Description
Cruelty-free beach-harvested Ambergris
It is an animal scent “a part entière”, like Civet and Beaver’s Castoreum, but it is the sweetest, the most delicate and the most mysterious of all.
As all animal perfumes, Ambergris has a strong effect on our hormonal system, especially the feminine one. It has also been used as a remedy for Parkinson and degenerative diseases.
Its aroma is leathery, sea-like and has undertones of mother’s milk. It is sensual, wild without excess and very feminine.
It works magic in perfumery when used with precious flowers like Jasmine and Tuberose.
The Ambergris is produced by the Sperm whale and is present in of all the ancient pharmacopoeias. It is a very typical scent, animally but of great sweetness seduce particularly the feminine noses, in which they instinctively recognize the odour that will attract males.
Ambergris, like all aromatic substances of animal origin, is a pheromone and acts directly on the hormonal system through the sense of smell, without physical contact.
The sperm whale is so-called for the large amount of fine and valuable oil that is found behind its head. It is a marine mammal of the whales family that feeds of fish and squids, and a hunter who dives to extreme depths (3000 m according to some) where live the mysterious giant squids that Sperm whale caches with its frightening teeth.
This animal was an enormous source of raw materials before the advent of the chemical industry at the beginning of the century (oil, meat, fat, bones and etc) and was hunted also for the Ambergris, although that substance that grows like a football in its stomach is naturally regurgitated by the animal and floats on the oceanic streams to reach the beaches of Mauritania, Somalia and India where it is found.
Few are the animals that produce concentrated aromatic substances. A special organ is necessary for its synthesis. It is the case of the skunk but also of the mythical Musk deer, of the civet, of the beaver and few others. In all cases the aromatic substances produced are pheromones.
These have the function of olfactory communication in rapports with the opposite sex and with rivals of the species. In the reproduction process, the olfactory message offers to the partner the very “fragrance” of the animal’s genetic patrimony and stimulates its endocrine system inviting it to mate. In some species, the smell is so important that the fecundation does not occur in the absence of a determinate odour produced by the male during mating.
Therefore it is probable that the Ambergris floating on the oceanic currents bring to other members of the species important information about the state of health of the individual, its age, its diet and its identity. In the past Ambergris was eaten and burnt like incense and strangely, being of origin animal, it burns making a pleasant smell.
Through inhalation, the body absorbs the aromatic molecules of the smoke that penetrate in the blood circuit reaching all the organs.
In fumigations as well as by ingestion, the medical effect of these pheromones is comparable to a modern estrogen cure. Ambergris is still sold in the city of Mecca. I have seen many Iranians asking for it to perfume sellers. Men eat it to stimulate their sexual power and women to cure infertility. The famous chronicler Ibn Battuta, known as “the Traveler of Islam” narrates in his diaries to have observed with astonishment in a city of Persia that people ate hashish and Ambergris without a sense of guilt, alluding possibly to a narcotic effect of Amber.
In Morocco, it is traditional to use Ambergris with tea and it is amazing to observe how a very small piece of Ambergris stuck inside the teapot’s cover flavours the tea by mere contact with the vapour for years along. The Sperm whale strangely it is not on the way towards extinction, but the natural rarity of Ambergris and its precious properties have rendered it mythical just like Musk.
Because of its very high price, Ambergris is nearly not used any more in perfumery where it has been replaced by the synthetic molecule ambroxan.
ETHICAL CERTIFICATION
We do care for the safeguard of the planet and of all the forms of life that it shelters. Ambergris is the only scent of animal origin obtained without killing, imprisoning or torturing the animal that produces it. Ambergris is a substance that the wild sperm whale regurgitates naturally.
When it is fresh it has nearly no value because its smell is extremely faecal and it has no value for perfumery. Ambergris must mature floating sometimes for tens of years on the sea. The sun and the water of the oceans “wash” it until it assumes the sweet and inimitable scent of sea and leather that fascinated man since his origin. We remind that the Ambergris we use is certified “flotté”, that is “from floating”, found on the beaches. This guarantees the safety of the sperm whale.
We remind also that there are no international restrictions on the import and export of Ambergris. The uncertainty about New Zealand’s position ended in 2004 when the country adopted the view of most other countries that ambergris is not a whale derivative.
“We have adopted the view that ambergris is a waste product that’s excreted naturally“, says Jane Denton, the Department of Conservation’s CITES officer.
Ambergris is produced by the Sperm whale as an intestinal secretion that is regurgitated.
This soft black stinky waxy matter floats over the oceanic currents for as long as 20 years. Time, the contact with seawater and the light of the sun transforms the raw faecal lumps into treasures that anyone would dream to find but that very few could ever recognize.
David –
Hi Mr Dubrana,
If you may recall, I purchased a 13.5 ml. bottle of your famous Ambergris tincture from you a few months ago. I’m happy to share with you my experience with the Ambergris tincture. First I shall describe what I smell from the tincture. To me, I instantly got a distinctly animalic smell when smelled off the bottle. It reminded me of the faecal smell of animal dung at the zoo! It shocked me at first, but surprisingly I did not find it offensive.
In fact, I was so intrigued that I kept smelling it over and over again. I’ve let the tincture sit in my wine cooler for a while, revisiting the scent every now and then.
Nowadays, I am starting to detect sweet undertones from the tincture, and the smell is as alluring as ever. To me, the scent of the tincture alone never lasted more than 10 min on my skin though.
Having heard a lot about the properties of Ambergris in perfumery, in particular its magical ability to prolong a perfume’s longevity and to amplify and enhance the perfume’s scent and acter, I decided to conduct a little experiment on the one perfume in my collection that never lasts more than 1 hour (or even 30 min sometimes) on my skin – Creed’s Millesime Imperial. I transferred 1.5 ml. of Millesime Imperial into a small atomiser, and added about 20 s (I know, this is probably too much!!) of your Ambergris tincture, and let the mixture sit for about 1.5 days.
Yesterday night, I sprayed the original Millesime Imperial on one arm, and the “enhanced” version of MI on the other arm. I gave it about 5 min before I smelled each arm in turn, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the “enhanced” version of MI was noticeably brighter, almost sharper, almost jumping out in radiance!
To make sure that I wasn’t imagining things, I let my sister smell both arms without telling her anything about my experiment, and she immediately picked up on the “sharper” acter of the “enhanced” MI.
I should add that my sister is not a perfumista, and the fact that she managed to pick up on it says a lot!
And then comes the moment of truth – after I woke up in the morning, I took a shower, and went to work. When I returned from work 10 hours later, I could still smell traces of “enhanced” MI on my arm, while the other arm with original MI had long been devoid of any trace of the smell!
The above results make me even more convinced that Creed doesn’t use any amount of real Ambergris in their perfumes contrary to what they may claim, since the original scent smelled NOTHING like the “enhanced” scent infused with real Ambergris!
I find this to be truly intriguing initial results, and I int to experiment a lot more from now on.
Thank you so much!
Aaron –
wow wow… this one impacted me so much. I smelled the ocean, it brought back so many memories.
it was salty, sunny, seaweed and seashells.
It almost seem like the mystery of the ocean was bottled up in a scent and somehow I could smell its eternal presence.
I recall sitting in awe…in awe that there is a God and im a little human.
Very spiritual scent.