I don’t spend much time scouring ebay for deals as I’m pretty leery of the scamming and counterfeiting that often tries to pass for legitimate transactions, but for some reason I found myself on ebay last week (I think Ann Demeulemeester is to blame), and I fortuitously stumbled across a listing of items from the Annick Goutal Les Orientalistes series — and at crazy low prices!
I mean, how am I supposed to say no to a 100ml (3.4 ounce) bottle of Ambre Fetiche for only $100.00 when it regularly sells for $175.00? And there were half-price creams and shower gels, to boot!
Can anyone say, “Early shopping for Christmas presents?” Right, I thought you could. Well, I had no problem saying it either, so I closed my eyes, mouthed a prayer and pressed the “buy” button. Not three days later, I had a box of brand new, genuine Annick Goutal products at my doorstep, and in perfect condition.
Prayers answered, my atheism was free to resume. How convenient.
I’m now sitting here in a cloud of Ambre Fetiche as I type this, and dear lord, but I forgot how much I like this deeply smoky, golden juice! I can safely say that I was not a fan of the Goutal line until she introduced the Les Orientalistes series, so I’d say it was a smart move on the company’s part as they’ve most likely managed to rope in a whole new set of eyeballs that ordinarily would have marched right past the Goutal counter on their way to smokier terrain.
The tubes of shower gels and scented creams are tucked away for future use as cheerful holiday stocking stuffers. The BF isn’t the slightest bit interested, natch, but the sister? Well, I think she’ll be one very happy, richly scented camper.
And yes, of course, there are photos:
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I like ambers, so now I’m itching for a snuff of the AG. Meanwhile, will have to scratch by proxy thanks to another delicious photo offering.
(Have totally stuck my fingers in my ears and am humming a tune to ignore the siren song of “bargains to be found…”)
Plug away, my dear, but that dam is still gonna break!
If you’re interested in looking at bargains for Goutal, then look up the seller AndyFrog on ebay. That’s who I purchased from, and she has a lot of Goutal fragrances that are selling for considerably less than what you’ll find in a retail store.
She’s also trustworthy (from my experience) and a total pleasure to deal with.
I tried Ambre Fetiche today and my experience of it is SO different I want to go upstairs and make sure i used the right sample vial.
Sweet-to-the-point-of-sticky amber, drying down to something faintly sandalwoody but still primarily candy sweet in the end. My nose? My chemistry? I wish I could smell what you do….it sounds wonderful.
LOL! Really? You don’t get any of that golden, smoky goodness? It lands on my skin in a cloud of incense and amber.
Did you use a spray sample or a dab sample? Spraying it is the only way to experience this scent. It diffuses it beautifully so that there isn’t a super concentration on one spot of the skin, which gives the smoke a chance to breathe and the sugar a way to radiate outward instead of focused in one super-sweet lump.
Nope, no smoke at all. I think amber swings sweet on me – whatever amber means in perfumery – amber resin? Ambergris?
I need an extra dry, extra smokey one – YSL NU is good actually, though I don’t get nearly the smoke others do.
Well, that is a problem — the lack of an amber standard. When ambergris was in wide use, you could be assured of how it was going to act and diffuse in your fragrance, but with the advent of synthetic ambergris molecules (and mixed bases that are labeled “amber”) there’s now a wide swing in how amber is expressed, from thin to syrupy to heavy to dry.
It’s getting to the point where I read “amber” on a label and really have no idea how it’s going to smell, except that it’ll have some sort of sweetness to it.
I’m going to dig through my notes (and untested samples) and see if I can come up with something dry and smoky for you.
I’d love to see what you think of…my thanks.
Hey, congrats on the score! Off to visit AndyFrog myself, thanks for the hot tip…