Top Notes 
Saffron
Butter CO2
Amber
Heart Notes 
Cocoa butter
Honey
Tonka bean
Suede
Java vetiver
Orris concrete
Tobacco
Base Notes 
Beeswax
Hyraceum
Musk
Siam benzoin
Civet
Vanilla
Frankincense
Mysore sandalwood
Opoponax
Ambergris
Black ambergris
Canary Islands juniper
Labdanum
Juxfriplon05/22/2025
ClaireV
969 Reviews
ClaireV
1
Spiced, fine-grained suede amber
I would say that Ambrecuir is one of my favorites from the Sultan Pasha stable of mukhallats, but given the quality of his work, that is like throwing a pebble onto the beach and hoping to hit sand. Ambrecuir is essentially a plush ‘white’ leather crème cut here and there with the sour, fruity funk of castoreum. In theme, it riffs on the elegance of the contrast between the cool, powdered whiteness of orris butter and the rough blackness of varnished shoe leather as pioneered by Cuir Ottoman by Parfum d’Empire.
Where these fragrances diverge is in the drydown, when all traces of the creamy, iris suede have melted away. While Cuir Ottoman goes on to develop a rich, powdery hay-amber accord that makes one think of brocaded liveries and pompadours of Versailles, the sour castoreum pulsing through Ambrecuir’s amber keep us firmly in the souk, pressed up against the heaving mass of bodies. Indeed, fans of Rania J.’s Ambre Loup might appreciate Ambrecuir, as might lovers of Serge Lutens’ spicy Cuir Mauresque.
Something to note here – a pleasingly antiseptic saffron darts in and out of Ambrecuir’s base, cutting the richness of the other notes like a knife worth’s of dried blood and iodine. Without this spicy, medicinal note, Ambrecuir might have become as bloated as a corpse after a hot day in the river. It is this balance of sweet and medicinal notes that gives Ambrecuir its curious delicacy and refinement. The saffron-tinged amber also gives the mukhallat an ancestral link to the sternly vegetal, iodine-tinged ambers of Northern India, a category of fragrance that is one hundred percent sugar- and vanilla-free.
Where these fragrances diverge is in the drydown, when all traces of the creamy, iris suede have melted away. While Cuir Ottoman goes on to develop a rich, powdery hay-amber accord that makes one think of brocaded liveries and pompadours of Versailles, the sour castoreum pulsing through Ambrecuir’s amber keep us firmly in the souk, pressed up against the heaving mass of bodies. Indeed, fans of Rania J.’s Ambre Loup might appreciate Ambrecuir, as might lovers of Serge Lutens’ spicy Cuir Mauresque.
Something to note here – a pleasingly antiseptic saffron darts in and out of Ambrecuir’s base, cutting the richness of the other notes like a knife worth’s of dried blood and iodine. Without this spicy, medicinal note, Ambrecuir might have become as bloated as a corpse after a hot day in the river. It is this balance of sweet and medicinal notes that gives Ambrecuir its curious delicacy and refinement. The saffron-tinged amber also gives the mukhallat an ancestral link to the sternly vegetal, iodine-tinged ambers of Northern India, a category of fragrance that is one hundred percent sugar- and vanilla-free.
Eggi37
Hektor
Caligari
JuWe
