The Ambre from Chanel that I knew and found long time ago was in the classic modernist No5 bottle (the first type as seen in the previous Chypre post). But thanks to this russian blog (ezhinka) I saw a different bottle of this curious perfume. Some voices claimed that Ambre was one of the first fragrances Beaux created for Chanel, even previous to No5. I was not able to confirm this theory but again, it seems that another Rallet perfume made it's way to the very new Chanel brand. The perfume was still produced in 1924 but after 1930 I did not find any record in my old papers (like other pre 1923 creations).
Like Coty's Ambre Antique, this perfume was created around a sweet vanilla note and the characteristic opopanax base where all the sweet balsams/resins created a soft note but it's more oriented toward the natural amber note. It's not very anymalic (like Guerlain's Ambre) and not as sweet as Coty's version. It sits somewhere between with a characteristic rose oil note (almost fruity).
Like many ambery notes the time seems to affect quite well the "maturation" and contributed to the liquor like note (an "exotic" rhum vanilla undertone like in Bois des Iles).
Looking back to pre WWII Chanel perfumes it seems that Coco had almost all the notes of the classification wheel and all that a modern niche brand would put today in the portofolio.:)
No "official" modern Chanel presentation don't even mention those perfumes.
See also my previous post on those rare Chanel perfumes maybe a Rallet heritage.
Thank you again, ezhinka for the photo you published.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art

