Orca

Composed of honey and ambergris, House of Matriarch Orca seems to aspire to embody amber in all of its greatness, and in that respect, I find that it succeeds, showing the creamy and sweet sides of amber as well as the dull animalic side of it that makes the accord so alluring. Orca is certainly slightly saltier at the opening, but quickly dries down into the rich amber / honey combination that constitutes the listed notes of the fragrance according to the HOM website. Comparing to other fragrances that feature amber/resins, it's not as woody as Le Labo Benzoin 19 nor is it really that animalic along the lines of Parfum d'Empire Ambre Russe nor as dark AND animalic as Profumum Ambra Aurea. Like most amber-centric fragrances, it's functionally unisex and cold-weather leaning, despite having a bit more versatility due to its more modest projection than say, the heartily animalic Ambra Aurea or sweetly boastful Tom Ford Amber Absolute. Orca is nevertheless bold and long-lasting but not loud in terms of projection a sign of a high concentration of natural ingredients. As seemingly with a lot of other House of Matriach fragrances, Orca does not come cheap, at $330 for 50ml / $120 for 15ml per the house's website. It's a tough sell per volume but the fragrance is a wonderful expression of amber, and I'm happy to have a decant of it, if nothing else. A recommended try for amber lovers. 8 out of 10

Though some appear to consider this similar to Tauer desert frags such as LDDM and CDD, I do not agree for the most part. I wore both CDD and Orca today... and found yet again that Tauer has strong synthetic elements that tend to make me queasy after a short time, whereas Orca does not make me ill after wearing it all day. That is, after a full day on my dry skin I can still smell it, but as in the beginning, it is always very close to the skin. The only resemblance between the desert Tauer frags and this is that they are both spicy. However, there are many spicy fragrances out there, especially when it comes to naturals. In the end, Orca and similar natural frags are still natural over the passage of time, whereas synthetic-heavy houses such as Tauer make me nauseated after the more natural top notes burn off. The choice to make fragrances project and long-lasting by using dominant synthetics therefore doesn't work for me in the case of Tauer. In the end I have a FB of Orca and only samples of Tauer.

Beautiful amber scent! I take cinnamon, labdanum, pepper, resins, honey, leather, flowery indols, ambergris, and that salty steaming incense of choya loban. All sweet, balanced harmonious, soft. An orange and warm mixture with that attitude of Maroccain airs, Fumerie dusts, Obsessions, Opium ... It is oriental but with the retro Frenchism of powdery and clean Caron-style drydowns. A sweet, fun, enjoyable, satisfying smoke for about 5 hours, before disappearing completely without a trace. A "toccata e fuga". .... Played well!

This similar to LADDM by Andy tauer, took me a few wearings to truly appreciate. They share some similarities but are not at all the same. If I had to describe to someone who hasn’t smelt orca, I would make this reference due to the leathery, incense vibe of both. I love this fragrance. The amber, the way it interacts with everything is to die for. I will always have this in my collection.

ORCA held me helplessly spellbound with its magical leathery embrace of the Amber of the Sea. The resinous medicinal benzoin and woody notes then emerged, lending a hand that took me to a tropical realm Far East. Calm and grounded, I reached a blissful meditative state of serenity as the salty musky drydown left me awash with its refined incensy finale. ▓▓ ▒ ░ ░ ░