Ambre Esteban 2007

Ah November. November is one of those months when you are absolutely sure that autumn has really started. It is no longer the case that, as in October, there are still days when temperatures climb to over 15 degrees. No, it's cooler, darker and wetter. But it doesn't matter! Because that also means that winter is approaching, and this in turn means besides possible snowfall (oh... that will probably stay off *sigh* again anyway) also that Christmas is approaching. All the colorful lights on the streets, the beautiful decoration articles (which nevertheless still make you forget how commercialized Christmas actually is) and the generally beautiful atmosphere are things you can look forward to now, before the winter gets more boring from New Year's onwards, because there is nothing special going on until summer, at least somehow...

So, and with this scent, I was thinking about Christmas. Not 100%, but still it has some spicy notes to offer, which together with the vanilla have a little Christmassy fragrance :)

**The fragrance:**
The beginning is slightly sweet, and also spicy-herbal. There's nutmeg, pepper and of course vanilla. But all these scents are superimposed by the patchouli, which smells quite intense here. Since at the beginning all the other scents are more radiant and seemingly mixed together, the Patchouli appears a bit like anise, but gradually the earthy scent of this scent crystallizes out.
Later, the main scents, such as vanilla, patchouli and pepper, are more or less equally intense, so that patchouli is no longer in the foreground. Now the fragrance is sweet and spicy and reminds a little of Christmas cookies, as some have already written here. The amber comes out bit by bit, but I still find the vanilla stronger. Due to the spices I find the patchouli more aniseed rather than earthy again.
Also in the base the scent is spicy, has sweet powdery vanilla and furthermore this scent, which reminds me very much of aniseed (while now patchouli is rather less to smell again). In the very late base, the fragrance, you may already suspect, smells mostly of vanilla.

**The Sillage and the shelf life:**
The Sillage is okay. Not room-filling, and also not so strong that one would leave a huge fragrance cloud, so it is nevertheless from not too far away very good at a smellable.
The shelf life is long, there are more than ten hours in it, but as so often it smells in most of the time rather most of vanilla :D

**The bottle:**
The bottle is rectangular and has this striking "porthole" on the front, which can be seen in many Esteban bottles. There is no label, the name of the fragrance was printed on the bottle. The lid is black and cylindrical. At the upper side of the lid a rope or a cord was attached, which ends at a gold-plated, metal pendant,... somehow the lid looks like a Fes hat :D

Hmm... so to be honest, Ambre by Esteban is for me one of those fragrances that somehow smell different than you might expect from the listed fragrances. Especially the aniseed got stuck in my head, because there should be no aniseed in it. Nevertheless, the combination of some scents seems to make it smell like anise (for me). I don't like anise, but in the overall package the fragrance is okay. Others might like it better, you just have to test it out. Of course it is best to use it in autumn and winter. And for me, it's become more like a women's scent than unisex.

So... winter can come with such scents (well, for me there are more beautiful scents...)! And... I really shouldn't be so lazy and finally take out all my sweaters and hang them in the closet... because there are still mostly T-shirts and stuff in there... but you know how it is: "I'll do it tomorrow"! Mu ha ha ha ha :DD

...no wonder that I have a slight cold or have a little throat and headache and therefore had to cancel a party *sigh* Well, I'll get all the sweaters out after all ... first thing tomorrow morning! :DDD
As long as I drink a few warm teas... in a great cat-cup, which had given me a fully dear Parfuma as a souvenir from the vacation :)))