Amber In Bloom

I’m currently searching for a budget signature scent, so I grabbed this from Zara’s website out of curiosity. I thought I was a white floral hater but this fragrance made a believer out of me. The fragrance opens up with an intense bouquet of lush, carnal, creamy, and rich tuberose, narcotic, green, and slightly waxy jasmine sambac, and honeyed, tropical, and the slightly unripe banana facets of the ylang-ylang. After the open settles and becomes softer, the wet and green waxy leaves of the sambac is vibrant. Beautiful orange blossom is added to the bouquet. Usually, orange blossom pulls screechy grape soda & bubblegum on my skin (like in Killian’s LDBS), but here it is fragrant, floral, warm, and has a touch of bubblegum that is appreciated here. As the fragrance approaches the dry down, the amber has a vintage quality to it and is warm and resinous. The tonka bean, to my nose, starts as an earthy vanilla and transforms into a warm powdery vanilla. There is also an added vanilla note in here that reminds me of pure vanilla beans, scraped straight from the pod. The cashmeran provides a comforting, clean, and light woodiness to the second half of the fragrance. At this point in the fragrance, the white florals are subdued, but are still very present, and the honeyed ylang-ylang is at its strongest on my skin. Wearing this perfume is like being transported to a moonlit flower garden while wearing vintage cosmetic powder from large pink powder puff and a cozy cashmere cardigan. The flowers shimmer with dew under the moonlight and you deeply inhale the flowers during your stroll. I think this fragrance has enough going for it to become a signature scent for brunches or date nights. I also think this fragrance could be worn in all seasons, but I’m looking forward to wearing this in the summer. I also layered this with Blanche Bête and it was otherworldly. Highly recommend. This is the most unique fragrance from the Amber collection and it appears that this collection may be approaching discontinuation. I was able to grab 3 out of 4 of the collection’s 80 ml bottles on sale before they disappeared from Zara’s website. I may have to buy a backup bottle from resellers because this fragrance is special to me!

One of the most unique from the collection. I don't know if my nose is still broken from anosmia due to flu but I can smell a strong indolic tuberose, quite carnal and "breathy", enveloped in a sort of balsamic/camphorous accord (similar to the moth ball or minty smell of Cocaine's tuberose but much less potent, so much more wearable); the jasmine and tuberose togheter have that sort of graveyard's flower effect, a là flora mortis which I personally love. What I liked even more is the fact that at the same time the tuberose is bubbly, almost fizzy, and somewhat sweet, and those two characters are equally present creating a nice contrast between the gothic and playful aspects of flowers. A hint of something spicy tickles the nose in the opening, but I would not say that the fragrance is a full on spicy/floral. In the middle I can feel a coconut impression, something tropical, maybe even ylang ylang but no Alien jasmine, and a creaminess of sort. Dry down is of posh amber and maybe a little salty and woody (with a balmy twist, in this sense I see the connection with the masterpiece Alien Essence Absolue, but no more then that, no high tech jasmine or cashmeran base, nor it has the magical balsamic thickness of Alien Essence Absolue). On me it closes with a clear amd creamy cashmeran, but not potent like in the Alien line. I shall update my review after at least two weeks of use (my impressions could be totally altered by nose problems) but for now it is very good, quite special. Also, big bottle is on sale in Europe at the moment.

I was really curious about this one, and it didn’t disappoint. I like it a lot. Personally, I had definitely been looking for a tuberose fragrance, since I found that I enjoyed it in a shower gel and then getting a whiff out of it in the Black Orchid EDT. Of course, Black Orchid has so many other things going on, and I was looking for something that was a little bit more straightforward tuberose. Then I stumbled upon a review video on the Amber collection. Hearing that this one has a tuberose note definitely intrigued me to buy the discovery set. And I haven’t regretted it! This fragrance is definitely the more straightforward tuberose bomb that I was looking for! Of course the amber and cashmeran notes give it a depth that makes it a well rounded perfume, and not just like a single note scent, like you would wear a tuberose essential oil or something. This is definitely what I was hoping it would be. It’s giving of creamy, giving me a bit of a white chocolate vibe. Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I definitely do feel that me as a guy can pull this off – and that others guys would be able to pull it off too. I get why tuberose would be typically considered a “feminine” note. But in here, whether it’s because of the amber or something else, it almost has something about it that kind of makes it more rough around the edges.

Yes, it is similar to Rouge Malachite and also to The Only One Intense. For me it is somewhere in the middle between the two, less spicy and less deep than Rouge Malachite. Of course the quality of ingredients makes a difference,too. To sum up, not a 100% substitute, but if you like this scent profile, you will enjoy this. Another very good perfume from Zara. I like to wear it now in the summer heat, and it would be good for the colder months, too.

I have decided to write one review when I purchase the perfume, and one later, based on whether it grows on me or not. This is a very sophisticated, beautiful scent, sadly with no longevity and sillage. It is powdery, ambery, musky, with a hint of incense to my nose. I love it but I don't know whether I'll be keeping it whether to the terrible (in my opinion) performance.