Of all my perfumes, “Ambre Narguile” is the one most liked by bystanders. It is the one where people start to ask for the name and the brand of the perfume and sniff quite excitedly on my cloths.
It is also one of the most copied perfumes I know. Almost every company that produces – what I call “fraternal twin perfumes” – has tried their luck with “Ambre Narguile”. It is easier to buy one of those than buying the original, which is to my knowledge only possible in HERMES Stores in person or online.
“Ambre Narguile’s” price, for an Eau de Toilette, is high – close to 300€ for 100ml. Another rare thing – I never saw that fragrance discounted anywhere. Whilst normal HERMES lines are discounted and sold in various places, the “Hermessence” fragrances, the luxury collection, is not. Either you go for it according to Hermes terms, or you buy the inspired perfumes.
I got as many compliments for the inspired versions as for the original. The Dua Brand made one with more gourmand notes, including coffee. People love it, men and women alike.
It took me some time to buy the real thing, I had started with the fraternal twin scents, without having much of an idea about the original. I had just liked the scent notes as described and was not once disappointed. For quite some time I was convinced that the original was out of production since ages. This, of course, had to do with never finding it in one of my preferred online stores and when googling it only the Eau de Toilette showing up. After some recherche, I did accept that the original was the Eau de Toilette with the weird main scent notes “perfumer’s amber” and “toasted sesame seeds”. To be fair, on the HERMES’ website we can read in a statement from Jena-Claude Ellena, the creator of the perfume, about honey, fruits, smoke and the warmth of the orient. The latter was what famous Jean-Claude Ellena wanted to capture and therefore also the name of the perfume, reminding us on an oriental huka.
Amber and toasted sesame is not what I smell. Neither in the original nor the inspired versions. The perfume oozes rum notes, and cinnamon doused in in. Further notes are plums and spices, like coriander. It is a strong scent, a true unisex perfume.
The colour of the scent is a dark, shiny brown.
There are some days in summer when the perfume might be perfect, but in general the warmth of “Ambre Narguile” fits better into the cold season. Available since 2004, the perfume has a special status among its now more numerous cousins with similar scent notes from other well-known brands, because it was the first one. Without any doubt the perfume touches something at the core of many people, the reaction to it is so strong and universal positive (from my experience).
Jean-Claude Ellena, the “nose” behind “Ambre Narguile” and a lot more unique perfumes, created the fragrance in his first year as HERMES’ head of perfumery. He stayed in the position till 2015, creating wonderful scents for the Hermessence line and as well the more easily available normal HERMES perfume line. Jean-Claude Ellena is one of the few perfumers whose name is today known to many, even outside the industry. He created for Frederic Malle, L’Artisan Parfumeur, Le Couvent and others. Being from a perfumer family, Grasse nobility so to speak, his father, brother and daughter are also perfumers. His beginnings were still humble – he had to learn the perfume trade from scratch, due to his bad performance in school. But who cares, careers are made in different ways. Jean-Claude Ellena might have been bad in school, he was very talented for perfume and made his unique way. In 2019 he took over the top position for perfume rcreation at company Le Couvent, although he was well above the French retirement age. He also continues to this day to work on projects he likes, scents being clearly the core of his life.
In 2005 Ellena’s daughter Celine created “Jasmine de Nuit” for The Different Company, a perfume we already discussed in the blog here. It is one of the changing descendants of “Ambre Narguile”, with a different main accord, but clearly recognisable similarities. Many more wonderful perfumes were built on this first masterpiece over the years. The growth of the niche perfume market has led to many good developments for consumers.
To me, a descendant of “Ambre Narguile” is characterised by the strong, energy laden, oriental-desert smell, quite distinctive to other perfumes based on rum, fruits, and cinnamon.
“Ambre Narguile” is a strong scent, an unmistakable landmark perfume. It captures warmth, strength, and a certain smoky freshness all in one. The perfume casts a spell over many different people. Its scent notes seem to appeal to our universal scent memory and activate our positive energy.