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The new Esprit de Parfum rendition of Ambre Nuit is glorious, I love it; it’s everything you’d want from a warm, cosy amber fragrance. It retains the thick, sweetly vanillic amber accord of the original, but replaces the gentle rose with a much warmer, spicier base. The smooth, buttery warmth of cardamom mingles with a sharper, dusty cinnamon which awakens a comforting festivity in the back of your mind. This addition of warm spices is similar to that of the new Oud Ispahan Esprit de Parfum. Overall, I think I love this. The original Ambre Nuit was already fantastic but if you ever wanted a thicker, darker, spicier version then this is it. I understand the disappointment regarding the loss of rose, which draws it away from its iconic scent profile, but as far as scent alone goes this is fantastic. If only it wasn’t so ridiculously expensive.
WTF?!?! What? The? Actual…. ? Mate? Come on? You can’t do that! You can’t be brought on board at arguably one of the biggest fashion brands, to oversee and be entrusted to direct their frankly legendary perfume legacy, do NOTHING (pretty much 🤷🏼♂️ ) for the first few years, except rehash some half arsed tripe (I love Eau Noire but clearly no one else did) Don’t mess with Ambre Nuit, it’s arguably one of the best things to come from this Dior exclusive collection in my opinion. One of the most iconic, understated and original ambers, which granted, had gone a little downhill with reformulation, but this is a drastic move. Way to piss all over Demachy’s legacy, if you think he destroyed it himself before he retired (you maybe had a point) Kurkdjian has heard it’s death rattle, soundly slammed the coffin shut, and hammered in the final nail! It’s not all that bad this esprit Ambre nuit (haha you’d never have guessed it) my contention is the name, if you’re going to completely change it… call it something else!!! So ironically, this was instantly reminiscent of Demachy’s boozy, sweet rework of Fahrenheit, the parfum. Before you get at me for misleading you it’s DOESN’T smell LIKE it! The ‘vibe’ is just similar, immediate heft, the ‘weight’ of this perfume is similar and the sweet top notes, spices and booze conspire to give me this impression. It has a kind of Indian drink vibe, with the cinnamon and cardamom almost as it shitmixed with Dr Pepper or Coke or something? I like the opening, I really do, I was like wow! That’s (kinda) different (ish) but it’s NOT Ambre Nuit and yes you might say “make your mind up!” I know I said I didn’t want pale rehashes and at least Kurky has made something new here, but I can’t let it slide, Ambre nuit is iconic and shouldn’t be messed about with, if you’re gonna make a perfume which bears no resemblance to the original then call it something else for Christ’s sake won’t you? I’m normally pretty tolerant of reboots or a new perfumer coming onboard to interpret but there’s a line and this crosses that line for me. Plus, after an hour or so as it settled on my skin I became more and more annoyed by it and I have a high threshold with a lot of modern, aroma chemical screech, but even this was a little too irritating. I’m not just saying that to have some issue with this perfume either, it’s a real tale of two halves. Oud Ispahan has a similarly piercing and tenacious base but that somehow improves on skin, whereas this is unrelenting. In conclusion it’s worth a sniff if just to see what the hell Dior and Francis have been up to, but I feel Ambre Nuit fans will not embrace this iteration (obviously I could be wrong) and will feel as afront