Ambre

Ambre is one of the three perfumes Réminiscence launched in 1970, along with Patchouli and Musc. The house was born that same year in Juan-les-Pins, on the French Riviera, where Zoé Coste and Nino Amaddeo sold Oriental-inspired jewelry and objects brought back from their travels.

A boutique in Juan-les-Pins

The couple opened a boutique in Juan-les-Pins called Ylang-Ylang, selling jewelry and perfumes inspired by the Orient, before it took the name Réminiscence. Lili, of Needs and Moods, sees it as a luxury bazaar and compares these beginnings to those of Diptyque.

She tells of the turning point in 1970: at Portobello market in London, the couple came across cashmere fabrics that merchants scented with Indonesian patchouli oil to keep moths away. On her return, Zoé Coste called on the perfumer Maurice Sozio.

Three perfumes were born that year, Patchouli, Ambre and Musc, which the house now counts among its raw-material perfumes. Élisabeth de Feydeau, in Les Parfums, attributes Patchouli to Maurice Sozio and Zoé Coste; for Ambre, the house names no perfumer.

Souffle Ambré

After Zoé Coste’s death in 2007, Lili describes a brand long faded from view, which Gaëlle de Prunelé and David Lozano relaunched with the backing of Robertet. The original juices remain; the bottles have changed.

Ambre is now sold under the name Souffle Ambré, with the old name still shown beneath the new one, as an eau de toilette intense in eleven, fifty and one hundred milliliters. Réminiscence places it in its Le Voyage universe, with Bois Étoilé, and describes it as a unisex composition, meant for everyone.

The house sees it as a tribute to amber, which it holds as its signature note and says it treats as a raw material. It presents it as a generous oriental, best worn in fall and winter.