Les Nombres d'Or - AMBER - Mona di Orio

AMBER by MONA DI ORIO

Les Nombres d'Or collection Sample

photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog personal files

Amber by Mona di Orio from Les Nombres d'Or collection review -

Mona di Orio learned all about the art of perfumery, the art of composition and how to choose good quality raw materials with Roudinitska (she was his protégée). When he passed away she was invited by his wife to stay in the company and run the laboratory with her, which she did for the next nine years.

In 2004 she teamed up with Jeroen Oude Sogtoen, a Dutch designer who already owned a company specialized in brand identity creation, to open their own perfume house. Mona di Orio Parfums was born to unlock the emotions found in dreams and imaginations. Perfumes that will be a surprise at the first whiff, and later, will develop slowly revealing their souls.

I received from Jeroen the 3 fragrances of the newest collection Les Nombres d'Or: Musc, Cuir and Amber.

Perfumer: Mona di Orio

Launch: 2010

Gender: + Q perfume Blog thinks it is for both genders.

Olfactive Notes: Vetiver, Cedarwood from Atlas Concrète, Ylang Ylang Comores, Resinoids - Benzoin & Tolu and Absolu Vanila Madagascar.

Description by brand: "Golden Ratio ... might be the key to understand beauty. Intrigued and attracted by this aesthetic theory, it let me imagine how to revisit some influential classics of the perfumery. Searching for the perfect proportions to reach a melodious harmony. Using the best raw materials, beautiful ingredients, precious gifts blessed with divine proportions. Close your eyes, open your nose and follow their mysterious and sensual sillages."

Description by + Q Perfume Blog: SENSUAL, LUXURIOUS, POWDERY, RESINUOS, GOURMET

Silage: Good

Fixation: Great

You find Mona di Orio fragrances at her site by clicking HERE.

Rating: ✪✪✪✪✪

Where:

✪✪✪✪✪ - Stick to me and never let me go!

✪✪✪✪ - Syrupy delicious!

✪✪✪ - I would wear till sample will finish, but not buy a bottle.

✪✪ - Sticky and stinky!

✪ - Hide under a tree!

AMBERGRIS

Amber was not my favorite note till I had the pleasure of exploring it in this fragrance. Although I have many fragrances with amber, I never thought of buying a perfume inspired by it. Amber Fetiche by Annick Goutal - not my favorite at all! L'Eau D'Ambre by L'Artisan...also did not make me tap dance in joy. Dior's last launch for the men - Ambre Nuit- huummm, nice! But is not for my gender...

CEDAR ATLAS

Mona di Orio, inspired by this note, created a perfume that is gentle, chic and powdery.

The first whiff has a cedar y note, sharp, sweet, slightly balsamic and a bit rubbery. It does not have a strong pencil note that we all know. Here it is rich, well blended in a drop of vetiver, bringing a smooth velvety result. Not particularly masculine. Just delicious.

The powdery aspect of this fragrance is what makes me more addicted to it. It is comforting, old school, perfectly balanced.

The perfume is a gold, thick composition of resins. Perfect for this gray, rainy week. I see caramel, golden, dark brown resins coming out of the trees, dripping into the flask.

Physeter macrocephalus (P. catodon) (Physeteridae) or Ambergris - Found in the ocean, it is produced my the whale digestive system and regorgitated by them. It has a fecal, marine scent when fresh, and a sweet and warm scent when aged.

Amber notes are also provided by ambrette seed, clary sage, angelica, myrrh, labdanum ciste and clary sage (according to OsMoz). Synthetics have interesting names, such as Madrox (amber dodecane) by Givaudan - with woody, tobacco, amber y warm tons. Or Ambretone ( by Takasago - musky, amber y, animalistic and flowery. (the industry offers many amber fragrance compounds, I mentioned these just as examples. Besides, they are developing new interesting ones).

Myroxylon balsamum or Tolu balsam, comes from a South American tree, closely related to the tree yielding Peru balsam 'Tolu balsam resinoid' is obtained by extraction of the raw tolu balsam. It is a brown crystalline mass with a persistent, sweet, balsamic odour, somewhat reminiscent of Hyacint. It is used as a fixative in perfumes. The main constituents of tolu balsam are the benzyl- and cinnamyl esters of benzoic acid and cinnamic acid. They are solid at room temperature.

Styrax benzoin, S. tonkinensis (Styracaceae) or Benzoin gum is a balsam obtained from trees of the genus Styrax and produced mainly in Asiatic countries such as Indonesia, Sumatra, Java, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. There are two varieties of benzoin gums: benzoin gum Siam from S. tonkinensis and benzoin gum Sumatra from S. benzoin. The balsam is obtained from cuts in the bark. The first one has a sweet-balsamic odour, with a distinct note of vanilla; the second has a strong odour influenced by styrene. Due to Cinnamyl cinnamate they have a soft and very tenacious balsamic-floral odor.

Bourbon Vanilla ou Vanilla Madagascar is produced from V planifolia, which is a type of orchid with pods. The beans or pods are harvested before they ripen, but the powerful vanilla flavour only develops after a several months of special curing. The beans are spread in the sun in the morning, then covered and kept enclosed during the night. After a while the green beans turn brown, and the glycosidically bound vanillin is slowly liberated. Also white fluffs on the surface of the vanilla pods are pure crystallized vanillin, and a sign of high quality.

Vanillin, or 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, is definitely the major odorant from vanilla, but several additional aroma compounds are formed during the curing process (more than 100 are identified). Guaicol, creosol, acetovanillone, vanillyl alcohol and methyl salicylate seem to be of importance, together with vitispiranes.

(obs.: all information about the resins were taken from the site Bo Jensen - an expert! Edited and changed a bit by me.)

But history and chemistry apart...Mona di Orio is syrupy and powdery at the same time. A contrast of dusty, dryness with thick, stick wet notes.

The vanilla plant grows as a vine, climbing up the branches of a tree. Vetiver is a grass with very fragrant roots growing downwards. This idea of roots penetrating the soil, or embracing other plants is the very essence of this fragrance. It brings a notion of a long lasting thing. Something that comes from the soul, from the deepest layers of our personality.

The perfume is sweet, but not as cookies or pastries - like some vanilic notes. It has a gentle sweetness that comes sprinkled with that powderness that I love.

I must confess that now I have a problem:

Tolu by Ormonde Jayne or Amber by Mona di Orio? I will take both!!!!!!!