Ambre Sultan: When Serge Lutens dives into the roots of his childhood... When Serge Lutens created Ambre Sultan in 2000 as an independent perfumer, he became, in a fully legitimate way, a master of what the profession would come to call niche perfumery.
Released in 2000, Ambre Sultan is a fragrance that truly breaks new ground. Ambre Sultan is an ode to oriental scents, primarily those of Morocco. Indeed, Serge Lutens lived for several years in Morocco and knew how to draw inspiration from all of its distinctive scents. Ambre Sultan was born from a piece of amber given to Serge Lutens during his first trip to Marrakech in 1968. For several years, Serge Lutens kept it in a thuya wood box. Over time, one became imbued with the other. Ambre Sultan is defined as a fragrance that is at once warm, rounded, sensual and addictive.
An English perfumer to create an oriental fragrance
In order to create an original and magical fragrance, Serge Lutens called upon British perfumer Christopher Sheldrake. Sheldrake began his career in Grasse, within the Charabot company. After spending 23 years as a perfumer at the heart of the Quest company, he decided to join Chanel as Director of Research and Development. Since 2005, he has worked alongside Jacques Polge to orchestrate the fragrances of the house of Chanel. Christopher Sheldrake is one of the most innovative, authentic and talented perfumers, yet he prefers to remain in the background. He has also created almost all of Serge Lutens's fragrances. He enjoys working with heavy, sensual, intoxicating materials, spices and oriental scents. Christopher Sheldrake is responsible for such beautiful fragrances as Féminité du Bois or La Vierge de Fer by Serge Lutens.
Ambre Sultan, notes of the sun
Here we find a classic amber enriched with powdery and vanilla notes. At once rich and sweet, Ambre Sultan is composed of labdanum and vanilla, as well as resins from styrax and benzoin, paired with Peru balsam. Ambre Sultan opens on laurel leaves, which evoke the maquis, the dry, even dusty heat that rises from it. The laurel is soon joined by coriander, a plant native to the Middle East par excellence and found in numerous Moroccan dishes, chiefly tagine. In the heart, angelica brings a softer tone. It expresses a rather bitter herbaceous note with a slightly anise-like touch. It is paired with myrtle, a shrub characteristic of the Corsican maquis. Numerous legends claim that myrtle symbolizes the love of the Mediterranean basin. The base is at once suave, sensual and enveloping. It combines Tolu balsam, styrax, labdanum, patchouli, Siam benzoin and sandalwood. Tolu balsam is obtained from the resin of balsam trees. Certain civilizations used it to purify the souls of the deceased, but also to comfort those left behind... Labdanum is a highly prized raw material in perfumery, offering warm, vanilla-like and resinous tones. Labdanum cistus absolute is obtained by extracting a resin from the leaves of a small Mediterranean shrub, the cistus. As for styrax, it is a shrub from the Far East that yields a resin that is at once sweet, vanilla-like and balsamic… Here, Serge Lutens has concentrated a great many oriental scents into a single bottle… An extraordinary fragrance.