Secret Amber

This smells divine. My male chemistry loves this. I have never smelled a better amber. The notes are well-blended. There is no over-bearing accord. I hate to repeat what others have written, but this smells like a supremely great Middle-Eastern bazaar masterpiece. The nutmeg and ginger are perfectly spicy in the opening. The rose is present at first spray. I do not enjoy rose in a general sense, but this is like sugared rose water, if you are familiar with Medieval cooking. It is a supporting note here. Never in the lead, just lifting the other notes and giving them a perfect stage. Vanilla is a favorite and is present from beginning to end. I think of this scent as a canvas made of the amber. It is the foundation and always there. Not clumsy and demanding your attention like many cheap ambers, but blending and enhancing the other notes as they rise and fall during the drydown. This has some of my favorite notes and some I am ambivalent about (ginger), as well as one I dislike (rose). The notes play together and are never clashing, but always merging in different degrees with each other, but always beautiful. Avoid this if you dislike vanilla. This is a vanilla trip. I do not dislike this fragrance. I am here to praise it. I praise it with every breath today. It is making me smile. It has given me an unexpected luxury. A luxury that is affordable and accessible to anyone. This is a niche quality fragrance. The niche is simply for the few to give it a chance and congratulate themselves for smelling wonderful and saving enough money to buy their favorite foods at the grocery. It does not smell modern, but ancient. I love it! I am in shock at my reaction to Jovan Secret Amber. Edit - This is the only scent my German Shepherd has ever acknowledged. She rests her head on my arms and rubs herself on my arms when I am wearing Secret Amber. She stops when I give her fur a spray. wow.

My fiancé has been a huge fan of YSL Ambre Narguile, and when her last decant ran out she decided to seek out a more affordable replacement, using the cost difference to add some variety to her scent collection. She has a sensitive nose some days, so going into Sephora has never been much of an option for her - and knowing my fondness for scents, she asked me to try to find her something. Along the way we've discovered her fondness for Dior Addict, as well as Bvlgari Au The Blanc for when she wants something pleasant but with a very light touch, and Bvlgari Jasmin Noir when she wants something strong and dark. But that sweet-amber-musky hole in her heart hadn't yet been filled. Until now. I bought the bottle because it was shockingly affordable, and I'd read so many comments below about its quality. I came here after a great tip from member emt1986 - thanks to all of you for being right on the money. This is a beautiful amber musk. I prepped a few testers in sequence so my fiancé could smell the opening, middle, and drydown and she was so happy. Then when I told her how much I spent on it, she almost went catatonic - so did I, frankly, when I first smelled it - this is a gorgeous scent.. It's not a complete replacement for AN as the spice component here is much softer, but it's exceptional nonetheless. It does suffer the performance issues one would expect from a bottle this affordable, so prepare to reapply :) We may one day splurge on a bottle of Ambre Narguile - but right now we don't have to.

My first impression: this reminds of l'Occitane Amber. It has that strong spicy opening and dries down to a lovely vanilla. At first the sillage is strong, but it dies down fairly quickly and I'm left with a gorgeous vanilla skin scent. I will probably keep this one even though I have a better version. Because it's pretty. Edit: tempted to change my original review but I'll let it stand. A lot of my perfumes are neglected but this one gets used frequently. It's my easy, go-to, interesting but not crazy-smelling beautiful scent. I can't believe the price I paid for it. I wear it more often than anything else I have, and I have more perfumes than I'd like to admit. I understand the resemblance to l'Occitane Amber that I sensed before but it's not as strong for me now. Secret Amber does seem to have an oud note. I sent a sample to a perfume friend, and forgot to label it. As we were puzzling out what I'd sent her I think she mentioned an old-fashioned, amber but almost chypre smell, and I realized what I'd sent her. If all this sounds nice to you, please consider grabbing a bottle while you can. It's still cheap on ebay, I just checked. Oh god, should I get a backup? For when I run out of this one in ten years??

This stuff smells almost exactly like ESTEE LAUDER SENSUOUS NOIR! For a fraction of the cost.** Secret Amber is vanilla, amber and spice - strongly cinnamon at the beginning, then develops into a nice, even blend of all the spices. I have sampled a ton of expensive niche of this same category, and many are less inviting and more simplistic than Secret Amber. You could do a lot worse with $10. **Secret Amber is less noir, but still has much of the same DNA and contains something very unique and specific to Sensuous Noir. I adore Sensuous Noir, but had to give my bottle away for headache purposes. Plus, it kind of knocks me down with a wall of fragrance. So, I would say Secret Amber is a more wearable version (for me) of Sensuous Noir. Later . . . been wearing this for a couple days now, no headaches yet. Have I found my answer to Sensuous Noir? Fingers crossed Even later . . . lasts all day. The longer it's on my skin, the better it smells. Oooh, what a find!

What a friggin' bargain. Warm, cozy, fuzzy amber that thrives on a chill in the air. Like a beloved, soft hoodie and a mug of chamomile with honey. Not too sweet, not too sharp--a Goldilocks in Baby Bear's bed type of feeling. Almost as comforting as Shalimar is to me. Is it the musk? I do love the cheap and charming Jovan musks. I keep trying other amber-based scents, searching for my ideal autumn sunshine amber, and I keep coming back to this strong silent affordable gem of an amber fragrance. Why do I stray? Am I being snotty because this is so inexpensive? This isn't real ambergris and exotic vanilla and the finest cinnamon-- but in my experience Jovan makes masterpieces out of chemical mimicry. Also, I'd hate to be the sort of person who equates quality with cost. This is affordable and lovable.