Royale Ambrée

Royal Ambree

Legrain 1919

In my comment on 'Perla' by Miraj, a women's fragrance from communist Romania, I mentioned that the socialist state enterprise Miraj was originally founded in 1952 under the name 'Macul Roșu' (Red Poppy) and quickly launched an enormous portfolio of fragrances. It remained unclear, as I noted back then, where the personnel and know-how for this spectacular start came from, especially since there was likely no developed perfume industry in Romania before the war, only a rather small-scale production of colognes.

Unbeknownst to me, our friend and copper tester MonsieurTest solved the riddle by recommending that I try the fragrance reviewed here - and he even provided me with an English internet source about the company Legrain, as a basis for the historical research he hoped for (and hereby presented): https://cleopatrasboudoir.blogspot.com/2014/02/legrain-perfumes.html?m=1

I noticed that while it was indeed an English website, apparently created by someone fluent in the language, the English of this article as well as some proper name references were incorrect. My intuition, honed by professional investigative work, told me that it must be a translation of a foreign text into English using a translation machine. This was confirmed by further research. The article actually originally appeared in Romanian in the tabloid 'Evenimentul Zilei' (Daily Event) in 2007: https://evz.ro/milionarul-roman-din-barcelona-451486.html

The English and Romanian texts differ slightly: It is possible that the operator of the English blog made editorial changes, or perhaps the Romanian original text was altered during electronic archiving. The following sequence, however, emerges as somewhat secure:

Originally, perfume production in Romania was covered by imports. When logistics stalled due to the Balkan Wars of 1912/1913, the idea of domestic production became appealing. The Jewish Bucharest resident Simion Moscovici, who had insights into the fragrance business as an accountant for a drugstore, therefore founded the soap, cosmetics, and cologne factory 'Legrain' in 1915 with his friend and financier Isaac, a tailor. The (fantasy) name, inspired by a Bucharest tram station, was intended to sound French for better image. The business was successful, and the cologne 'Royale Ambree', which according to some sources was launched in 1915 and according to others only in 1940, is said to have been the market leader in Romania.

Although the Hitler-allied Kingdom of Romania (in its core territory, not in the annexed areas) protected its Jewish population from deportation to extermination camps, the situation for the discriminated and largely stateless Jews became increasingly untenable, prompting Moscovici to sell the factory to a German group. After the turmoil of war and nationalization, this factory became the state-owned enterprise 'Macul Roșu' in 1952, later Miraj.

Simion Moscovici emigrated in January 1943 with his two sons - one of whom was the junior head of the company, Henry Moscovici. The plan was to emigrate to Brazil. Due to an odyssey reminiscent of the film Casablanca in the context of expired transit visas, the family ultimately got stuck in Spain after crossing high-risk France. There, they had connections to the representation of the Swiss fragrance company Givaudan, which helped them rebuild the company Legrain in Spain. By July 1943, Enrique Legrain, as Henry Moscovici had now named himself after his own fragrance brand, re-launched 'Royale Ambree' in Spain, and there too, this cologne became the market leader and the newly-old brand was a success overall.

Legrain remained independent until 1985 (when production amounted to 3 million liters of colognes per year) and was then sold by Enrique Legrain for what was likely a nine-figure sum to the conglomerate AKZO; today, Legrain is a brand of the Unilever group. Henry/Enrique lived until 2007, when he gave the aforementioned interview to the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei.

The 240-ml spray bottle made of plastic that I ordered online this year from "Supershop" (another source is the Spanish provider "perfumesclub") was manufactured by the Spanish company Inquiba S.A., but also bears the Unilever logo.

The fragrance was a bit disappointing for me. An initial semi-blind test revealed almost a 90-percent match with the classic 4711, possibly slightly shifted towards an orangey-soft note. A richer, more luscious, and less metallic-harsh 4711, so to speak. This aligns with the fragrance note indication: apart from the swap from neroli to petitgrain (which is always a pleasant switch in colognes), the same distinctive aromas as the classic from Cologne are present. Upon intense re-tasting, I discern certain simultaneously musty and sharp dissonances in the triangle of lemon, lavender, and orange, like an imprecisely adjusted image. I experience this with many simple colognes, but not with the best ones (like the yellow Alvarez Gomez). The longevity is also similarly ephemeral as with the infamous so-called "grandma's water" (which I actually quite like).

However, I must take note because the fragrance has received good to excellent ratings and reviews from fellow perfumistas who are well-versed in Spanish fragrances, fresh scents, or (Yatagan) indeed all fragrances. Acqua di Parma is often mentioned as a reference, and a special Spanish or Mediterranean aura is evoked. I can only partially relate to all of this, even if the fragrance impresses as brighter, deeper, and more Spanish in a retest. Whether this is due to the influence of the previous reviewers or the more generous application remains to be seen. I also cannot rule out that the fragrance is produced in different licenses by various manufacturers and that I received a weaker variant.

With this review, the series Colonial Goods comes to an end. In this series dedicated to the 'brown colognes', Royale Ambree only made it due to its name, as it does not actually smell ambre-like. With a bit of goodwill, it does have an orangey-shady quality, and this nuance of meaning is indeed part of the word field Ambra/Amber/Ombre/Ambre...