Ambre Stone de L'Atelier

Bergamot is the star of the show, opening quite bright, and settling down into a long-lasting citrus. As it progresses, mineral and musky notes compliment the citrus well. It's an ounce earthy but not dirty, as the citrus and salt are clean and sparkling.

Opens with bright citrus and a slight spice. This is distinctly bergamot, as invigorating as a cup of earl gray tea. At one minute that initial acerbic burst becomes sweeter and slightly animalic with a woody and green edge. At this point, it seems just as likely that Ambre Stone will lead through a familiar progression to the classic clean musks of some of the older Eau Sauvage compositions as to waxy, salty ambergris. By the five minute mark some creamy florals join the show, brightened to gleaming glory by the ambergris. This is, for me, the most exciting and successful phase of the drydown. I am not getting either the classic indolic or soapy jasmine notes, and any of neroli’s brightness is difficult to differentiate from the lingering citrus. Nonetheless the overall harmony of notes is breathtaking. Unfortunately, it only lasts a few minutes. Afterward the dry down is fairly linear, smooth, somewhat creamy, but with a woody green edge slowly gaining resinous warmth and an intriguing waxy quality. My guess is that the ambergris is lending this fragrance a sebaceousness as it does in the much more controversial Muscs Koublaï Khan, in addition to the slightly salty lift that makes it so addictive. Overall this occupies a precarious middle ground for me. This is neither a rough around the edges display of raw materials, as the buzz of 5% ambergris concentration might lead one to believe, nor a perfectly smooth synthesis of its component parts. I find myself either bothered by discordance—the woody green edge never seems to quite meld with the soft haze of florals and animalics as the citrus does—or yearning for definition. But we are not playing with fire here. Ambre Stone is nothing if not likable. Fans of classic men’s fragrances should give this one a go, and animalic haters need have no fear. For some, what seem to me to be contradictory compositional impulses may strike a balance

Hi Fragfam. Just got a sample pack with my recent LuckyScent order and I chose this to wear today. The opening is very bright and refreshing bergamot which smells like lime to me. The Lime note is present throughout the fragrance very clean, however the beautiful ambergris starts to show its face during the mid of development. I get a slightly animalic vibe and if I sniff hard enough it can come across as slightly skanky. It doesn’t stink by any means but something’s deeper and mysterious about this fragrance, which I love. I don’t really get any other notes in this fragrance. It’s just lime and ambergris. TBH this smells very similar to the new batches of Creeds VIW... the ones heavy on the lime and not the coconut. I own a bottle of the new VIW and they smell almost exactly alike. If you add coconut to Ambre Stone you’ll have VIW!! Ambre stones dry down is more animalic and deep compared to VIW which drys down to Irish spring soap on me lol. So if you like VIW you’ll like Ambre Stone. Happy sniffing :)

Ambre Stone is the most interesting so far of the five samples in my Discovery Kit, and after doing some quick internet research, I discovered it’s the only one created by Antoine Lie. The rest are created by Nathalie Feisthauer for L’Atelier Français des Matières Anyway, Bergamot dominates the opening and it takes awhile before it mellows, over an hour on my skin. Supposedly 5% real Ambergris is used in this composition. I’ve worn this twice trying to find the salty, marine ambergris note. My mind might be playing tricks on me—I think it’s mixing with the bergamot in the opening, but I can’t isolate it with 100% accuracy. I pick up patchouli and neroli in the drydown. I like Ambre Stone, it’s complex and interesting. But I won’t be making a purchase because I need my socks knocked off to part with $195 for 30 ml.

Very very similar to Escale en Indonesie, but this doesn't feel as smoothly blended - the bergamot is a little louder and rises above the other ingredients, whereas the ingredients in Escale seem more balanced. I prefer Escale but one is not better than the other - depends on personal preference around how prominent you want the bergamot to be.