Ambre Samar Guerlain 2025

I'm a bit confused of not seeing any cinnamon listed in the notes, because...? This perfume is soooo spicy and actually smells like cinnamon powder (sadly the only thing that I 100% get), to the freshly sprayed perfume to the dry down. It's super heavy, sweet, very warm and longevity wise? super strong.

I really loved the scent in the store but took a sample before making sure to buy the perfume, well done girl because I changed my mind.

After a while, I sadly cannot support the heavyness of it. It's a good spicy perfume but I guess my spice tolerance reached its peak.

I believe each good perfume is trying to communicate something, beyond just smelling good. There’s almost always a story there. Like a play, there’s a beginning, middle and an end.

Sometimes, like with books or movies, when one artist has had success, the rest of the field tries to duplicate that success. And sometimes, imitation is a sincere form of flattery. And yet, sometimes still, it’s just that: repeat news. Tired. Tedious. Offering nothing new.

I sprayed my decant to test and forgot about it. When I caught a whiff of Ambre Samar again I would have sworn I already owned this perfume and had been wearing it for years. Perhaps not an exact copy of others, but close enough to render its purchase redundant.

It opens with a spicy cardamom rolled around notes of almond and resinous, heavy frankincense. Almost instantly, it’s familiar to those who have spicy amber perfumes. (Again, it’s so similar I would have moments ago bet I made a mistake and sprayed something I already owned).

What is Ambre Samar trying to communicate? It’s muddled a bit, for me, to pick out anything “new” it may be trying to say. It’s like it speaks in a language unfamiliar to me (or maybe too familiar so it gets lost like a hum). Where words are discernible they are copy-pasted from other texts (to continue the analogy).

As this perfume dries down it doesn’t distinguish itself. On the contrary, it fades into the “been there, done that” that disappoints me coming from Guerlain. There are perfumes that have done this resinous amber tonka before. And better.

While the benzoin, patchouli and tonka at dry down is nice (pretty even), it isn’t worth having to sit through the same story I’ve heard a half dozen times before.

I already know how this play ends.

This has an extremely strong cinnamon note, particularly at the beginning. And it is STRONG. It immediately filled the room where I sprayed it one time to the point that my husband commented on it. I agree with the comparisons to Tobacco Honey, but I like this better, it feel less syrupy and dense. Very spicy and sweet. Feels very Guerlain, and is quite nice. Too strong for me, though, even though it fades fairly quickly.

Ambre Samar opens strong, sweet and spicy like the promise of an amaretti biscotti imminently about to arrive at your lips. But this is not a baked good perfume.

For a moment, the cardamom is a bit sharp and medicinal in the initial opening, I don’t hate it but I don’t particularly like it either. This thankfully lasts for all but 20 seconds and then the perfume starts to settle.

And oh how it’s settles!

The frankincense starts to come through beautifully in the middle and, as it pulls through into the heart, the lovely warm amber and davana appear as a perfectly blended accord that is a gorgeously warm, dark, fruity, spicy and animalic honeyed beauty with a delicate lick of smokiness and a hint of boozyness.

The almond isn’t obviously present as a note here or in the dry down. As you’d expect with a Delphine Jelk for Guerlain, everything is blended beautifully with each note complementing the other, there are no solo artists here. The tonka bean and benzoin offer the warmth of a rich vanilla and a tickle of cinnamon and clove to allow the frankincense to continue to shine in all its spicy, balsamic glory.

Although this is a rich and deep perfume, it is so smooth and isn’t a full on heavy or cloying perfume. There’s no coumarin overload. I can tease out hints of the cardamom in the dry down and I think it’s here that the importance of this note is valued, as it adds a radiant, almost fresh aromatic sparkle to the spicy amber scent profile. The patchouli in the base adds a very slight hint of leather to the accord as well. I’m not really a leather forward or patchouli heavy person, so for my nose it is just perfect.

All of the above beautiful aroma remains and continues in the dry down. Just a lovely added bonus of sweet, smoky dryness when I bring my nose to my skin. For a complex scent profile I find this really easy to wear and extremely moorish.

For me, this is a perfect perfume for cold weather. There is something gloriously grounding, calming and comforting in the glowing warmth of the scent profile. Yet wrapped in a soft, warm wooly scarf, and in total contradiction of the cold nipping at my nose, the sensual and enveloping scent bubble is offering faraway visuals of an exotic place of shimmering dry heat and Sahara sand, an intimate moment with a lover watching the setting sun dance against a red and darkening sky.

My sample isn’t going to last long, I sooo want a bottle because this is olfactory heaven to my nose.

The Tobacco Honey similarities are certainly here and it seems to be the focus of so many, but there is quite a lot that is not mentioned and should be. This opens with a burst of sweetened spice that feels like cinnamon, but is probably cardamon. Quite quickly the Almond note starts to emerge and this almond is sweetened with the tonka, which together seem to have a 'honeyed' feel. I think this 'honeyed' tonka/almond is what is driving the TH comparisons (as well as a stunning amber dry down that the perfumer, Delphine Jelk, has perfected) There doesn't feel like a tobacco note anywhere here to me, just a really nice spicey sweet almond decorated with warming spices (like a almond baklava or other middle eastern dessert treat.) The middle notes seem to carry the smokey incense vibe (Frankincense) that really seems quite different than Tobacco honey. Where TH is rich wet raw tobacco smell this is a smokey amber.

this is really nice stuff