Incense in The Wind: Amber

Saturday, 2 September 2017

Amber

Amber is one of those scents that we are familiar with, but is not essentially natural. I have some amber resin that I thought was genuine natural amber resin, but it is more likely to be labdanum.

Amber, which is dried tree resin, has been used since the days of Ancient China as a fragrance, and when burned has a subtle pinewood aroma. Ambergris, which is produced by whales, is also known as amber, and has been burned as an incense by Egyptians, producing a musky scent - it is usually this aroma that is associated with modern amber fragrance. As with a number of ancient and traditional incense sources, the costs of using the original source can be prohibitive and/or less effective than using a replacement. Today, labdanum, which is a resin produced by the gum rockrose plant, is used to create an amber aroma. Acacia is occasionally used as an amber fragrance source - most notability in the French perfume Cassie, which is considered to be warm with soft hints of fruit and herbaceous flowers.

The scent is difficult to pin down because there is no actual amber scent - it is a composed scent, often part natural and part synthetic. It is generally warm, sweet, musky, with qualities of vanilla, benzoin, patchouli, fruit, sandalwood, etc. Each perfumery or incense house utilising "amber" will create it in their own way, according to how they think amber should smell.

Amber may be distilled from the gum rockrose or labdanum as an "absolute", a term used in perfumery when a fragrance is extracted from a plant via a solvent such as ethanol before being distilled. It is a longer process than steam distillation, though is needed for certain fragrances which are otherwise difficult to extract via steam distillation. Amber is one such fragrance. Amber fragrance is extracted from the gum rockrose or labdanum - it is named after ambergris, a waxy substance found in sperm whales, as it has a similar fragrance, and is a suitable substitute. Ambergris is no longer used for fragrance. The term is occasionally used in incense - HMS of Pune tend to use it, and I assume it is used to signify that the fragrance is good quality. How much weight of reliability one can put on this use is uncertain, as companies are fairly free with using descriptions such as "Premium" or "Top Quality" for even the most basic of products. I would assume, though, that if a company is selling several amber fragrances, and one is labelled "Absolute", and is a higher price, that the Amber Absolute will be their best amber fragrance. But it doesn't mean it will be a better quality amber than another company's amber.

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