Amber, originally uploaded by pmarella.

I always loved amber notes, yet somehow find most amber-oriented perfumes to be too much of a good thing, almost over-satisfying. In Burnt Amber I found a balance that makes it at once luxurious and impeccably wearable. Burnt Amber may seem at first like nothing new – the idea of marrying the smokiness of burning incense resins with rich sticky balsams has been explored before (for instance: Ambre Sultan, Ambre Narguille).

The main difference is that Burnt Amber this actually works. Perfectly. The notes in Burnt Amber blend convincingly, creating an illusionary world where sweetness is dry and smoke is moist… In one breath, oozing honey, balsams, labdanum and storax crystallize themselves into incense resins burning with thick, lung-invading smoke that uplifts the spirits and hugs the heart.

Burnt Amber is one of Neil Morris’ vault perfumes, which are only available in person (not even through his website just as yet…), and is the second perfume he co-created with Ida Meister (known to most as by her Hebrew name Chaya Ruchama). Ida tells me that she insisted on the inclusion of a plum blossom note; and while I cannot quite recognize such note (in all honesty, I don’t recall ever smelling plum trees in bloom), I do experience some wine-like fruitiness that is not overtly artificial like most fruity notes tend to be nowadays… Burnt Amber is more than just a comfort scent – it’s a feel-good perfume. I’ve worn it even during a flue yet I can still enjoy wearing it now that I’m in good health. It has about it an extravagant simplicity that can take you confidentially from the red carpet to that dirty sheepskin by your fireplace (or anywhere else where you like to just kick back and relax with no glamorous pretences).