Amber Aquilaria by Electimuss

My favourite from the emperor collection, well actually the only one I like. It is not a simple or easy scent either. It opens with a bright bergamot that gives a brief flash, because straight away the warm and sweet, aged boozy accord appears, which for me carries a lot of weight in this perfume and undoubtedly colours the whole composition. Then the dry, resinous and medicinal oud together with grey amber finish shaping this very particular blend. Very original and unique. A mature, serious, elegant and nocturnal perfume. Very masculine. Scent 8/10 Longevity: over 9h Sillage: Powerful and long-lasting

Grey amber in generous doses is what is in this perfume. It is difficult to describe its aroma and understand it if you are not familiar with this note. First of all, the notes of bergamot, vanilla, rose and cognac are not perceived as such, but as a citrusy fruity accord of apricot and raspberry, sweet and salty at the same time, with a strange smoky, salty, marine touch with flashes of medicinal notes and perhaps rose geranium. Sandalwood and oud only act as a vehicle on which the composition rides, everything perfectly integrated. It is an easy aroma in that it is refreshing, it is not dark nor too animalic nor terpenic, but it has that salty/sweet, smoky and medicinal part given by grey amber in harmony with everything else that makes it very original without falling into extravagance or resorting to strange compositions (olfactory experiences more than perfumes). Very good longevity and moderate sillage, somewhat linear but you would not want it any other way because it is magnificent from start to finish. Personally it is one of the best I have tried lately, I think it is a work of art, and it is a 10 out of 10. Finally, I do not know if it is authentic grey amber or a blend of different synthetic organics, but it works perfectly well.

This is my second review of Amber Aquilaria, in the first one I ranted about the house’s excessive price and its pompous presentation, but truth be told, with time and experience I have changed my perspective. Electimuss really seems to want to make good products and the quality is here with all the fragrances I tried. Are they excessively expensive? Are some of them derivative? I don’t know, maybe, it depends on your perspective on the perfume market as it is now. The way I see it, these days in fragcom it seems like we have a version of what is happening in crypto today, an abundance of scammers making overnight companies with cheap WordPress websites in search of a quick and easy cash-out usually with the help of greedy / misguided influencers and (let’s be realistic) credulous and compulsive buyers. Seen in that context, Electimuss is fine, they are not great, but they are not terrible either: they invest in their product and seem to take fragrance creation seriously, which may sound silly, but it is quite rare nowadays. That said, you can vibe with them or not, but it is an honest brand with an honest product. Anyway, these are my two impressions of this brand and of the state of things in the fragrance world. Now the fragrance: Amber Aquilaria is a masculine amber fragrance with a cognac accord. There are no rough edges, it is rounded and smooth. The smell is velvety amber and cognac, similar to the cognac accord of Enigma by Roja (only that accord, there is no similarity between the two fragrances). It is linear and most of the smell is amber and cognac, sweet, but not too sweet and elegant. It is different in the first 5 to 15 minutes when it has an animalic feel, it is rougher, sexy and you also get bergamot swirling with the cognac, but it does not last. Throughout most of its life you get a soft, velvety, airy amber / cognac blend with no rough edges that remains quite linear. Performance is good for my standards, decent projection in the first 1-2 hours, total longevity of about 9 hours, by no means beast mode. Is it worth it at this price? Well, no, like most fragrances at retail, but let’s be realistic, if you are reading this far into this long-ass rant you are probably in the game and get your fragrances discounted, grey market or from a plug so it depends on your perspective of what that value is worth to you. At the end of the day what you spend your money on is a decision you make, I am happy with mine and this one has a cosy place in my collection.

Fun fragrance) It is very easy to be misled about the fragrance composition by the listed notes. By the way, as usual, on Fragrantica the notes are not listed in full. The full pyramid from the official site looks like this: FRUITY AROMATIC TOP : Bergamot, mandarin, peach and cinnamon ALCOHOLIC FLORAL HEART : Rose, cognac, jasmine, neroli, geranium SPICED AMBER BASE : Grey amber, sandalwood, bourbon vanilla, Aquilaria Oud But to my nose, it smells like root beer, something medicinal and mint, like the kind of mint that was in Pepsodent toothpaste. TSVGA POP comes to mind. They seem very similar to me… Only POP is five times cheaper. And in POP’s notes there is root beer, so it is clear where the flavour comes from. By the way, both root beer and Pepsodent mint are made from the same Sassafras tree…. But none of this is mentioned in the notes of Amber Aquilaria. Perhaps the rare Oud used in this perfume gives away this composition…. Overall, I like this direction of fragrances and I find it very bold and unusual. But I think it won’t appeal to everyone, so you should test it beforehand. On the other hand, 500 dollars for a bottle, that is certainly steep. And TSVGA POP with higher persistence and projection parameters seemed much more interesting to me.

It opens with a very high-quality, fresh bergamot that accompanies the rest of the main notes like cognac, grey amber and oud and rose. Ideal for autumn and spring. Unisex leaning masculine. I’d give it an 8/10.

My favourite from the emperor collection, actually the only one I like. Nor is it a simple or easy scent. It opens with a bright bergamot that gives a brief flash, because straight away appears the warm and sweet, aged boozy accord that for me carries a lot of weight in this perfume and undoubtedly colours the whole composition. Then the dry, resinous and medicinal oud together with the grey amber finish shaping this very particular blend. Very original and unique. A mature, serious, elegant and nocturnal perfume. Very masculine. Scent 8/10 Longevity: over 9h Sillage: Powerful and long-lasting

It opens with top-notch, super fresh bergamot that goes brilliantly with the cognac, ambergris, oud and rose. Ideal for autumn and spring, unisex but with more masculine character. I’d rate it an 8/10.