Coty L’Ambre Antique, and With Love… Hilary Duff
Ambre Antique is one of the earliest fragrances sold by Francois Coty. Ambre Antique was first introduced in 1905, and sadly, production of the fragrance dried up long before many of us were even born.
A brief glimmer of hope for resurgence appeared during the 90s when Bergdorf Goodman sold limited edition versions of classic Coty fragrances, including Ambre Antique. But they came and went within the blink of an eye. One could guess that much of this is due to two things:
First, Coty was a little ahead of its time. If they’d only known how big the perfume addict culture was about to explode in just a scant few years, they might have held on and persisted; One could argue that the market for such a project finally exists now. I honestly believe that market was not available in 1995, at least not to the extent that would result in acceptable, albeit niche-level, sales.
Second, it’s reasonable to surmise that much of any diminished sales figures are due to a general consumer reluctance to pay more than low double digits for anything labeled Coty anymore. For better or worse, Coty is nowadays synonymous with inexpensive ingredients and drugstore budgets, and our culture’s capitalist short-term memory disallows any particular remembrance of a time when Coty was considered edgy, prestigious, or adjective-of-your-choice implying “chic.” Public perception of the house of Coty acting as a ground breaker has long ceased to exist, primarily because the brand Coty has ceased to innovate in any meaningful fashion. While I would love to see Coty try once again to relaunch versions of their historical masterpieces, I fear they face an uphill battle. I think much of the sentiment towards their perfumery can currently be summed up as, “when I can’t/couldn’t afford anything better.”
The vague consumer disdain for the house and brand of Coty was not always so.
Coty’s Ambre Antique has a much broader appeal to modern noses than the infamously challenging Chypre, but it’s nevertheless a classic. Perhaps it’s like picking one Vermeer over another. One may personally speak to you more perhaps, but c’mon… they’re all Vermeers: The light of brilliance shines in them all.
The name itself is a bit misleading. Vanilla dominates the composition of Ambre Antique: rich, creamy vanilla, almost like an ice cream scooped onto the skin. It’s an amber float!
The top notes have faded from this bottle for the most part, but I’m guessing that bergamot, and orange blossom are hiding in there. (I stress the word “guessing” because I want to say “orange-y,” and I am an olfactory idiot and always say orange-y when in fact it usually turns out to be orange blossom/neroli.)
Insofar as I understand it, Amber Antique was originally made with actual ambergris. However, sniffing from my own latterly made bottle (mid-century?) indicates that at some point substitutions were made in favor of synthetics. The amber notations take the form of ambery-woody and ambery-incensey aromas. A dose of incense (likely the ‘num duo of labdanum and olibanum?) additionally breathes a darker aromatic feel into the fragrance. Civet in particular plays a huge role in shaping Ambre Antique’s dry down. Whatever one’s personal ambivalence towards sticking something that came out of animal’s hindquarters onto the skin might be, there is no denying the resounding thump it can give a fragrance upon landing at the bottom. Civet provides the skank here, but it’s the skank of fresh hay on a barn floor. Repellant? Maybe. But it’s still oddly clean and enjoyable.
And those dollops of vanilla never do stop melting, dripping right through the amber and the animal urgency of civet. It’s the sort of fragrance that asks of the wearer and passers-by, “Am I hungry or horny?” It’s the TV character Joey from Friends, in that, the response could happily go either way.
Writing about Ambre Antique brings me to a recent release, Hilary Duff’s With Love… Hilary Duff. It does distinguish itself from many of the celebrity fragrances, for its oriental character contrasts wildly against a dull field of fruity-florals and/or musky-clean efforts. But all the appreciation for it mystifies me. I have tried, and retried it since it came out, never finding much in it besides generalities. It’s pleasant but harmless, much like Ms. Duff herself. There’s little to it that marks it as idiosyncratically interesting in the big picture of perfumery. It’s the difference between Dane Cook’s style of bland humor that cause him call to chicken sandwiches “sangwiches” as any toddler might, and Patton Oswalt’s bit on how KFC’s “Famous Bowls” are patronizing us into eating like toddlers. The latter tells a story, the former simply seeks approval for that (a cheap catch phrase) which has already been approved. The difference comes down to risk. There’s a subtle danger when crediting an audience with the intelligence to discern and appreciate a specific voice: Being singular risks losing some folks. Hilary Duff… With Love doesn’t really risk much. It’s a “sangwich.” It’s only made out to look like a risk, and the result smells like a blithe catch phrase.
With Love roughly smells like orange-banana-pineapple flavored rock candy (the fruity note is officially listed as “mangosteen,” so okey-dokey) with a helping of vanilla over amber and a woody, musky base. It’s a warm and easily wearable fragrance; however, it doesn’t significantly come across as distinct. I feel like I’ve smelled it before, but can’t place where exactly. Maybe I’m getting old, forgetful. Maybe I’ve just become too jaded. Or maybe I’m under whelmed by too many of the eleventy billion new releases that keep coming out. Eh, let’s say it’s all of that. And I’m being far too harsh here. Hilary Duff seems like a nice person; Hilary Duff’s With Love is a nice fragrance. I guess maybe that’s my beef. I hate nice. There’s the stink of adequacy on nice.
If you like With Love… you will likely enjoy Calvin Klein Euphoria. They share a note and/or combination of notes that weirdly smell like vanilla and dusty “silk” flowers to me.
Yet, I’d like to recommend some other selections you might wish to also try if With Love has caught your fancy:
- Viktor & Rolf Antidote
- Fendi Theorema
- Jeanne Arthes Cassandra Blanc
- Givenchy Organza Indecence
And of course, if you want a piece of historical perspective,
- Coty Ambre Antique.
April 8th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
[…] Coty L’Ambre Antique, and With Love… Hilary Duf… […]
April 9th, 2007 at 2:45 am
welcome back!!!! good to have you snarking again…and i mean that in the nicest way.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:18 am
I laughed out loud when I saw the title of the post. But then I thought, OMG, what if I am about to find out that With Love is -miraculously! - a contemporary reincarnation of Ambre Antique? But that was not to be…not really surprisingly. :-)
April 9th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Here, I’ll step up to the plate — I actually *bought* a bottle of With Love! I can’t even offer up any highfalutin’ justification. I smelled it — thought, yeah, that’s nice. I mean, it was totally different than the fruity-floral-berryish crap I was expecting from a teen queen. So I worked my way through one of those little manufacturer’s atomizers from Sephora. Then I worked my way through a *second* one (in a gift bag from Nordstrom). When that was gone I figured, WTH and I bought it. I group it mentally/idiosyncratically with Insolence and D&G Light Blue — I feel like I should know better, but I can’t help myself.
April 9th, 2007 at 9:24 am
PS to me it and the Betsey Johnson smell *a lot* alike, but With Love lasts amazingly on me, and Betsy doesn’t.
April 9th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Houseofstone - thanks, it’s nice to be ambulatory again, heh. Glad to be hunting for the wandering snark with everyone once more.
Marina - oh no, but for some reason the two somehow came together (my bottle and my sample vials) on the shelf to rest, so it seemed like an ambery fit in my mind. I didn’t mean to be anti-climactic ;P
March - let me refine my sentitiment: it’s way wearable, and I can totally understand why you’d pick a bottle up for yourself. It simply wasn’t ringing any bells with me. Hm, interesting that you say that about the BJ. I plumb forgot about it, but yeah, I can totally see the similarities. And With Love is almost pernicious in its staying power. It’s like it’s secretly made with glue. It’s prettty much only takes one application for the whole day on me, as well.
April 10th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
I have this relationship with a ton of the newer releases…With Love is one of the least revolting. I chalk up purchases like that to just wanting to smell good on default, without having to ‘think’ about a scent. And goodness knows, you never really have to think about …With Love.
April 10th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Well, yeah. And there’s always the bonus of not having to smell like a messy fruit salad, which seems to make up for at least 3/4 of the newer commercial frags… sigh. It’s a comfort scent in a way, too? It feels rather enveloping with its warmth.
April 11th, 2007 at 7:56 am
I have the privilege of owning a bottle of the re-released Ambre Antique, complete with faux-Lalique bottle and all. How close it is to the original I can’t say, but I find it awe-inspiringly beautiful. It gives the descent of the house of Coty truly tragic dimensions. I do wish they’d remember where they came from at Coty and establish a high-end line, starting with their classic fragrances and continuing from there.
April 11th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Welcome back!
I sniffed “With Love” at my local Sephora, and while it didn’t make me gag (like Blue Sugar-gak!) it didn’t exactly transport me. For me it was a chicken-salad sandwich kind of fragrance: a nice safe choice that may be a little bland but will neither upset the tummy or give you cavities.
But god love her (if she indeed had input) for not presenting yet another toasted-caramel fruit pop to us.
I would really love to smell some of those vintage Coty frags…
April 11th, 2007 at 8:45 am
And I’ve not tried the re-released version! I second your wish. I really think they’d have better luck if they tried it again, though it’d have to be on a small-ish scale. I think sadly Coty seems to be most interested these days in concentrating their efforts for their cabal of celebrity fragrances instead of trying to revamp their history. I won’t be holding my breath for them to re-re-release anything, but it doesn’t hurt to keep our fingers crossed ;)
April 11th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Hi Tom! Thanks. Yeah, the last Britney Spears one is the one that could have done me in if I weren’t an optomist usually. Boy was that thing just awful. I mean, In Control had a dead-on and excellent caramelly note, but ye gods, the whole thing smelled like nausea to me. Hilary Duff’s smells almost brilliant in contrast. There are a number of old Cotys I would just be over the moon to get ahold of… A Suma, La Rose Jacqueminot, etc… I know that La Rose was one of the BG re-releases, too, but that’s even harder to find than the vintage it seems.
April 14th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Waaaaah! I’ve been trying to get my hands on Coty L’Ambre Antique for years now, and never seem able to find a bottle!! Where’d you get it?!!
Oh, and the Duffster?, I can do without.
April 15th, 2007 at 2:46 am
SO glad you are feeling better !
I missed your lovely mind.
But one can’t function without a BACK, for crying out loud [N.B., I said back, not spine…you are hardly spineless, my friend !].
Duff ain’t BAD, but the AA [kind of apt ?]is a treasure- and dupes sadly, don’t quite nail it.
MWAH !
April 15th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Rockinruby - I’ve been biding my time… and also, stalking ye olde eBaye. Heh.
Chayaruchama - I am, and thanks. Having a functional back is just lovely. I’ve not tried any dupe versions of AA. But the drydown of L’Artisan’s L’eau d’Ambre really reminds me in a way of AA, which is not a slam on AA, but a high compliment to what L’Artisan has done.
July 8th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Dear Paul in Los Feliz… my apologies for deleting your comment, but I’m not keen on featuring quasi-direct solicitations in the comments. It’s nothing against you personally, it’s just that I’ve had issues with marketers and salespeople astroturfing in my comments section, and I’m still wobbly on where I should draw the line as far as ALL solicitations go. As to your query about the value of the 2 bottles you own: there are perfume bottle guides and perfume bottle collector associations that one could check with if you need a direct marketplace value. (Here is a weblink to one such organization: http://www.perfumebottles.org/home.cfm) My suggestion as far as eBay goes, however, is different - the value is what folks are willing to pay for it, which should be decent enough… This will vary widely, but something like these older, and slightly rarer Cotys find a receptive bidding audience. My only tip: Don’t place items on eBay during holidays, as oveall internet traffic goes down and you will not attract the same amount of bidders (and thus high bids) as you might during non-holiday periods.
October 11th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
My ex-husband’s grandmother, whose husband worked at Coty in Suresnes in the 20’s-60’s? gave me a big old open bottle of something green called “l’aimant”. Has anyone got info on what it is? Thanks!
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:54 am
hialry duff, my name is mari gorozia. i am from georgia. i love you very much!!!! please come in georgia. pppppppppppppppppplllllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
February 10th, 2008 at 1:02 am
i love you hilary duff im your 1 one fan i dot to meet you once and i i from dublin i went to see you in the point in dublin (ireland)i am 12 years old and you are my idol if i had one wish it would be to meet you again and sing just for me i try be lik you your so sweet and personality aswel im your 1#################################### fan sooooooooooooooo please please please come to dublin (point) ireland and i would love to get up on stage with you i take choir in school and singing classes after school and we get to pick one song and i pick with love i love it and i love all your songs and movies my best one is matreial girls stars you and your sister
with love rebecca farrelly
May 4th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I think one of the reasons that the market for the collection of perfumes and perfume bottles exploded is because of the proliferation of online auction sites. Online auction sites and also to some extend online perfume stores gives the buyers an easy place to shop and see all the products at once and they sell it at very reasonable price… so I think that’s one of the reason why there is an increased interest now.