Ambre Supreme

In Ambre Supreme by Les Indémodables, perfumer Antoine Lie puts the spotlight on Ambergris, the mythical perfume ingredient whose subtle powers of amplification are usually in the background of a fragrance. The composition features Ambergris in a 10% dosage, specially sourced and tinctured using proprietary ultrasound extraction by Atelier Français des Matières. One of the incredible things about Ambergris is its ability to amplify facets of other ingredients while at the same time marrying them seamlessly together, softening their edges and angles. When Ambergris is in a composition, it pulls together all the ingredients and bathes them with its golden glow, like a lamp turning on in a room full of beautiful objects. “Ambregris is akin to lace in haute couture design, ” says Les Indémodables founder Valérie Pulvérail. “It’s strong but you have to be careful with the material. We wanted to highlight all of its facets — from the ambery, animalic, to the mineral, marine-like and salty — without being too aggressive.” Ambre Supreme opens with a blast of spice, woods and florals, with cardamom, cinnamon and pink peppercorn accenting its radiant heart of jasmine and orange flower. As it settles on skin, it mellows into a drydown as delicate and diaphanous as gossamer, as if the notes were now experienced behind a panel of sheer silk, with flashes of clary sage like the woven leaves on a garland. But Ambre Supreme is not all lightness. Ambergris can reveal the darkness of a composition’s facets as well as its brightness, and Ambre Supreme morphs occasionally in something animalic, mineral, and dark, with Immortelle, Castoreum, and Hyraceum casting a shadowy sensuality into Ambre Supreme’s otherwise bright corners. Delicate yet sensual, radiant yet dark and animalic, Ambre Supreme has a fresh yet haunting beauty like its crown jewel ingredient: the paradoxical Ambergris, its elusive yet unmistakable star.