What does Al Ambra Aurum smell like?
Aurum follows the oldest pairing in Arabic perfumery: oud and rose. Both are in the heart, joined by benzoin, a resin with a sweet, vanilla-like tone.
Before that comes an opening of saffron, raspberry, incense and geranium. Saffron is leathery and slightly bitter, raspberry adds a jam-like fruit, and geranium is a rosy leaf with a minty edge that leads into the rose. Incense is listed twice, at the top and again in the base, where it stands next to leather and amberwood, a modern material that joins dry wood with an ambery warmth. On paper the result is dark and resinous in all three layers.
What Al Ambra says about Aurum
Aurum carries the brand's label traditional Arabic, with the direction woody, leathery and smoky. According to Al Ambra it belongs to autumn and winter and to formal occasions, evenings and events, and its projection is moderate to strong.
Who is Al Ambra Aurum for?
Unisex is the word in Aurum's product title, and the brand's page does not contradict it. The notes sort people by taste. The heart of oud and rose is for those who want a flower inside their wood. Incense at both ends is for those who like a dry, resinous smoke. Raspberry and benzoin are for those who want some sweetness to offset the leather. Anyone after a clean or citrus scent will find no such note on this list.
Al Ambra Aurum Extrait de Parfum, 100 ml: size and concentration
At 100 ml (3.4 fl oz), Aurum is a large bottle for an extrait de parfum: of the 28 extraits in this guide, only 9 come in that size. No smaller or larger bottle is on the brand's site. Its page for Aurum gives a high oil richness and an Arabic blend style.
Al Ambra Aurum compared with its closest siblings
Caelum is the same kind of bottle: a unisex extrait de parfum in 100 ml. Raspberry, incense and amberwood appear in both, so the fruit, the smoke and the dry ambery wood carry over. After that the two go separate ways. Caelum has apricot at the top, fills its heart with cotton candy, sandalwood and guaiac wood, and ends on tonka bean and patchouli. Aurum has saffron, geranium, oud, rose, benzoin and leather. Caelum is the sweet reading of the idea, Aurum the dark one.
Every note that One Off names is also in Aurum: geranium, incense and oud. One Off stops there: a 50 ml extrait de parfum titled for men that names nothing else. Aurum, unisex and twice the size, adds saffron, raspberry, rose, benzoin, leather and amberwood to those three. For incense and oud with as little as possible around them, One Off is the stripped list; Aurum is the furnished one.
Oud and leather are what Aurum has in common with Oud Shamayel, a 50 ml extrait de parfum for men. The flower differs: violet there, rose here. So does the sweet note, honey in Oud Shamayel and benzoin in Aurum. Oud Shamayel also lists patchouli and musk, which Aurum lacks, while Aurum's saffron, raspberry, incense, geranium and amberwood have no counterpart in the other list. Pick Oud Shamayel for honey and musk around the leather, Aurum for incense around it.
Where to buy Al Ambra Aurum in Europe
Here the honest answer is short. Aurum is not sold by FragranceGems, an independent reseller, and none of the four Al Ambra scents in the shop shares a named note with it. A request through the button below tells the shop you are looking for Aurum; it is not an order, and the shop gives no undertaking. If you still want a starting point, Ravenna has guaiac wood and black tea, two dry and faintly smoky notes, and Black Forest has ambroxan, a dry mineral molecule modelled on ambergris. Neither has oud, rose, incense or leather.
Request Aurum at FragranceGemsA request is not an order, and it is no promise that the shop will add the scent.
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