[HN Gopher] The Origin of Ambergris (2012)
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The Origin of Ambergris (2012)
Author : EndXA
Score : 28 points
Date : 2024-07-04 16:53 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (press.uchicago.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (press.uchicago.edu)
| amarcheschi wrote:
| Up until not too much ago we also extracted musk essence from the
| anal glands of white belly musk deer. Another interesting thing
| is oud. It's a resin produced in aquilaria trees when infected
| with a specific fungus, and it can cost tens of thousands of
| dollars per kg. I think one of the first famous commercial
| Perfumes to use it was m7 by ysl, you can read an article on it
| on fragrantica: https://www.fragrantica.com/news/Yves-Saint-
| Laurent-M7-Revis...
| dekhn wrote:
| Don't forget castoreum, from sacs near the anus of beaver.
| amarcheschi wrote:
| Yep. Funny enough, in Italian beaver is just castoro
| Loughla wrote:
| I recently did a trapping class with my youngest so he could
| get his license to trap nuisance animals.
|
| I was surprised by how pleasant beaver smells. And how
| DELICIOUS they are.
|
| How are they not extinct?
| bartread wrote:
| In some parts of the world they have been extinct. They'd
| been extinct in the UK for a very long time until recently
| re-introduced.
| givemeethekeys wrote:
| I'll stick to normal exotics like Axe Body Spray.
| Clamchop wrote:
| Fortunately for perfumery, ambergris' distinctive odor is
| principally owed to just two chemicals, ambroxan and ambrinol,
| both of which are now synthesized.
| narag wrote:
| Ambrinol is really disgusting (source: I have a small sample)
| and only makes sense mixed with the very nice ambroxide (IIRC,
| ambroxan is a commercial moniker for it).
|
| There's a curious evolution about abroxan's rep. If I'm not
| mistaken it was Dior that first used the name instead of
| ambergris in the publicity materials. I guess they were trying
| to avoid the "they kill the poor whales to make fucking
| perfumes". But they ended with the "I can't stand that
| synthetic ambroxan crap, I must be allergic and everybody's
| wearing Sauvage now".
|
| New perfumes use some other bullshit names like "driftwood",
| "marine notes" or just "amber" (a very different stuff).
| jlnthws wrote:
| "Ambergris has been synthesized, but its synthetic versions are
| not convincing. They lack an indefinable something that is
| gained only after years spent at sea."
|
| Probably a bit like synthesized truffle oil, good enough for
| most people but lacking richness for a trained delicate palate.
| jarsbe wrote:
| The bloom and trail effect given by ambergris is replaced with
| ambroxan, however combining ambroxan and ambrinol does little
| to recreate a "real" ambergris odour. Those may thousands of
| other molecules, while perhaps only <5%, give a very
| distinctive and unique odour. It's like a rich leather bag
| that's been floating in the ocean for +30y - salty, marine,
| animalistic, musky and leathery all in one.
| dekhn wrote:
| See also: https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-
| dick/773/chapter-92-amber...
| an_aparallel wrote:
| one of my favourite frags 'Kouros' by YSL uses ambergris (or
| synthesised) shame that over time the formula has changed so
| much. as per descriptions..it really used to smell like
| "sweat"/"heavy"...and has changed to much fresher and cleaner.
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