incredibly ego-ic review, but it is what it is. This fragrance makes me feel like a million bucks.

My first try from Daniel Josier, Ambre Tabac is, as the name suggests, primarily a blend of tobacco and amber. It also involves a vanilla acord that's familiar to most anyone who knows and loves the popular "sweet tobacco" category of fragrances, as I call it. Incense and sandalwood provide further character for this blend. Overall, it's a little spicier in the opening and a little creamier and calmer in the dry down, as one might expect, but it's a reasonably consistent fragrance throughout. It performs well and is sweet and creamy, as it seems the animalic side of amber does not come out too much in this blend. However, Ambre Tabac reminds me of a couple of noteworthy honeyed tobacco fragrances, specifically, Back to Black By Kilian and Herod by Parfums De Marly, comparisons mostly intended to be complimentary, and while these comparisons don't seem to be commonplace within the online fragcomm, I nonetheless detect the slight redundancy on my skin. That said, it's an outstanding fragrance, in a similar vein to the abovementioned fragrances, and at a fair price point for strong, niche-quality juice, at $175 for 100ml on the website. 8 out of 10

I'd never tried anything from Daniel Josier (here's where I look back and discover a review from 5 years ago) and I was expecting some rich, quality bizzness and that's what I got. The initial spray for me is honey sweet, sticky, balsamic and laden with spicy goodness. It's a little like TF Tobacco Vanille but then becomes more cinnamon spiced and a complete dead-ringer for Oajan by PdM (or vice versa?) and that is a fragrance I love and own a bottle of. To separate the two I'd say this opens more full on and sweet than Oajan but also simultaneously more full bodied and tobacco like when dried down. Oajan is a bit less turbulent and gives fewer 'looks' or facets to me. Ambre Tabac seems to flip, smelling more spicy one minute then to more sweet, ambery then tobacco like. However, this is nickpicking (they are effectively Identical) and could be fantasy because I've not tried them side by side but I know Oajan pretty well having had a bottle the last several years and put a hefty dent in it from repeated winter wearing. Lasts well and smells of something I love deeply, so this is a winner for me.

Please Fragrantica do me a favor. Daniel Josier is not a Designer. Does anyone ever wore cloths from DJ? Can you buy it in most perfumeries? No. This is a NICHE BRAND. Edit: I have been looking for a sweet tobacco fragrance but trying to avoid Tom Fords TV. I have Pure Havane- Aramis Tobacco Reserve- Spicebomb extreme- 3 the One versions- Jazz Club and a few more Tom Ford clones. I bought Ambre Tabac in April and more recently Franck Boclet Tobacco and Porfumi del Forti Toscanello. This Daniel Josier fragrance is the best of them all. It is also the sweeter of them all. But non of them are really close to Tom Ford TV. The question is, do I need Phaedon Tobacco Rouge before I jump into Tobacco Vanilla, which I only tested on paper? In the meanwhile I own Tom Ford's TV. Man, that is a great disappointment. That one is all about heavy sweet Tonka/Cacao/Cinnamon(?) It is so overwhelming that Tobacco is just shy in the background. Even the Vanille is is faint. Nothing like I remember for the paper strip I took less than 3 years ago. If it is Tobacco you are looking for: nothing to be seen here.